Lonely hearts ad led another woman to key witness in Marion Barter’s disappearance, inquest hears

The coronial inquest in Lismore is examining the circumstances of Marion Barter’s disappearance and suspected death. Photograph: David Maurice Smith/The Guardian

Ghislaine Danlois-Dubois was 72 and at a low point in her life when she put a lonely hearts ad in a newspaper in 2006. A widow, she was “exhausted” and “wanted to think about something new”.

“I wasn’t looking into the future,” she told a Lismore court via satellite link from her home in Brussels on Wednesday.