Family members hope a million-dollar reward will unlock answers about their mother’s suspicious disappearance and finally bring closure.

Marion Barter, 51, was last seen at a Queensland bus port in June 1997, before embarking on an indefinite trip to England with a man she had recently begun a relationship with after meeting through a personal ad.

Her daughter Sally Leydon filed a report with police in October, concerned she had not heard from her mother, while also noting $80,000 had been drained from Barter’s bank account in a series of transactions.

But the file was not marked as a missing-person report and lay dormant for a decade.

NSW State Coroner Teresa O’Sullivan in 2024 found that the teacher was dead, describing the circumstances surrounding her disappearance as “troubling”.

O’Sullivan also detailed a series of police missteps, including the initial failure to document Barter as missing.

The coroner outlined a series of extraordinary coincidences in the case, including the unusual name Barter adopted via deed poll in the month before she disappeared.

She was last seen at a bus station in the hours before she took a flight under her new identity, Florabella Natalia Marion Remakel.

Her outgoing passenger card stated that she was divorced and intended to live in Luxembourg.

Weeks later, on August 2, she was listed as returning to Australia with an incoming passenger card stating she was married and living in the small European nation.

Barter changed her name because “she was in a relationship with (a man named) Mr Ric Blum and sought to share a name and life with him”, O’Sullivan found.

Detectives believe in the weeks leading up to her disappearance, Barter was observed by a family member leaving a service station with a tall male passenger.

Inquiries revealed someone accessed the missing woman’s bank account following her disappearance.

Family members will join police to announce a $1 million reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for Barter’s disappearance or death.

Leydon told Sydney radio 2GB on Monday that someone had to know something about her mother’s death.

“Please come forward and say something, it’s really important,” she said.

“We are getting little tiny pieces of the puzzle all the way along.”