Sally Leydon has never given up trying to find her mother even though at times it felt as if she was the only one still looking for her. A part of Sally’s search for her mother is the subject of the successful 7NEWS podcast, The Lady Vanishes. Since it started in 2019 the podcast had 10 million downloads and hundreds of thousands of messages, comments and theories talked about in Facebook forums. Sally now produces and hosts her own podcast, The Missing Matter.

Based in Brisbane, Sally is a mother of three and works alongside her husband Chris. Her story has raised interest from all around the world however it is her team of Super Sleuths that have worked alongside Sally to make discoveries never before tabled about her mother. Sally is now launching The Green Seat Project, installing green bench seats bearing the statement “THE MISSING MATTER” in prominent locations across Australia, each fitted with a QR code linking to the stories of long-term missing persons.

Marion Barter (nee Wilson; born 3 October 1945) is an Australian missing person, teacher, and mother of two, who disappeared on Sunday 22 June 1997 from Southport, QLD, Australia. She was dropped off by her friend at a bus station at Southport, QLD to go to Brisbane International airport for a planned, long-term vacation in England. Marion has not been seen since.

Since 1997, Police maintained that her disappearance was voluntary, although their attempts to locate her were unsuccessful. But in 2019, after extensive international media coverage and new legal proceedings lodged by the family, her case was taken over by the Unsolved Homicide Squad in Sydney and authorities are now handling it as an active homicide investigation. In 2022, the coronial inquest found that Marion had probably died sometime after 15 October 1997, and referred the case back to the NSW Unsolved Homicide Unit for continued investigation. The reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction has since been increased to $1 million.

Sally’s own story is far from told.