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The Lady Vanishes · LiSTNR

The Inquest: Part 18

June 8, 2023·51 min·2 clips
A 92-year-old Belgian woman stayed up past midnight to testify how Rick Blum stole 72,000 euros from her.
The delayed findings leave everyone stuck in the aftershock. Sally, Chris, and their three children had already flown to Sydney when Coroner Teresa O'Sullivan postponed the inquest findings at the last moment. Six months later, the inquiry picks up with another witness, but this one arrives through time zones, an interpreter, and a video screen. Andre Flume is 92. She appears from Portugal at 6 o'clock in the morning, with only the top half of her face visible to the court. Her memory is described as sharp. The court hears that she came to know Frederick de Hedevery in May 2010 through her daughter and son-in-law Pierre. He needed somewhere to stay, so Madame Flume let him use a bedroom in her home from May 10 to June 4, 2010. Her name has already been circling the inquest. A letter she sent to the Queensland Governor, dated July 26, 2010, is now on file at the State Archives and has come up throughout the hearings. The claims are blunt. She alleged that de Hedevery stole her late husband's coin collection, worth 20,000 euros, that he was a liar not to be trusted, and that Belgian police wanted him. The episode then puts earlier evidence from Mr Blume beside Madame Flume's account, including his story about being invited to inspect old coins. Counsel presses his earlier claims against her answers about wheelchairs, Alzheimer's, and dementia. The close points ahead to denials the court is asked to treat as lies, and to what Mr Blume may know about Marion Barter. Anyone with information about Marion or her whereabouts is still asked to come forward, including through an anonymous tip line.

As heard by us

A measured inquest chapter centered on Andre Flume's evidence and what it adds to the questions around Rick Bloom.

The Inquest: Part 18 returns six months after Coroner Teresa O'Sullivan delayed her findings into Marion Barter's disappearance, following new evidence connected to alleged victims of Rick Bloom.

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Why you'd press play

For when you want an inquest chapter that tightens around one witness and one set of contradictions.

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