For 27 years – more than half of her life – Sally Leydon has been searching for her mother. On Thursday, a live clock counted down the minutes on Leydon’s website as the New South Wales state coroner, Teresa O’Sullivan, prepared to deliver her findings in the inquest into the disappearance of Marion Barter.
Thousands of people from around the world tuned in to hear the coroner speak. Barter, a primary school teacher, had become a cause célèbre, an enduring mystery, world-famous in her unexplained disappearance. Twenty million people have downloaded the podcast The Lady Vanishes since its debut in 2019.
