A former lover of a convicted conman dwelling in northern New South Wales has revealed he boasted to her that he had killed.
Talking solely to 7NEWS from her residence in Luxembourg, Monique Cornelius, stated Ric Blum instructed her he’d carried out it together with his personal arms.
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“Oh, he instructed me!” stated Cornelius.
“At some point he instructed me, ‘Look, these arms have already killed’ and he confirmed me his arms.”
“However I do not know who he has killed.”
The gorgeous declare options within the newest episode of the worldwide smash hit podcast The Lady Vanisheswhich additionally contains the unique revelation of one other Australian sufferer.
It has been nearly a 12 months since a weird letter by Ric Blum to his former love Monique Cornelius was learn out as a part of the NSW Coronial Inquest into the disappearance of Marion Barter.
These in attendance on the Byon Bay courthouse wore appears of shock and amusement at Ric Blum’s try and persuade Ms Cornelius of his deep affection by writing that she was “a tune in a person’s testicles”.
“I do know him. Oh sure, I do know him very nicely. His character, his reactions. And that is why I say particularly for a girl, he’s a really, very harmful man,” she stated.
The letter was dated August 8, 1980, when Ms Cornelius was simply 34 years previous and within the means of divorcing the actual Fernand Remakel, whose identification was stolen by Blum in 1988 when he obtained a Queensland Driver’s license in his identify, certainly one of greater than 30 aliases the boldness trickster has used.
When he met Marion Barter in 1997 close to the Gold Coast, he was posing as Fernand Remakel. The pair started a whirlwind romance and Marion modified her identify to Florabella Natalia Marion Remakel.
Marion was 51 years previous and an award-winning schoolteacher. Inside weeks of assembly Blum, she stop her job, offered her home, modified her identify and disappeared abroad.
When her checking account was drained of greater than $80,000 her daughter, Queensland mom of three Sally Leydon, started a 26-year seek for solutions. The 7NEWS workforce behind The Girl Vanishes launched the podcast in April, 2019, which has been downloaded greater than 15 million instances.
After repeatedly declining to be interviewed about her relationship with Blum, Cornelius lastly opened up in regards to the man she knew on the time as Frederic de Hedervary.
He was dwelling together with his spouse and toddler son in Luxembourg, the place he opened a furnishings retailer. He instructed her he was a particular agent working on the British Embassy.
“I instantly left him after I noticed that he had a spouse,” she stated.
“It was not simple to do away with him.
The Girl Vanishes inquest
“He’s an individual you do not meet on each nook of the street.
“He’s centered on getting cash and subsequently he’s taking part in with the feelings of ladies.
“However I had to start with, I trusted him too. He’s an excellent speaker. He is aware of the feelings of ladies. I used to be younger… and I used to be alone, I used to be divorcing.
“And after I heard the story (of Marion Barter) … she had cash.
“He manipulates till they’re depending on him… as a result of he’s a grasp of manipulation.”
Cornelius heard Blum speaking to his spouse Diane on the cellphone and realized that they had a son. The couple would have one other little one, Maite, a 12 months later.
“I noticed his manipulation; I noticed when he lied or manipulated.
“He by no means ever says the reality.”
Affairs and ‘the love of cash’
Regardless of touring to Europe concurrently Barter and returning to Australia inside days of her return to Aussie soil simply earlier than she vanished, Blum has repeatedly denied understanding what occurred to her.
In a police interview he was requested straight if he killed Barter.
“Did you homicide Marion Barter?”
“Are you kidding… no, no,” Blum replied.
“Did you in any method hurt Marion Barter?”
“No, I by no means hurt anybody,” he stated.
“Did you could have any interplay with Marion Barter when she returned to Australia after the 2nd of August, 1997?
“no”
“Are you aware the place she is?”
“No.”
The Girl Vanishes Crew traveled to Luxembourg in 2019 and tracked down the actual Fernand Remakel and his ex-wife, Cornelius.
Journalist Bryan Seymour spoke to Cornelius about her ex-husband however, on the time, it wasn’t identified that Monsieur Remakel had been the sufferer of identification theft by Marion’s actual secret lover Ric Blum.
Blum has used a minimum of 38 names in his lifetime together with his birthname, Willy Wouters, David de Hedervary, Christopher Du Pont, Roger Lauzoney, Anthony Grech, Christopher Stein, Freddy David, Richard Lloyd Westbury, Willy David Coppenolle, Bernard Du Pont, Wealthy Richard and Ric West, simply to call a couple of.
Giving proof to a Coronial Inquest final 12 months, Blum stated Cornelius was the one girl he had deceived into having an affair with him that he had real affection for.
But, when he learn a graphic love letter he had written to Cornelius, detailing their bodily relationship, he insisted he had by no means had intercourse along with her and claimed she was mendacity.
Regardless of his acknowledgment that he could have had emotions for her, Cornelius stated Blum was motivated by one factor solely.
“He loves cash, nothing else,” she stated.
“And for cash, he has nothing however slightly pension.”
Blum instructed the Coroner he acquired two pensions; one from Belgium as a result of a horse-riding accident when he served within the Gendarmerie within the 1960s and an previous age pension from the Australian Authorities.
His spouse of almost 50 years, Diane de Hedervary, receives previous age and incapacity carer pensions.
“He is superb at storytelling,” Cornelius stated.
“He instructed me he was a undercover agent of the English embassy right here in Luxembourg.”
Together with Cornelius, a number of different victims have now publicly accused Blum of luring them right into a romantic relationship with the intent of stealing their cash and valuables.
Contemporary victims got here ahead late final 12 months in The Girl Vanishes podcast, forcing the NSW Coroner Teresa O’Sullivan to delay her findings in order that the police may examine the brand new proof gathered by the workforce.
It’s alleged that he has efficiently scammed a number of hundred thousand {dollars} in money and valuables from victims in Australia, Belgium and France.
They embody Janet Oldenburg and Ginette Gaffney-Bowen in Australia and Ghillaine Dubois-Danlois and Blum’s cousin-in-law ‘Charlotte’, who met Blum in Belgium.
One other Australian Sufferer
Blum’s estranged daughter, Evelyn Reid, has instructed 7NEWS that when she met up along with her organic father in Melbourne, he was boasting that he had simply stolen a big sum of money.
“I keep in mind an occasion the place he had me choose him up and when he acquired within the automotive he was simply laughing that somebody had simply given him forty or fifty thousand {dollars} they usually did not also have a hint of him apart from a cellular quantity that he may change and he thought it was hilarious,” Ms Reid stated.
Reid stated she thinks the sufferer lived within the Melbourne suburb of Kew or Hawthorn.
“It could have been one of many final instances I noticed him.”
Reid stated she noticed him perhaps 3 times in her life and each time was “completely terrifying”.
“I used to be simply hoping that it might all go away if I simply pretended to be dumb.
“I am simply hoping from this that the police will take an announcement or one thing.”
Reid was solely seven years previous when she misplaced her mom Illona Reid, (nee Kinzcell), who was Mr Blum’s third spouse, again when he glided by the identify Wily Wouters.
Illona was found useless in 1977 in her automotive, slumped over the steering wheel when she was simply 31 years previous. It was stated she died of a coronary heart situation.
Two different girls say that Blum was fascinated with poisons and seized upon a guide about poisons which are undetectable.
Reid fears Blum could have tried to poison her with a bottle of champagne he gave her and which she seen that somebody had tampered with the highest.
“The interplay I had with that man tipped me over the sting in that regard.
“I feel the shock that I went into was a type of catatonic shock. I wasn’t capable of converse to folks for a very long time, not very nicely.
Reid has additionally claimed that Blum detailed to her methods to kill an individual with selfmade poison with out leaving a hint.
“I did not know whether or not I had a capability to interpret actuality or not for myself. On prime of that, the thought in my thoughts that I believed that maybe my very own father simply tried to kill me… and I nonetheless do not know whether or not that is what he was attempting to do or not.
“However that is simply what I believed he was attempting to do after spending a younger life feeling fully deserted by anybody who was meant to point out me love.
“It is taken a very long time for me and numerous work to have the ability to heal from all types of issues.”
Blum was granted Australian Citizenship in 1976 after failing to declare his quite a few convictions and jail time for fraud in Europe.
Officers and police on the time wrote to the Immigration Division and the Minister recommending his citizenship be revoked however nothing was carried out.
There isn’t a statute of limitations on revoking citizenship obtained by fraudulent means. A spokesperson for the Division of Dwelling Affairs instructed 7NEWS: “The Division takes all studies of fraud and criminality very significantly. All studies we obtain are thought of in gentle of legislative provisions in place on the time and acted upon, the place acceptable.”
For extra, hearken to The Lady Vanishes podcast, obtainable on all platforms.
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