The Missing Matter: Investigating Decades of Disappearances
Sally Leydon's podcast explores unresolved cases across continents, from her mother Marion Barter to Sandrine Jourdan and beyond
Sally Leydon's podcast The Missing Matter uses personal storytelling and investigative rigor to examine cases of people who vanished without answers. Available on Apple Podcasts, the series has garnered strong listener engagement with a 4.7/5 rating across 38 reviews in the US, establishing itself as a significant voice in true crime journalism focused on ambiguous loss and family resilience.
The podcast's anchor case is the disappearance of Marion Barter, an award-winning Australian schoolteacher who vanished in 1997 while traveling through Europe. Nearly 27 years later, Marion's case remains unresolved despite a coronial inquest concluded on 29 February 2024 that raised more questions than answers. Leydon, Marion's daughter, partners with investigative journalist Joni Condos to retrace her mother's final steps across multiple continents—from Australia through Japan, London, Amsterdam, Brussels, Luxembourg, and Lille. The investigation employs unconventional techniques including scent-tracking dogs and examines cash-trail anomalies and legal briefs that may hold clues to Marion's fate.
The ad-free first episode, "So Close, Yet So Far," was released on 12 May 2025 and marks the beginning of what Leydon describes as "The Next Chapter in the Search for Marion Barter." The episode delves into the aftermath of the 2024 inquest and the family's determination to uncover what official investigations could not.
Season 3, launching Monday, 9 February 2026, expands the podcast's scope to additional unresolved cases, including the 2012 disappearance of Sandrine Jourdan. The 37-year-old mother of three vanished on Friday, 13 July 2012, from a property in Caboolture, north of Brisbane. Now 4,946 days missing, Sandrine's case remains among Australia's most haunting unsolved disappearances. Her youngest daughter, Nikita, shares memories and questions the official narrative surrounding her mother's vanishing, offering listeners intimate family perspectives often absent from conventional true crime coverage.
