# Did Katie Walker Choose To Disappear?

An episode of [MAFS Funny Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1791455504), 15 Oct 2026, 16 min.

Audio: https://p.podderapp.com/2544644999/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/2fb3740d-3436-44af-8cc0-a91900716aa5/4378b371-f620-4053-b015-b4820004b108/83cd1a98-e761-4081-bac0-b4e40011ff48/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=394a18af-b302-4b40-a738-b29c00404415

As Katie Walker’s story continues to reach more people, a growing number have questioned if she could have intentionally disappeared and is choosing to stay hidden. In this episode, after much research into previous cases like this around the world, I discuss why myself, and Katie’s family, do not believe this theory. I also discuss the Parliamentary Inquiry that is happening in New South Wales tomorrow where Sally Leydon, the daughter of longterm missing person Marion Barter, will share Katie’s story. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Did Katie Walker stage her own disappearance and doesn't want
[0:04] Speaker 1: to be found? This is arguably the question I've been
[0:08] Speaker 1: asked most since I started this series and almost every
[0:13] Speaker 1: day this theory is sent to me with some new
[0:15] Speaker 1: thought process behind it and I'll be honest when I
[0:19] Speaker 1: first discovered Katie's story I asked myself this too and
[0:24] Speaker 1: Katie's family have said that this of course crossed their
[0:27] Speaker 1: minds also. But in this episode, I'm going to explain
[0:31] Speaker 1: why I will, I suppose we, as much as the
[0:35] Speaker 1: messages and theories being sent in from so many people
[0:39] Speaker 1: wanting to help and try and make sense of this story,
[0:42] Speaker 1: I will explain why we just do not believe this. Firstly,
[0:50] Speaker 1: when discussing this idea that Katie could have planned all
[0:54] Speaker 1: of this, I'm not talking about the idea that Katie
[0:58] Speaker 1: chose to disappear by potentially ending her life but I'm
[1:02] Speaker 1: talking from a point of view that she may have
[1:05] Speaker 1: done this intentionally to leave and start again under a
[1:09] Speaker 1: new identity somewhere which is what many people have questioned
[1:14] Speaker 1: and I've spent a lot of time researching cases from
[1:17] Speaker 1: all around the world now of people who have done
[1:19] Speaker 1: this before and the key finding is that in intentional
[1:24] Speaker 1: disappearances they usually involve like someone escaping distress or conflict
[1:30] Speaker 1: or an intolerable situation and then from what we've learned
[1:36] Speaker 1: about Katie over the last few months in a sense
[1:38] Speaker 1: like her returning to Sydney was her escaping many things
[1:44] Speaker 1: which by the sounds of it yes did cause her
[1:47] Speaker 1: much distress over the years and like she came here
[1:51] Speaker 1: to Sydney to put all of that behind her and
[1:53] Speaker 1: start a new life but As Katie and the state
[1:57] Speaker 1: of mind she was in from February when she returned
[2:00] Speaker 1: to Sydney that I've been told by many people now
[2:03] Speaker 1: was not one of wanting to fade away, but the opposite.
[2:07] Speaker 1: She wanted to be more present than ever. And Katie's
[2:11] Speaker 1: sole focus was reconnecting with her children. And as we
[2:15] Speaker 1: know from that lovely friend she made locally in May
[2:18] Speaker 1: that I spoke about several episodes ago, Katie was making
[2:23] Speaker 1: all kinds of plans on how to remain in Sydney
[2:26] Speaker 1: permanently to be close to her children. And she was
[2:29] Speaker 1: fixated on like finding a way to make her visa
[2:33] Speaker 1: more permanent, you know, so she didn't have future issues
[2:36] Speaker 1: that may require her to leave Australia. And like everything
[2:41] Speaker 1: I've learned and we've learned is that her motivation at
[2:44] Speaker 1: the time she vanished was finding a way to remain
[2:48] Speaker 1: in Sydney as long as possible. And also from my research,
[2:52] Speaker 1: when it comes to people purposely disappearing, this requires resources.
[2:58] Speaker 1: And at the very least, if you don't have someone
[3:01] Speaker 1: to assist you to kind of make this happen and
[3:04] Speaker 1: take you somewhere to hide, which it feels doubtful Katie
[3:07] Speaker 1: would have because her circle in Australia was very small,
[3:11] Speaker 1: but you need money and you need a lot of money.
[3:15] Speaker 1: But as we know, when Katie disappeared... The $ 500, 000 divorce
[3:20] Speaker 1: settlement she received about a year and a half earlier
[3:23] Speaker 1: was gone, with New South Wales police still saying they're
[3:26] Speaker 1: unable to access her American bank records to trace where
[3:31] Speaker 1: this money went. And at the time she did disappear,
[3:34] Speaker 1: Katie was essentially broke. Her father has confirmed that he'd
[3:40] Speaker 1: paid for the rental she was staying at in Darling Point,
[3:43] Speaker 1: and her close friend Elizabeth told me that her last
[3:46] Speaker 1: message to Katie the day before she disappeared was confirming
[3:50] Speaker 1: that she just sold some items she'd left in America
[3:53] Speaker 1: and was sending her just a couple of thousand dollars
[3:57] Speaker 1: from that sale. And like this money, according to Elizabeth,
[4:01] Speaker 1: was what Katie was planning to use to help put
[4:04] Speaker 1: down roots in Sydney and not be so dependent on
[4:07] Speaker 1: her father back in the UK. And like that amount
[4:10] Speaker 1: of money that Elizabeth was sending, it was just nowhere
[4:13] Speaker 1: near enough For someone to then use to vanish... Forever...
[4:18] Speaker 1: Like especially not here in Australia which... Is essentially a
[4:21] Speaker 1: huge island with... Limited places... To hide... Like compared to say...
[4:27] Speaker 1: Europe where borders can be crossed easily and quickly with...
[4:32] Speaker 1: Fake ID and by road you can pass multiple countries...
[4:36] Speaker 1: In one day there but... Australia just isn't... Like that...
[4:42] Speaker 1: And of course... We know that Katie is no stranger
[4:45] Speaker 1: to the world of off-grid retreats and new age ways
[4:48] Speaker 1: of existing. And I'm sure there's many places just like
[4:52] Speaker 1: that jungle retreat we know Katie visited in Costa Rica
[4:56] Speaker 1: all those years ago. I'm sure there's many places like
[4:58] Speaker 1: that here in Australia that none of us have any
[5:02] Speaker 1: idea about. But then the question circles back to why?
[5:07] Speaker 1: Why would a woman who has returned to Sydney to
[5:10] Speaker 1: start again and reconnect with her children then choose to
[5:13] Speaker 1: just vanish and that's essentially the main reason that myself
[5:18] Speaker 1: and Katie's family have stopped thinking about this theory because
[5:23] Speaker 1: when it kept coming back to finding a motive about
[5:26] Speaker 1: why Katie may have done this there there just wasn't one.
[5:29] Speaker 1: I do want to point out here though and circling
[5:31] Speaker 1: back to something I said a moment ago with my
[5:33] Speaker 1: research into intentional disappearances showing how they often involve someone
[5:38] Speaker 1: escaping distress conflict or an intolerable situation because you know
[5:43] Speaker 1: what we've learned of Katie's life and how she'd claimed
[5:46] Speaker 1: to multiple friends about the man in Dubai who broke
[5:50] Speaker 1: into her room had now appeared in Sydney it does
[5:53] Speaker 1: feel that like although Katie coming to Sydney was potentially
[5:58] Speaker 1: her as I said escaping something she may have become
[6:02] Speaker 1: involved in or more likely victim of overseas and likely
[6:07] Speaker 1: in Dubai she It does feel that this then potentially
[6:11] Speaker 1: followed her here to Sydney to her fresh start and
[6:15] Speaker 1: this new life she was dreaming of but again to
[6:19] Speaker 1: me at least that suggests not Katie intentionally disappearing to
[6:24] Speaker 1: hide from whoever or whatever but something more sinister with
[6:30] Speaker 1: someone potentially making her disappear. My last point on this theory,
[6:42] Speaker 1: and this is just me speculating as there's not much
[6:44] Speaker 1: research out there to back this up, but if you
[6:48] Speaker 1: wanted to make yourself disappear forever, like you listening to
[6:51] Speaker 1: this right now, wouldn't you, ahead of the day you're
[6:56] Speaker 1: last seen, the day you vanish, make sure that you've
[7:01] Speaker 1: started some kind of narrative that had ensured that when
[7:06] Speaker 1: it's known that you're missing, those who know you and
[7:09] Speaker 1: love you would assume oh they must have ended their
[7:15] Speaker 1: life because of you know whatever you'd done in the
[7:18] Speaker 1: days before or said to them or hinted at or
[7:20] Speaker 1: you know again from the narrative you've started whereas with
[7:25] Speaker 1: katie in those days and weeks and months before like
[7:29] Speaker 1: she was making so many plans and sorting her finances
[7:33] Speaker 1: and speaking of the future with excitement and all these
[7:36] Speaker 1: things again which suggest the opposite of suicide which is
[7:41] Speaker 1: why when it then became known to her friends and
[7:43] Speaker 1: family she was missing none of those friends I've spoken
[7:47] Speaker 1: to ever contemplated the idea that she would have taken
[7:51] Speaker 1: her own life because the Katie they knew especially in
[7:54] Speaker 1: those last weeks and months never led them to believe
[7:58] Speaker 1: that something she would ever do if like any of
[8:01] Speaker 1: this makes sense and even in Sydney anyone in Sydney
[8:04] Speaker 1: knows of the gap and the well known spots where
[8:09] Speaker 1: people do end their life and you know if you
[8:12] Speaker 1: were trying to create this narrative and want people to
[8:15] Speaker 1: believe that's something you'd done you would then make sure
[8:20] Speaker 1: you're last seen like in the area perhaps or do
[8:24] Speaker 1: you know what i mean whereas katie as we know
[8:25] Speaker 1: was last seen in broad daylight at a spot on
[8:29] Speaker 1: the coast where it's virtually impossible to end your life
[8:32] Speaker 1: undetected that being said though and going back to my
[8:35] Speaker 1: research for a moment not everybody who has made themselves
[8:38] Speaker 1: disappear before have initially planned it and in some cases
[8:43] Speaker 1: it has been nothing but a spur of the moment
[8:46] Speaker 1: decision and a high profile case it would be easy
[8:49] Speaker 1: to draw comparisons to here is the story of brenda.
[8:53] Speaker 2: Heist Brenda Heist disappeared from her family's home in February 2002.
[8:59] Speaker 2: Her family searched everywhere for any evidence of where she
[9:02] Speaker 2: might have gone, but nothing could be found. That was
[9:05] Speaker 2: until she decided to come forward to Key Largo Police
[9:08] Speaker 2: last week.
[9:09] Speaker 1: Brenda was a mother of two, just like Katie, and
[9:13] Speaker 1: she was from Pennsylvania, and she disappeared in 2002 after
[9:17] Speaker 1: dropping her kid's At school, there was then an extensive
[9:22] Speaker 1: investigation which involved local, state and federal police forces and
[9:27] Speaker 1: her husband was initially questioned but later cleared and eventually
[9:33] Speaker 1: Brenda was legally declared dead despite like nobody ever being found.
[9:38] Speaker 1: But then, 11 years later in 2013, she walked into
[9:44] Speaker 1: a police station in Florida and revealed... who she was.
[9:49] Speaker 3: I traveled down to Florida to interview Brenda Heiss myself
[9:53] Speaker 3: and to find out what happened that day, how she left,
[9:56] Speaker 3: why she left, and that where she'd been for the
[9:59] Speaker 3: last 11 years.
[10:00] Speaker 1: In an interview with Dr. Phil, Brenda said that she'd
[10:03] Speaker 1: basically convinced herself that her children were better off without her.
[10:07] Speaker 1: And yeah, she just left to stay and spent those
[10:11] Speaker 1: years she was away under a new name, living amongst
[10:14] Speaker 1: a homeless community, 17 hours away. And When she, like,
[10:20] Speaker 1: went to the police, she told them she essentially survived
[10:23] Speaker 1: all those years undetected by working cash payment jobs and, like,
[10:28] Speaker 1: eating food that had been thrown out by restaurants.
[10:31] Speaker 4: Did you ever think when you were living at home
[10:34] Speaker 4: with two children and a husband and a car and
[10:37] Speaker 4: a yard and a house that you would become.
[10:42] Speaker 1: A homeless person?
[10:42] Speaker 4: No, I've never even been around homeless people.
[10:45] Speaker 3: Maybe seen them on the street sometimes, but I've never
[10:47] Speaker 3: been around homeless people at all.
[10:49] Speaker 1: Never knew anything about it.
[10:53] Speaker 3: That's why I had my own problems believing what I
[10:57] Speaker 3: was doing. But I just kept saying to myself, they're
[11:01] Speaker 3: better off without me.
[11:03] Speaker 4: When did you stop crying and start living?
[11:09] Speaker 5: I don't know.
[11:11] Speaker 1: I don't know that I've ever stopped crying and started living,
[11:14] Speaker 1: to be honest with you.
[11:16] Speaker 4: And.
[11:17] Speaker 1: Going into more detail on the why she chose to
[11:20] Speaker 1: do this, Brenda went on to detail that she'd been
[11:23] Speaker 1: in the middle of a divorce at the time. And
[11:27] Speaker 1: on that day she vanished, she dropped the kids at school.
[11:29] Speaker 1: She was sitting in a park and she was distraught
[11:33] Speaker 1: that she would not be able to support herself and
[11:36] Speaker 1: her two children as a single mom. And then kind
[11:40] Speaker 1: of sensing her distress, two strangers who I believe were
[11:43] Speaker 1: homeless were invited her to hitchhike with them to somewhere warmer,
[11:48] Speaker 1: and Brenda essentially made a split-second decision to go with
[11:52] Speaker 1: them that she still doesn't quite understand.
[11:56] Speaker 2: Her family had declared her dead so they could move
[11:58] Speaker 2: on after her disappearance, but now it seems they will
[12:01] Speaker 2: have to reopen old wounds.
[12:03] Speaker 5: There were people in the neighborhood who would not allow
[12:06] Speaker 5: their children to play with my children because of what
[12:11] Speaker 5: they perceived I might be. I'm angry on behalf of
[12:14] Speaker 5: my children, but they're my concern. So anger really isn't
[12:20] Speaker 5: going to accomplish anything.
[12:21] Speaker 1: As I said a moment ago, Brenda, just like Katie
[12:24] Speaker 1: had two children and, you know, they'd been through a
[12:28] Speaker 1: divorce and were at points in their life where they
[12:31] Speaker 1: were struggling financially. But the big difference between these stories
[12:35] Speaker 1: here is Katie was taking steps to build a new
[12:39] Speaker 1: life and putting plans in motion. From everybody I've spoken to,
[12:44] Speaker 1: they tell me how Katie was only looking forwards when
[12:48] Speaker 1: she disappeared in May, like not backwards. I hope this
[12:52] Speaker 1: episode has silenced some of the speculation and theories you
[12:56] Speaker 1: guys have been sending in. And don't get me wrong,
[12:59] Speaker 1: like the messages and all of this is so welcome
[13:02] Speaker 1: as ultimately all of you are just trying to help
[13:06] Speaker 1: and you're helping keep Katie's memory alive. and you're helping
[13:09] Speaker 1: keep Katie's story in the public domain where it needs
[13:12] Speaker 1: to be. And thanks to that, and thanks to you,
[13:16] Speaker 1: tomorrow I will be attending a parliamentary inquiry into unsolved
[13:22] Speaker 1: murders and long-term missing persons cases in New South Wales.
[13:26] Speaker 1: And in that inquiry, it will be discussed how the
[13:28] Speaker 1: police have failed so many families. And also in that inquiry,
[13:33] Speaker 1: Katie's name will be heard and her story will be told.
[13:38] Speaker 1: It won't be told by me though, but it will
[13:40] Speaker 1: be brought up by an incredible woman I've connected with
[13:44] Speaker 1: called Sally Layden, whose mother Marion Barter disappeared in New
[13:49] Speaker 1: South Wales in 1997. And the journey Sally's been on
[13:55] Speaker 1: since then, which some of you may have actually followed
[13:58] Speaker 1: in a podcast that was pretty big here in Australia
[14:01] Speaker 1: called The Lady Vanishes, will just leave you infuriated at
[14:07] Speaker 1: what Sally's been through and just the injustice that her
[14:11] Speaker 1: mother who is still very much missing received and these
[14:16] Speaker 1: many similarities between Katie and Marion whose story I will
[14:20] Speaker 1: go into in the next episode once I've attended the
[14:24] Speaker 1: parliamentary inquiry and can speak on everything and I'll hopefully
[14:28] Speaker 1: have an update from New South Wales Premier Chris Minns
[14:32] Speaker 1: but yeah the main comparison between Katie and Marion is
[14:36] Speaker 1: just how In those crucial days after they disappeared, a
[14:40] Speaker 1: narrative was formed by the police based off, say, their
[14:44] Speaker 1: relationship statuses and assumed state of mind because of circumstantial
[14:50] Speaker 1: evidence at best and assumptions. And then that narrative essentially
[14:54] Speaker 1: shaped both of their failed investigations, which Sally, Marion's daughter,
[15:00] Speaker 1: spoke about earlier this year at a press conference after
[15:04] Speaker 1: the podcast she started. pushed them not just to reopen
[15:08] Speaker 1: their investigation, but offer a $ 1 million reward for any
[15:13] Speaker 1: new information.
[15:17] Speaker 6: There has been a narrative about my mum focused on
[15:19] Speaker 6: how many times she was married and divorced, quitting her job,
[15:22] Speaker 6: selling her home very quickly at a loss, or the
[15:25] Speaker 6: fact that she changed her name to Florabella Ramakel. But
[15:29] Speaker 6: those details, taken out of context, do not tell the
[15:32] Speaker 6: true story. What they may point to is something far
[15:35] Speaker 6: more concerning. A woman who may have been under influence,
[15:39] Speaker 6: under pressure or in a situation she did not fully control.
[15:42] Speaker 6: My mum was a loving mother, a dedicated teacher and
[15:46] Speaker 6: a woman who valued her relationships. She did not simply
[15:49] Speaker 6: walk away from her life and she did not abandon
[15:52] Speaker 6: her family. Someone knows something. For nearly three decades, I've
[15:58] Speaker 6: searched for answers. We've followed leads, spoken to investigators and
[16:03] Speaker 6: held on to hope. Today I stand here as a
[16:06] Speaker 6: 52-year-old mother of three, the same age my mum was
[16:10] Speaker 6: when the coroner declared her deceased, saying there are now
[16:13] Speaker 6: one million reasons for someone to come forward and tell
[16:15] Speaker 6: us what you know.
[16:17] Speaker 1: As always, thank you for listening and I will catch
[16:20] Speaker 1: you soon with the next episode.

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