Speaker 1: Appo Jay Production.
Speaker 2: Hi everyone, welcome back to the Missing Matter podcast. We're
Speaker 2: going to take you for a trip into Amsterdam in
Speaker 2: this episode, and we're going to tell you why we
Speaker 2: were there and what we found and some of the
Speaker 2: things we did. So it was dark and raining when
Speaker 2: we left our London accommodation and we caught an uber
Speaker 2: to Saint Pancras International train station to hop on the
Speaker 2: Eurostar heading to Amsterdam.
Speaker 1: It was very.
Speaker 2: Early Joni, another early morning for us. It was raining again.
Speaker 2: It was about just four hours, about four hours twenty
Speaker 2: to get from London into Amsterdam. And the reason we
Speaker 2: chose to do the trains it was a little bit
Speaker 2: cheaper and obviously we're on a tight budget. It also
Speaker 2: gave us an ability to sit down and actually do
Speaker 2: our work on the Eurostar with their trade tables and
Speaker 2: things like that.
Speaker 1: It made it a little bit easier.
Speaker 2: I remember I had to wear a mask because Johnny
Speaker 2: was starting to feel a bit sick, and I was like,
Speaker 2: we both cannot get sick.
Speaker 1: If one of us is sick, that's okay, we can manage.
Speaker 3: But if both of us get sick, that it's going
Speaker 3: to turn as a custard. Yeah, that time when you
Speaker 3: aren't sick, but you know that the steam train is
Speaker 3: coming for you, and you're wishing to wherever you can
Speaker 3: wish to to actually stop this from happening, because that
Speaker 3: is such bad timing. I was just literally just praying
Speaker 3: to whoever that by the time we got to Amsterdam
Speaker 3: would literally all go away. But I knew, I just
Speaker 3: you know that tingling in the throat, a bit of
Speaker 3: a headache coming on, block DearS starting, and I thought, oh,
Speaker 3: we're going to be in trouble. Him to.
Speaker 4: Get passengers good morning, a momentary or at ASDA sample
Speaker 4: station currently eleven twenty Absterdam Centaur was the final call,
Speaker 4: the kindly regressive to disapprocha train on the rable and
Speaker 4: what you do, don't forget your personal belongance. I thank
Speaker 4: the gap between them and platform.
Speaker 2: So we arrived in Amsterdam and we head straight to
Speaker 2: our accommodation. We had a funny moment, didn't we wear.
Speaker 2: We popped into the uber and the driver actually was
Speaker 2: telling us how he was a world champion kickboxer Moroccan Moca.
Speaker 2: He was so nice and he's following along on Instagram,
Speaker 2: so hopefully he will hear this one day. But he
Speaker 2: was so nice, like we actually had cards of Mum
Speaker 2: and these other cards that we had made. He actually
Speaker 2: offered to put them in his cab so that people
Speaker 2: when they got into the cab they would actually see
Speaker 2: these postcards. And we thought that was a great way
Speaker 2: of just getting Mum's story out there, making some awareness
Speaker 2: about what we were doing in Amsterdam. We actually arrive
Speaker 2: at our hotel and it was probably our nicest accommodation.
Speaker 1: Actually, it was.
Speaker 2: Magnet, very beautiful, and we walked in and I opened
Speaker 2: the windows and we were engulfed with marijuana smoke.
Speaker 1: And then I looked out the window.
Speaker 2: Oh goodness me, all I can smell is marijuana.
Speaker 1: Are you kidding me?
Speaker 2: Jeez?
Speaker 1: The bees. Oh that's because over the rock.
Speaker 2: The energy shop is mushroom seas smoke supplies.
Speaker 1: Right, yes, I can see.
Speaker 3: Then I think there's a cafe down below us on
Speaker 3: the right hand side.
Speaker 1: I actually can't believe how strong it is. That's crazy.
Speaker 3: So that was interesting because I'm used to seeing them
Speaker 3: all in my garden.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, it was quite weird, and I was quite
Speaker 2: worried about how much it was in our room.
Speaker 3: I'll never forget you like you you come in. We'd
Speaker 3: had she I was worried about being sick. Sale was
Speaker 3: worried about me being sick. She flung the curtains open,
Speaker 3: she flung open the windows, and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 3: she's like, oh, what is this right, that's it, and
Speaker 3: she just slammed those windows shut again. She's like, we
Speaker 3: love We both loved Amsterdam.
Speaker 2: I would have said that's my favorite favorite city to
Speaker 2: walk around. I did a lot of walking, so I
Speaker 2: got to see a fair bit. But you know, lots
Speaker 2: of canals, lots of little bridges, lots of bikes, and
Speaker 2: apparently the bikes actually ruled the universe over there, so
Speaker 2: if you're walking you have to give way to the bikes.
Speaker 2: They don't give way to you, they will run you over,
Speaker 2: so you have to be very, very careful. We went
Speaker 2: to Amsterdam purely for the fact that Mum had actually
Speaker 2: indicated that her next stop was Amsterdam and she was
Speaker 2: going there to see the Sunflowers, meaning she was going
Speaker 2: to Vince and Vango's museum. She was a big fan
Speaker 2: of this. I remember my grandmother had a massive print
Speaker 2: of the Sunflowers in her lounge room. Vince and Vango
Speaker 2: has always been a big part. Even my Annie Rob
Speaker 2: who's on my dad's side, like she has Starry Starry Night,
Speaker 2: a massive big print of that in her house. So
Speaker 2: as a child, I remember growing up with a lot
Speaker 2: of Vince and Wango around me. And for me it
Speaker 2: was a bit of a sad moment because I didn't
Speaker 2: know if Mum actually made it there, and in my
Speaker 2: heart of hearts, I don't think she did. So for me,
Speaker 2: I kind of wanted to go and see the sunflowers
Speaker 2: for her as much as I wanted to be there
Speaker 2: and see what it was that she.
Speaker 1: Wanted to see with her eyes. And it's also just
Speaker 1: before she left.
Speaker 3: Her last sort of art push with the boys was
Speaker 3: Van Goy.
Speaker 2: Well. She always brought it into everything she did, so
Speaker 2: she was very arty with the boys at school and
Speaker 2: very cultural with that sort of thing as well. So
Speaker 2: she wasn't afraid to sit there until four and five
Speaker 2: year olds about and she'd play the music, you know,
Speaker 2: to go with the painting, which has a lot of
Speaker 2: power to it, you know. I recently just posted a
Speaker 2: picture one of the girls we met actually in the UK.
Speaker 2: Laura actually gave me a scarf which was had the
Speaker 2: sunflowers on it, and she'd actually imprinted on it Marion Matters,
Speaker 2: and I posted about it because it's just become winter
Speaker 2: here and I've been able to start wearing the scarf
Speaker 2: and I just wanted to thank her for doing that,
Speaker 2: and that was a really beautiful, thoughtful present that she
Speaker 2: gave me when we did catch up, and I just
Speaker 2: put the music behind it, and then I played the
Speaker 2: whole piece of music going out to see my dad,
Speaker 2: and I had goosebumps roll down my body.
Speaker 1: So it is quite powerful for me to be able.
Speaker 2: To have that experience, and I'm very grateful to be
Speaker 2: able to go and see it.
Speaker 5: Starry, starry, name, pink, sure, pilid, blue and gray look
Speaker 5: out on a summer's day with eyes that know the darkness.
Speaker 3: So the reason why we're in Amsterdam was also to
Speaker 3: look at coin dealers because mister Blue, whom had been
Speaker 3: coming in and out of Amsterdam, that was one of
Speaker 3: his main points of call between the UK and Europe
Speaker 3: and also Australia and Europe, so that seemed to be
Speaker 3: the place where he would sort of funnel in and out.
Speaker 3: We also have the issue of his cousin's widow who
Speaker 3: was called Charlotte in the media, and she said that
Speaker 3: he actually caught a train at four am from Belgium
Speaker 3: to leave through Amsterdam to go to Bali because he
Speaker 3: wanted to avoid seeing anybody in Belgium. And she wondered
Speaker 3: whether the one hundred thousand euro that she had provided
Speaker 3: to him was something actually happened in Amsterdam to that money,
Speaker 3: and then she arrived later in the day to catch
Speaker 3: the plane out to.
Speaker 1: Bali with him.
Speaker 3: That's why the coin dealers really interested me. Also the
Speaker 3: flea market too, just to see whether there was coin
Speaker 3: dealers there and whether there was anyone that sort of
Speaker 3: knew him there.
Speaker 1: Look for me.
Speaker 2: I think Joanie and I have very different ways of
Speaker 2: working this case, and that's really important, and that's probably
Speaker 2: why it works so well, because I have the emotional
Speaker 2: side and she has the detailed, structured side of research,
Speaker 2: and we gel them together. And it's interesting because even
Speaker 2: on the weekend we were doing more research up and
Speaker 2: down the north coast of New South Wales and we
Speaker 2: would sit there sometimes for twenty minutes and not argue,
Speaker 2: but we would debate whether and the reasons why we
Speaker 2: should do something or another thing. And so I think
Speaker 2: the fact that we are able to do that and
Speaker 2: make a decision and move forward on it and just
Speaker 2: act on it because we both come to a resolution
Speaker 2: as to what's the right path for.
Speaker 1: Me the coin dealers.
Speaker 2: It turned out I ended up having to do the
Speaker 2: coin side of this in Amsterdam because Jooni was in bedsick.
Speaker 2: She was quite unwell. Joanie's a really tough check. She
Speaker 2: comes from Mount Macedon. She's, you know, a hard working
Speaker 2: human who's pretty pretty tough.
Speaker 1: And she cried and I thought, oh my god, she's crying,
Speaker 1: and I don't know what to do. She's crying. I
Speaker 1: didn't expect her to cry, but you were quite heartbroken.
Speaker 1: At the same time.
Speaker 2: I think that we'd got there and you were sick,
Speaker 2: and you're like, I'm letting you down, Like this is
Speaker 2: not good, Like I.
Speaker 1: Need to be here, I need to do it us.
Speaker 1: You are not letting me down.
Speaker 2: We'd found a soup shop the day before which we
Speaker 2: had some soup and I'll just get you some soup.
Speaker 1: I'll bring it back. I guess too.
Speaker 2: I had to go out because two of us could
Speaker 2: not get sick, and we were in a very small
Speaker 2: room together, so it kind of worked out.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: I guess that I left and went and did the
Speaker 2: work that both of us were wanting to do. But
Speaker 2: I do know how sad you were that you didn't
Speaker 2: get a chance to do that because you'd work so
Speaker 2: hard on organizing it and where we were going and.
Speaker 1: What we were doing.
Speaker 2: And I had to sort of catch up pretty quick
Speaker 2: as to the why because I'm organizing the hotels and
Speaker 2: I'm organizing where we're going and all these other bits
Speaker 2: and pieces, whereas Jooney was focused on you know, who
Speaker 2: we were going to talk to and why left her
Speaker 2: in the hotel to a bath and try and recover
Speaker 2: while I head out and.
Speaker 1: Do what I need to get done today.
Speaker 2: I guess the coin side of things is we know
Speaker 2: that Rick Blum had a company called balanacoin invest Now
Speaker 2: he claims that he did know transactions through that business
Speaker 2: that it wasn't active. It was questioned through the inquest
Speaker 2: as to why you would pay for a business name
Speaker 2: and register a business that's all comes with expense if
Speaker 2: you're not actually trading. So it was kind of interesting
Speaker 2: and for us, in the back of our minds, is
Speaker 2: is there something sitting behind that that the police have
Speaker 2: not looked into yet are their bank accounts overseas? I mean,
Speaker 2: I'm from my perspective, the police are telling me in
Speaker 2: the report that my mum had eighty thousand dollars electronically
Speaker 2: transferred and potentially transferred overseas to start a new life
Speaker 2: with her new partner. You know, where did they get
Speaker 2: that information from? And why are they putting it into
Speaker 2: a police report At the very instance, I'm walking into
Speaker 2: the police station and saying something's not right, but then
Speaker 2: not taking any.
Speaker 1: Action on it.
Speaker 2: So for us, we wanted to investigate as to what
Speaker 2: was sitting behind the coin businesses and do these people
Speaker 2: know Rick Blum.
Speaker 6: Mister Bloom's interest in coin collecting. Diane gave evidence that
Speaker 6: mister Bloom has always had an interesting coins and has
Speaker 6: had his own small collection. She said he sometimes sold
Speaker 6: coins for other people and would receive a small commission.
Speaker 6: She was not aware of him turning his interest in
Speaker 6: coins into a business. She was aware in general terms
Speaker 6: of his company, Ballaner Coin Investments, but said that it
Speaker 6: never actually operated as a going concern. She agreed she
Speaker 6: was a director, but commented that this was just on
Speaker 6: paper and said she had forgotten about it. There is
Speaker 6: no evidence before the court to suggest otherwise, al that
Speaker 6: this company generated any income. Mister Bloom says that he
Speaker 6: occasionally sold coins, but not for any significant sum.
Speaker 3: In regards to the coin dealing, I just want to
Speaker 3: take everybody back a moment, right to the start of
Speaker 3: the coin dealing stuff, because you know there was many
Speaker 3: years there where obviously.
Speaker 1: You didn't know where your MAMO was.
Speaker 3: And then when Rick Bloom came along or Frederick de
Speaker 3: HEDEVERI it was quite early in the piece when we
Speaker 3: found out that he actually had a company called Baliner
Speaker 3: Coin invest.
Speaker 2: So for those who haven't listened to the Lady Vanishers
Speaker 2: and knows the finer details, we launched the Lady Vanishers
Speaker 2: on the first of April twenty nineteen. You come to
Speaker 2: us mid May twenty nineteen with the ad that you
Speaker 2: found in the newspaper which links us to the name
Speaker 2: Ramichel Lennox heads and there's a phone number in there.
Speaker 2: Then I get an email from a gentleman who wants
Speaker 2: to remain anonymous, who says, I've gone down to the
Speaker 2: local library at Balaner, I've hand scanned thousands of searchers
Speaker 2: for phone numbers, and I found a link to the
Speaker 2: phone number which linked that phone number to a company
Speaker 2: called Ballana coin invest. You and I then did a
Speaker 2: massive search with him. He actually did the assex search
Speaker 2: on that name with it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2: He did that and he found the name of the
Speaker 2: owner of Baloin coin invest was Frederic to Heavidairy and
Speaker 2: Diane to Heavendairy.
Speaker 3: Yes, that was an absolute game changing moment so coin invest.
Speaker 3: I thought to myself, coin invest would it be like Bitcoin?
Speaker 3: Would it be? And I'm thinking no, I don't think so,
Speaker 3: because he's of an older age coin invest maybe a
Speaker 3: coin dealer. So I was thinking this sort of in
Speaker 3: the background when I first saw the assex document. So
Speaker 3: then I thought, okay, let's see, let's try and see
Speaker 3: if this is the case. So, if you remember, I thought,
Speaker 3: let's look and see who the local coin dealers were
Speaker 3: in the balin Aire at that time. I then thought, well,
Speaker 3: I'll try and track him down to see if he
Speaker 3: knew because I couldn't. Obviously, I couldn't find Frederick de
Speaker 3: Heeadevary anywhere as a coin dealer. There was no advertisements.
Speaker 3: Looking back over that time, the ballin retire and I
Speaker 3: worked pretty closely together to try to locate this person
Speaker 3: and what his dealings were. So then I thought, well,
Speaker 3: I'm going to have to go to Sydney and look
Speaker 3: for coin dealers there that may have known who the
Speaker 3: old dealers were up in northern New South Wales. So
Speaker 3: I rang around the local coin dealers there and I
Speaker 3: happened to speak to a dealer, a very old, very
Speaker 3: well known dealer called Jim Noble from Noble Numismatics, and
Speaker 3: I actually called him and.
Speaker 1: This is what he said. He said, oh yes, Rick.
Speaker 3: Now at this stage I wasn't expecting him to actually
Speaker 3: know anything. So when he I don't know if you remember,
Speaker 3: but when he said oh yes, Rick, I thought, oh,
Speaker 3: I think I'm going to have to try and backpedal
Speaker 3: very quickly out of this conversation. This is what he said, Oh, Rick,
Speaker 3: HEDIVERI the Belgian. Yes, he's living in the foothills of
Speaker 3: Byron Bay. He's in his early eighties now. He's looking
Speaker 3: to put some coins in for an auction in the
Speaker 3: next month or so. He goes by a few names,
Speaker 3: so you never know who you're talking to on the phone.
Speaker 3: He was just laughing the whole time, like he thought
Speaker 3: it was hilarious. Then he said I must get up there.
Speaker 3: I couldn't because of the virus. So remember it was
Speaker 3: Corona and we were just coming out the other end
Speaker 3: of it. So for me, that was a real game
Speaker 3: changer because I thought to myself, there could be a
Speaker 3: lot of stuff, as you said, sitting behind the whole
Speaker 3: coin dealing thing.
Speaker 1: What I did know was we had catalogs.
Speaker 3: We had invoicing, we had bank details, we had dates
Speaker 3: of auctions, We had dates that coins were bought and sold,
Speaker 3: how they were sold. So we basically had almost like
Speaker 3: a bit of a train on a person that you
Speaker 3: wouldn't ordinarily get because in order to purchase a coin
Speaker 3: with some of them, you need to actually go to
Speaker 3: the auction. So that was when its zeroed in for me,
Speaker 3: and I thought, well, okay, nineteen ninety seven, we need
Speaker 3: to see exactly what he purchased over that whole time,
Speaker 3: because we had your mum's timeline, and then if we
Speaker 3: could overlay even his coin timeline, we would be able
Speaker 3: to pinpoint exactly where he was. So I came across
Speaker 3: a coin description where basically it lays out mister Bloom's
Speaker 3: entire family history.
Speaker 1: So that was very helpful.
Speaker 3: So it says ex collection of Franz Ernst and I'm
Speaker 3: going to completely butcher the name, so and even bother
Speaker 3: Bishop of Tournay, the cure of the parish of Saint
Speaker 3: Pierre in Tournay. He died in nineteen thirty nine, by
Speaker 3: descent acquired by the grandfather died in nineteen forty nine,
Speaker 3: which we knew that was accurate, and by succession then
Speaker 3: to the current collector's grandmother, Maria Coppenole. Now I was
Speaker 3: able to contact nobles and actually get the collector's cards
Speaker 3: or the description of that coin, and so I was
Speaker 3: then able to match the handwriting of Rick Bloom to
Speaker 3: that collection. So therefore I knew that anything that had
Speaker 3: ex cop and Ole collection at the base of the
Speaker 3: coin at was going to be coming from his collection.
Speaker 3: So then the world again opened up. And at the
Speaker 3: end of the day, as one of the dealers said
Speaker 3: to me, a coin shrinks fifty thousand euro into a
Speaker 3: nondescript piece of metal in the zipper of your wallet,
Speaker 3: A perfect way to effectively launder ill gotten gains. I'm
Speaker 3: not saying that mister Bloom did this, and that was
Speaker 3: the reason why he was a coin dealer. From what
Speaker 3: I understand, he was very knowledgeable and to put that
Speaker 3: in later, it's an interesting thought.
Speaker 2: You're talking about buying a coin that is worth fifty
Speaker 2: thousand euros. That's a gold coin that sits in your wallet,
Speaker 2: and when you're coming through customs, they're not looking at
Speaker 2: your coins in your wallet ands terms, is what that's saying.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So it's effectively a very good way to move
Speaker 3: money from country to country or continent to continent, because
Speaker 3: as we've seen within the passenger cards, it's a maximum
Speaker 3: ten thousand Australian that you can bring in here. The
Speaker 3: other thing that we also found out was Stuart Right
Speaker 3: from Status International. Stuart's gone on the record. This is
Speaker 3: an article in the Australian newspaper that everyone can read.
Speaker 3: So he stated that he did have a bank account
Speaker 3: on file for mister Bloom because he was a current
Speaker 3: customer of him, and this was back in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 3: So records indicate that between the period two thousand seventeen
Speaker 3: and twenty twenty Rick Bloom spent approximately seventeen thousand dollars
Speaker 3: Australian with Status International and most of these payments were
Speaker 3: made via EFT or direct transfer. Mister Wright also said
Speaker 3: that mister Bloom worked for him for three months in
Speaker 3: two thousand and was paid in cash, and that was
Speaker 3: when mister Bloom was living at the Student accommodation on
Speaker 3: George Street. He only put this together when looking at
Speaker 3: mister Bloom's other legal names, so he didn't actually realize
Speaker 3: that Rick Frederick de Heeveri was also known as Richard West,
Speaker 3: so that dealer knew him as Richard West or Rick West.
Speaker 3: He was sacked and this is according to Stuart Wright.
Speaker 3: He was sacked after it was discovered that he had
Speaker 3: allegedly been mailing the customer's high value orders to his
Speaker 3: own post office box rather than to the customers themselves.
Speaker 3: So that is on the record, that is in the media,
Speaker 3: and that is what Stuart Wright alleges.
Speaker 7: David Murray from the Australian Status International owner Stuart Wright
Speaker 7: said he briefly employed the Avid coin collector who was
Speaker 7: using the name Richard West in Sydney around nineteen ninety nine.
Speaker 7: Mister Blum embraced the position he was offered, turning up
Speaker 7: at five am when most staff didn't arrive until four
Speaker 7: hours later the role included posting items to customers and
Speaker 7: coincided with a series of parcels failing to reach their
Speaker 7: intended destination. I can't make accusations, but in the stuff
Speaker 7: that went to the post office, I think the first, second, third, fifth,
Speaker 7: seventh and tenth most valuable consignments disappeared, mister Wright told
Speaker 7: The Australian. One day, mister Blum just disappeared, leaving his
Speaker 7: job without saying goodbye. He didn't come back, and subsequently
Speaker 7: a dealer in Ballina, Barry Cooper, told me he'd offered
Speaker 7: Barry Cooper a copy of my mailing list. It was
Speaker 7: probably just laying around. We always had a paper backup,
Speaker 7: mister Wright said. In recent years, Status International had a
Speaker 7: new customer, Rick Blum. I had no idea they were
Speaker 7: one and the same person. At the time he bought
Speaker 7: a few coins, mister Wright said. Another respected coin trader,
Speaker 7: who asked The Australian to withhold his identity, interacted with
Speaker 7: mister Bloom many times. Do you know Walter Mitty?
Speaker 1: He said.
Speaker 7: We felt that he was a bit of a Walter
Speaker 7: Mitty character when it came to describing what he owned
Speaker 7: and possessed.
Speaker 2: So we leave the room, the engulfed room of marijuana,
Speaker 2: and head out and we've got tickets to go and
Speaker 2: see the sunflowers, which was pretty exciting. And we're trying
Speaker 2: to fumble our way through with everyone speaking Dutch and
Speaker 2: us not really knowing where we're going, and we decided
Speaker 2: to get on a tram and that turns out to
Speaker 2: be quite funny, quite a funny moment because we jump
Speaker 2: on the tram and I've got cameras and I've come
Speaker 2: trying to capture everything, and I've got my backpack and
Speaker 2: my bag and it's heavy, and anyway, we get on
Speaker 2: the tram and then we're sort of fumbling. At one
Speaker 2: point we've been on the tram for a couple of stops.
Speaker 2: We're tapping our card just to get on and off.
Speaker 2: We're trying to work out if that's how it works.
Speaker 2: And anyway, Joanie's sort of sitting up at the back
Speaker 2: door and I'm in the middle. I've sort of walked
Speaker 2: into the middle of the tram. And then the tram
Speaker 2: stops and Joanie gets off, and I'm fumbling, going, oh
Speaker 2: my god, I have to get my credit card out
Speaker 2: to tap the thing to get off, and before I
Speaker 2: know it, the door shut and the tram takes off,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, oh my goodness, I'm in the middle
Speaker 2: of amsinam, I don't know where I am, and I've
Speaker 2: already lost her.
Speaker 3: Bye bye, Sol, she missed.
Speaker 1: She couldn't get the door open, so off she goes.
Speaker 1: She'll be most happy.
Speaker 6: Bye bye see.
Speaker 2: Okay, So Johnie couldn't work out to get the door
Speaker 2: open on the tram, so I started walking back to them,
Speaker 2: and then she got out, and so I went back
Speaker 2: to her and tapped off, but the doors shut and
Speaker 2: then the.
Speaker 1: Trams are go off.
Speaker 2: So we've been here for two minutes and we've already.
Speaker 1: Lost each other. So that's interesting.
Speaker 2: But anyway, I am just fucking see a sign saying
Speaker 2: Fango's Museum, So I'm.
Speaker 1: Heading up there and I'll meet her. He's particularly chilli here.
Speaker 2: So we arrive at the museum and wow, like, what
Speaker 2: an amazing thing to witness, you know, all his original artworks,
Speaker 2: and it's just the whole museum is flooded with his artwork,
Speaker 2: which was pretty special to see. Obviously, the sunflowers was
Speaker 2: a big attraction. There was probably the best part of
Speaker 2: thirty people standing around with headphones on, listening to the
Speaker 2: stories about his artwork and his life, which was quite
Speaker 2: a sad life. And so we finished going through the
Speaker 2: museum and we've got some gifts, and we walked downstairs
Speaker 2: and we thought one of the things we wanted to
Speaker 2: do when we went to these places because we'd experienced
Speaker 2: this years before when I went to the UK and
Speaker 2: I was with Christina, and Christina had sort of introduced
Speaker 2: me to the idea that there are guest books in
Speaker 2: a lot of these places that you visit, and so
Speaker 2: that became a bit of a theme for us as well,
Speaker 2: Let's check if they've got a guest book, how far
Speaker 2: back does the guest book go, and does there have
Speaker 2: anything in there that might be of interest. We do
Speaker 2: have the or the only guest book that we actually have,
Speaker 2: which is in our brief of evidence, so I'm not
Speaker 2: allowed to talk about it, but it does come from
Speaker 2: Jane Austen's house, and there is an insert in there
Speaker 2: that for me personally, I looked at and I thought
Speaker 2: was a bit odd.
Speaker 1: Everyone else just said, no, there's nothing to see here.
Speaker 2: So hopefully one day I can actually show everyone that
Speaker 2: and get everyone's opinion on it. Because I do think
Speaker 2: it's actually of interest. But again, sorry, I can't talk
Speaker 2: about it because it's behind that locked door. But we
Speaker 2: went and asksome and we tried to record it. It was
Speaker 2: a little bit noisy in there, but we did try
Speaker 2: to capture what the lady said, and this is what she.
Speaker 8: Said, good museum, we've seen the sun clowns and we're
Speaker 8: just going just going to ask if they have a
Speaker 8: guest book.
Speaker 2: So, JOONI, you went up to the counter and asked
Speaker 2: the lady. And it's always a weird thing, isn't it.
Speaker 2: I think you say something along the lines on this
Speaker 2: is a really weird request. But was anyone working here
Speaker 2: in nineteen ninety seven? So that's generally how we rolled
Speaker 2: with that line of question. And then if they say
Speaker 2: yes or no, they usually asked why are you asking,
Speaker 2: and we then head into well, we're just wondering if
Speaker 2: there was a guest registry. We know it's a long
Speaker 2: time ago, but is it in archives because this is
Speaker 2: a pretty important, famous thing for people to come and see.
Speaker 2: We're wondering if you actually kept records. No, we didn't
Speaker 2: have to.
Speaker 3: Okay, Okay, yep, yes, okay, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1: Because a very strange question. My mum's a missing person.
Speaker 2: One of her last postcards said she was on her
Speaker 2: way to Amsterdam's come and see the sun flowers red.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so we were years ago.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and she went to Jane Austin's house and they
Speaker 2: actually do have guest books there.
Speaker 1: Like things like that.
Speaker 2: So we're asking if we can have a look at
Speaker 2: guestbooks to see if she actually came. She was quite young,
Speaker 2: whereas in say the UK, when I went with Channel seven,
Speaker 2: we went to tom Bridge Castle and there's five people
Speaker 2: in that room and every single one of them was
Speaker 2: working there in nineteen ninety seven, so they remembered the
Speaker 2: brochure that I'd brought and things like that, so we
Speaker 2: didn't get that same vibe in there. It was kind
Speaker 2: of like a bit of a really sorry, but no,
Speaker 2: we don't have it.
Speaker 1: So we left.
Speaker 2: But we did see the sun flowers and you know
Speaker 2: that was that was pretty special.
Speaker 1: No, I was just happy that I was there for
Speaker 1: my mum.
Speaker 2: I think, you know, my mind was taken back to
Speaker 2: a bit sad because I just honestly feel like she
Speaker 2: didn't get to go.
Speaker 1: There, and.
Speaker 2: You know, I feel like in the way she was
Speaker 2: talking and what she was talking about in the lead
Speaker 2: up going on the Orient Express and all these things.
Speaker 2: For me, in my heart, I just don't think any
Speaker 2: of that happened, and it made.
Speaker 1: Me quite sad.
Speaker 2: I mean, look, the hard thing about transiting and looking
Speaker 2: for somebody who's maybe potentially transiting through Europe and we
Speaker 2: found this Jooney, and we talk about it in the
Speaker 2: next episode. A fair bit actually coming into Brussels is
Speaker 2: that no one's checking anything. Like you literally get off
Speaker 2: a train, you can bounce around from anywhere, apart from
Speaker 2: maybe coming out of the UK you go through customs.
Speaker 2: But it was so simplified, like we were just literally
Speaker 2: bouncing out of countries in and out of just on
Speaker 2: trains and no one was.
Speaker 1: Looking at anything.
Speaker 2: So it's hard in that fact to then go and
Speaker 2: try and source records to see if my mum actually
Speaker 2: did make it to Amsterdam, right, we don't know. All
Speaker 2: we've got is her saying next stop Amsterdam, and then
Speaker 2: next thing is the next point have is her returning
Speaker 2: back to Australia, So we don't know what she did
Speaker 2: in that you know, two to three weeks period.
Speaker 1: And I don't think we're ever going to find that out.
Speaker 3: Unfortunately, so we have confirmed that Amsterdam they don't hold records,
Speaker 3: so there's no incoming records at all.
Speaker 2: When we were planning where we were going to go,
Speaker 2: that was one of the things I wanted to know.
Speaker 1: Did she go to Amsterdam?
Speaker 2: We then found out through your hard work to see
Speaker 2: that well, they actually don't hold records. So we thought, well,
Speaker 2: let's still go because mum said she was going there,
Speaker 2: and let's see if there's any connectors to coin options
Speaker 2: or something that happened around that time that potentially fits
Speaker 2: in with the timeline.
Speaker 1: For clarity.
Speaker 2: My mum actually sent three postcards that she actually references
Speaker 2: going to Amsterdam. We've done something a bit a bit
Speaker 2: next level, but I wanted to make this real and
Speaker 2: bring this really in for everybody. So if you're here
Speaker 2: hearing the postcards being read out, we've actually used AI
Speaker 2: to recreate my mum's voice, So you guys listening now,
Speaker 2: you are hearing my mum's voice, which we took audio
Speaker 2: from my twenty first birthday video on VHS and we've
Speaker 2: transcribed it into AI. So this is the good side
Speaker 2: of AI. And you know what super emotional for me
Speaker 2: is the first time i'd heard my mum's voice since
Speaker 2: she's disappeared. So in my postcard, the Sally's Craft postcard,
Speaker 2: she that was in Alfriston, and she talks about next
Speaker 2: stop Amsterdam is what we're going to quote.
Speaker 1: Next stop Amsterdam.
Speaker 2: Then we have on the seventh of July, she sent
Speaker 2: a postcard to her second cousin, so my grandmother's cousins,
Speaker 2: and that was the one of the cat shop for
Speaker 2: those who have followed along well, and she says, I'm
Speaker 2: off shortly to Amsterdam and the Orient Express on the
Speaker 2: fifteen of July. So she actually gives us a date.
Speaker 7: I'm off shortly to Amsterdam and the Orient Express on
Speaker 7: the fifteenth of July.
Speaker 2: Then on the eleventh of July, I get a postcard
Speaker 2: that's stamped from London with London Tower Bridge on the
Speaker 2: front cover, and she says, eagerly looking forward to seeing
Speaker 2: Vango's flowers and revisit Holland. Eagerly looking forward to seeing
Speaker 2: Vangos's flowers and revisit Holland. So she went to Holland
Speaker 2: with Ray Barta on their honeymoon just for clarity.
Speaker 1: Okay, so we've got a busy day.
Speaker 2: We leave van Goes Museum and we snapshot a photo.
Speaker 2: I remember this day as clear as if it was yesterday.
Speaker 2: We stopped, there's a bike there where we're getting a
Speaker 2: beautiful photo.
Speaker 1: It's sunny.
Speaker 2: It stopped raining for five seconds, because it's rained every
Speaker 2: single day so far. We head past a shop that
Speaker 2: has soups and delicious, really am so so we just
Speaker 2: sat there and had this amazing piece of bread with
Speaker 2: a cup of soup. The other thing we wanted to
Speaker 2: do at nighttime. So this was not about pleasure or
Speaker 2: anything of the sort. It was about trying to do
Speaker 2: things that my mum would like to do in her shoes.
Speaker 1: So I was trying to walk in her shoes.
Speaker 2: And something that she quite often talked about was Ant
Speaker 2: Frank and the Diary of Ann Frank was something that
Speaker 2: I remember very well as a child and my mum
Speaker 2: always talking about it. And realized when we were looking
Speaker 2: at what to do in Amsterdam to fill in our
Speaker 2: time at nighttime and things like that, there was an
Speaker 2: opportunity to go to and Frank's house. And you know
Speaker 2: that was a very humbling experience for me personally. I
Speaker 2: know you weren't feeling well at this point, your wheels
Speaker 2: were falling off.
Speaker 3: I honestly can't actually remember a lot of that. Yeah, right,
Speaker 3: said unfortunately.
Speaker 2: So we were standing outside lining up and we had
Speaker 2: umbrellas up because it was I remember that.
Speaker 1: And you walk in.
Speaker 2: And you actually get headphones, and as you walk into
Speaker 2: each room, it connects to the headphones, so it's every
Speaker 2: it's silent everywhere, like no one's talking, everyone's just listening.
Speaker 2: And for me personally, you sort of walk up and
Speaker 2: you walk in behind the bookcase that they had the
Speaker 2: hidden bookcase of where they were hiding all day long
Speaker 2: while the workers were there and doing their thing downstairs,
Speaker 2: And I personally remember stepping on a floorboard and it
Speaker 2: creaking as I was walking around, and I had that
Speaker 2: moment of oh my gosh, like they're trying to be
Speaker 2: quiet upstairs. Imagine stepping on a floorboard and someone hearing
Speaker 2: it and going what.
Speaker 1: Is that upstairs? So that it was quite a moment.
Speaker 2: We were going to go out for dinner after that,
Speaker 2: and you were too unwell, so I took you home
Speaker 2: and put you to bed, and I went downstairs and
Speaker 2: I remember I had something at the bar, like it
Speaker 2: wasn't wasn't much, but we just you were needing to
Speaker 2: go to bed. That was hard for you, and I'm
Speaker 2: really grateful for you. You were a soldier, you were
Speaker 2: an absolute soldier in that moment. So yeah, so I
Speaker 2: head out on the streets of Amsterdam by myself. I'm
Speaker 2: a bit nervous, and I've left Johnie in bed. Hopefully
Speaker 2: she'll feel better by the time I get back to
Speaker 2: go and do what I need to do.
Speaker 1: Okay, So it's nine o'clock.
Speaker 2: I think it's the eleventh October, and unfortunately Joanie is
Speaker 2: sick with the flu.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she's not.
Speaker 2: Very well at all actually, which is not great for her,
Speaker 2: and I am worried about her.
Speaker 1: All right, So I am on my way.
Speaker 2: To go to the first point dealer on our lists,
Speaker 2: going solo. A little bit nervous, but anyway, the plan
Speaker 2: is to go in there and see if anyone knows
Speaker 2: or remembers mister Blonde and if he was a customer
Speaker 2: of theirs, and potentially if they had an overseas bank
Speaker 2: account registered to his account, what his details, because what
Speaker 2: we know, based on Grahandchild's statement, is that the eighty
Speaker 2: thousand dollars was electronically trans I heard potentially being Verbie
Speaker 2: commers to an overseas account. I can't remember the exact word,
Speaker 2: but like to buy a house with your new partner.
Speaker 1: So we only have accounts would be Commonwealth Bank.
Speaker 2: So if we can find if he had an account overseas,
Speaker 2: we can give that to the police and they potentially
Speaker 2: can look into that because we still haven't found where
Speaker 2: Mom's money went to. You know the downside of this
Speaker 2: is like last night, we were reading a couple of
Speaker 2: comments online and there were people commenting about how we
Speaker 2: were just here on a fun trip and we were
Speaker 2: just there for you know, oh, look at them, they
Speaker 2: get to go overseas and do all these wonderful things.
Speaker 2: That was actually really hard to read because Jooni's sick,
Speaker 2: she's away from her family. I'm away from my family.
Speaker 2: We were gone for, you know, over three weeks. That
Speaker 2: particular morning, Darcy had been messaging me because it was
Speaker 2: her birthday the next day and I wasn't home for it.
Speaker 2: And although she'd said I'm okay for you to not
Speaker 2: be here, it's still hard when you're not home and
Speaker 2: you know your daughter's having a birthday. I'd like to
Speaker 2: tell those people who think we're here for fun. That
Speaker 2: this is not very fun at all, and it's very difficult,
Speaker 2: bouncing in and out of countries, not eating properly, not
Speaker 2: sleeping properly, to try and get this information, and not
Speaker 2: to mention the fact that we're putting ourselves in positions
Speaker 2: or we have to go and ask people questions that
Speaker 2: they probably don't want to answer.
Speaker 1: So it is quite tricky and it's not fun. And
Speaker 1: you know, we're away from our families.
Speaker 2: It's Darcy's birthday tomorrow and I'm missing out and I've
Speaker 2: you know, she's been messaging me saying she misses me
Speaker 2: and loves me. I know Ethan's been, you know, missing
Speaker 2: his mum as well. You know. So it's a lot
Speaker 2: on our families and a lot on us personally.
Speaker 1: To come and do this.
Speaker 2: So we're doing the absolute best we can to find,
Speaker 2: you know, the answers.
Speaker 3: So I did the research and looked at all the
Speaker 3: coin dealers that were actually there in the nineteen nineties
Speaker 3: into the two thousands, not brand news that had sort
Speaker 3: of popped up because they would have no idea, like
Speaker 3: there's absolutely no point going there. So I looked at
Speaker 3: the ones that were historically there, and they were the
Speaker 3: ones that I listed to go and have a look
Speaker 3: at and go and have a chat to them. There
Speaker 3: was three stops where I needed Saal to go. Considering
Speaker 3: my situation, it was the good we sell Cantur.
Speaker 2: So I wanted to do this trip with my friend
Speaker 2: who's been helping me for five years now. We're going
Speaker 2: to do this really thoroughly and make sure we tick
Speaker 2: all the boxes and make sure we've done everything we can,
Speaker 2: and then we'll have a rest before Christmas. And then
Speaker 2: next year I'm organizing a walk, so it would be
Speaker 2: my mum's eightieth birthday next year in October, and we're
Speaker 2: doing a walk all around the world. Actually, I've got
Speaker 2: people in the UK and in Seattle, in America, in
Speaker 2: New Zealand, all over Australia. We're going to do a
Speaker 2: walk for the Missing because it's I've got a hashtag
Speaker 2: I use now the missing matter, and they do matter,
Speaker 2: because a lot of people just go, oh, we'll have
Speaker 2: a look for them for a bit and then they
Speaker 2: just get pushed to the side and they're not important anymore.
Speaker 2: So I'm trying to bring awareness to missing persons as well.
Speaker 2: So and I think after the walk, I can have
Speaker 2: a rest, you know, thank you for and hopefully you'll
Speaker 2: find something.
Speaker 1: Here and keep your fingers crossed for me.
Speaker 2: I've only got today, so I've got it on a
Speaker 2: bit of a mission, but thank you very much. What
Speaker 2: you can do maybe is to call our headquarters because
Speaker 2: we have more than one of the fifty stores.
Speaker 3: Also in Belgium and Germany.
Speaker 2: Call the headquarters in Glaswow.
Speaker 1: Yeah they can in the total system. Okay, find his
Speaker 1: name if they pop up.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, and would they be receptive for me
Speaker 2: bringing up yes, yes, of course, Yeah, I got your card.
Speaker 1: Oh, okay, can you call the headquarters? Hang on, I'll
Speaker 1: write it down.
Speaker 2: Out of all the places I went that day. He
Speaker 2: was very engaging, he was very interested. He offered to
Speaker 2: contact head office and see if we could get the information.
Speaker 2: They came back to us and said, no, we can't
Speaker 2: give it to you due to privacy. He was interested
Speaker 2: in the case, you know. And this is me standing
Speaker 2: there as the daughter saying that my mum is a
Speaker 2: missing person and giving them a card showing her face,
Speaker 2: and people are like, oh.
Speaker 1: My god, this is your mum. Oh my goodness, like
Speaker 1: what's happened?
Speaker 2: And there's an interest, and sometimes you walk in and
Speaker 2: you say it and they go, I don't know anything,
Speaker 2: see you later. So because I'm so far away, Okay,
Speaker 2: it's going to take me thirty eight minutes to walk
Speaker 2: to the next one, I'm going to go straight past
Speaker 2: Anne Frank's house. Johnny and I went there late last
Speaker 2: night at seven.
Speaker 1: Point o in time.
Speaker 3: So next stop was Schmidt. So he was a dealer
Speaker 3: from many, many years ago. So again just the same thing,
Speaker 3: just looking to see whether he knew anything about Rick
Speaker 3: Bloom or any of his alienses and whether he had
Speaker 3: new dealings with him before he left.
Speaker 1: The destination is on your left, Munton Handles c SMID.
Speaker 2: So I'm just wondering if you happened to notice question.
Speaker 1: So the same person, we just studied different ages. Okay,
Speaker 1: all right, thank you for having a work regards to
Speaker 1: my person in Australia.
Speaker 2: And that gentleman is he has been arrested in job
Speaker 2: and France for armed Corge line activity and a massacar
Speaker 2: He had a look at the photograph and.
Speaker 1: He doesn't know him.
Speaker 2: So look, I guess to knock it off. I'm going
Speaker 2: to sit down and have a coffee in a minute and.
Speaker 3: Send journey theo Peter's new msmatics. He again had been
Speaker 3: around for a long time and so again just looking
Speaker 3: to see whether he'd had any dealings, whether he knew
Speaker 3: mister Bloom or knew anything about mister Bloom's coin dealings
Speaker 3: or interactions in Amsterdam.
Speaker 2: And interestingly too for me, he was on the other
Speaker 2: side of town, so I had to walk probably the
Speaker 2: best part of twelve k.
Speaker 5: What did he say, Australia and I.
Speaker 2: Think some of the corn dealers who for a while,
Speaker 2: I guess I have a clear it's quite unusual. I
Speaker 2: have a question as to which plan is familiar to
Speaker 2: any of you, DA or the self.
Speaker 4: With you much of you.
Speaker 1: He is a man who is in Australia, who.
Speaker 2: Build and born. Yeah he has multiple yeah, oh yeah,
Speaker 2: that's okay.
Speaker 3: Maybe in the world is if you've gone around.
Speaker 2: The place and one of people, I kind of feel
Speaker 2: weird telling people and it's about Mum.
Speaker 1: In the worry that what if they actually do know him?
Speaker 1: And I mean he he just sort of put his
Speaker 1: finger to his eye like a crying kind of starting.
Speaker 8: Route to hotel Aysteria and he seemed sad to mean
Speaker 8: he didn't recognize him.
Speaker 2: He was situated just across from the water and where
Speaker 2: all the ships would come in and dock, which I
Speaker 2: find quite interesting. And he had a massive, big window
Speaker 2: with big coins, big lots of notes on the stamps
Speaker 2: and things like that, really in your face what he
Speaker 2: was about, right, And I remember walking back at that moment,
Speaker 2: I'd been out all day. I'm saying it's probably around
Speaker 2: I'd stopped and had some lunch, grabbed a coffee, and
Speaker 2: then kept going. And I remember as I was walking back,
Speaker 2: I was recording myself and my phone goes, you have
Speaker 2: five percent battery left, and I actually started to go
Speaker 2: I actually don't know where I am. I don't know
Speaker 2: where the hotel is. I need my phone to get
Speaker 2: me there through my maps. And when you're on maps,
Speaker 2: I've learned too, it sucks the battery life out of
Speaker 2: your phone, like no tomorrow. So I'm sitting there madly
Speaker 2: on a piece of paper, looking at maps, trying to
Speaker 2: describe myself which bridge I had to turn over, which
Speaker 2: where I had, because you're literally in Amsterdam.
Speaker 1: It's over a.
Speaker 2: Bridge, go a little bit over another bridge, go a
Speaker 2: little bit over another bread.
Speaker 1: So I'm scribing myself on this little scrap piece of paper.
Speaker 2: How I had to get home back to the hotel
Speaker 2: to charge my phone because I actually had no battery.
Speaker 2: But I did manage to get myself back to the hotel,
Speaker 2: charge my phone, and then pretty much back out I went.
Speaker 2: Had to walk all the way back down to where
Speaker 2: i'd just come from pretty much to go and catch
Speaker 2: people at the flea market. So their website said that
Speaker 2: opens for six just asked the man and he said
Speaker 2: there closing.
Speaker 3: Now, So.
Speaker 1: I have to go and see the deal.
Speaker 3: Is you put my.
Speaker 1: I'm just try and hold my phone.
Speaker 3: I sent Sally down to the flea market because that
Speaker 3: flea market seemed to be a bit of a theme
Speaker 3: for mister Rick Bloom, just in Australia and also in Europe.
Speaker 3: So if you remember Andre Flumm, so they he had
Speaker 3: arranged to actually meet them at the flea market in
Speaker 3: Belgium to try and offload some of Andre Flum's coin collection.
Speaker 1: So I just thought there was a huge.
Speaker 3: Massive flea market in Amsterdam, so I thought that may
Speaker 3: have been where he may have been known as well.
Speaker 3: So that's why I sent Sally down to the flea
Speaker 3: market there.
Speaker 2: And it was hard to It was getting late afternoon.
Speaker 2: I remember walking over the bridge and there's a boat
Speaker 2: going underneath me with all these women sitting there drinking,
Speaker 2: shanned on and I was like, Wow, that looks way
Speaker 2: more fun.
Speaker 3: To work.
Speaker 1: That looks like way more fun what I'm currently doing.
Speaker 1: Hip going any coin dealers?
Speaker 2: And a guy walks up to me and I said,
Speaker 2: I'm really sorry to interrupt you, but I'm trying to
Speaker 2: find the way the flea market is.
Speaker 1: He said, it's around the very back.
Speaker 2: So I had to walk all the way around the back,
Speaker 2: and it was the most interesting flea market vibe i'd seen.
Speaker 2: There was like pie and piles of clothes just on
Speaker 2: the ground, like you would literally could jump in the
Speaker 2: jeans for example, on the floor. And I just was
Speaker 2: looking for a coin dealer. We knew that there had
Speaker 2: been a coin dealer who you frequented the flea market,
Speaker 2: and my hunt was to go and find him. Can
Speaker 2: you tell me, please, if there's anyone around it sells coins,
Speaker 2: coins like antique coins.
Speaker 1: Okay, thanks, Oh he didn't come today, okay, thank you.
Speaker 1: And then he knows it sells coins, didn't come to me.
Speaker 2: Well, they'll just be right. So I'm walking around. I
Speaker 2: speak English, They're all speaking in native tongue.
Speaker 1: I'm a bit lost. I walked past.
Speaker 2: There's beanies, there's marijuana, lollipops, there's you know, it's just
Speaker 2: a wild scene of multiple different people selling create like records,
Speaker 2: you name it. And I just had to keep walking
Speaker 2: around asking people, is there anyone here that sells coins?
Speaker 2: Do you know if there's anyone here that sells coins? Oh, well,
Speaker 2: that's disappointing. There's literally no one here. There was a
Speaker 2: guy who does sell coins there, and as the story
Speaker 2: goes in the saluh Laden life story, he was not
Speaker 2: there that day.
Speaker 1: He didn't turn up this week. Okay, well, nice cigar.
Speaker 1: That's about it.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: In the next episode of The Missing Matter, well.
Speaker 2: The next episode we go to Brussels. We are going
Speaker 2: to visit Glaine where she drops a bombshell. Glaine is
Speaker 2: probably the closest to my mum in her journey with
Speaker 2: Rick Blum or her time with Rick Blum in reverse.
Speaker 2: What we hadn't heard before was the bombshell show. I'm
Speaker 2: sure