Schoolteacher Marion Barter appeared happy and content with life before "something happened" in the months before she vanished, a NSW coroner has been told.
The mother-of-two was last seen on June 22, 1997 - the day she flew out of Brisbane for an indefinite trip to England.
But her relatives and police now know she'd already changed her name by deed poll to Florabella Natalia Marion Remakel and would soon slip back into Australia without ever making contact.
Sally Leydon, who has led the charge to find her mother, said her mother's decision to quit her job at The Southport School in the middle of 1997 was "out of character".
Ms Barter had worked at the prestigious school since early 1994 and had appeared to have made friends with colleagues and parents.
"She seemed very happy and content," Ms Leydon told the NSW Coroners Court on Monday.
But in late 1996 or early 1997, Ms Barter began to speak to her daughter about a staff member causing her a lot of grief.
"I felt they got on very well and then something happened," Ms Leydon said.
But she was unsure what that was or even if it was really the catalyst for her mother upending her life.
She accepted "in hindsight" that her mother had not been open about what was going on in her life.
Ms Leydon described her mother as somewhat naive, easily influenced when in love and "the kind of person who didn't like being on her own".
But the loved teacher, who had an "outrageously funny laugh" and wore her heart on her sleeve, hadn't mentioned any new flames before her disappearance, her daughter said.
Ms Barter sold her Southport home, put her possessions in storage and told family she would return in a year or find work in England.
Among her final acts, she helped Ms Leydon and her newly engaged partner Chris book their 1998 wedding in the chapel at The Southport School, never mentioning she wouldn't attend.
A passport in her new name was used on re-entry to Australia on August 2.
Ms Leydon later learned her mother's bank account was used in Byron Bay, travelling there in October 1997 to hand out flyers and alert police to her missing mother.
But the police report was marked "occurrence only" and shelved for 10 years, with the original officer now assuming Ms Leydon hadn't expressed a sense of urgency or an explicit request to file a missing person report.
State Coroner Teresa O'Sullivan is examining whether Ms Barter's disappearance was intentional, why it occurred and whether she is alive or dead.
A two-year police investigation determined in 2011 she was not a missing person but the case has been in the care of the homicide unit since 2019.
NSW Police on Friday announced a $250,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of any person or persons responsible for Marion's disappearance.
The inquest continues.
© AAP 2021