# Series - What Happened to Revelle Balmian

An episode of [What Happened To…](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1812362613), 27 Oct 2026, 33 min.

Audio: https://p.podderapp.com/2544644999/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/2fb3740d-3436-44af-8cc0-a91900716aa5/8c185e62-46f1-4292-81b7-b2d00059655d/b9afe967-9a47-4210-9b4a-b4ef006a25e3/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=fcf80ea6-cd25-4daa-b194-b2d000596ad2

Each Wednesday, we’ll bring you a new episode of Revelle: The Last Appointment in this feed, exploring the disappearance of Revelle Balmain, who went missing in 1994. Episode 1: Her Name Was Misha She was a young model and dancer with dreams of making it big overseas. But 22-year-old Revelle Balmain had another life, one her family and closest friends knew little about. Working as an escort under the name Misha, Revelle was preparing to leave it all behind for a fresh start in Japan. Then, in November 1994, she vanished. More than 30 years later, questions remain about her secret life, the people around her and what really happened in the days before she disappeared. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:05] Speaker 1: A Poche Production.
[0:10] Speaker 2: It's Friday, November 4, 1994, in the early evening in Sydney, Australia.
[0:15] Speaker 3: Good evening.
[0:16] Speaker 4: The woman who triggered Alan Griffith's resignation has denied she.
[0:19] Speaker 5: Tried to blackmail.
[0:20] Speaker 2: It's been a mild autumn day, with temperatures getting to
[0:23] Speaker 2: the early 20s. It's going to get down to 14,
[0:26] Speaker 2: but it was that sort of pleasant, sunny day in Sydney.
[0:31] Speaker 2: Misha is at home, waiting for a job for the night.
[0:35] Speaker 2: She's attractive, like drop-dead gorgeous attractive. You can see from
[0:39] Speaker 2: the podcast cover, she looks like a young Kate Moss.
[0:42] Speaker 6: Yeah, seeing how beautiful she was, that was the first
[0:45] Speaker 6: thing that I remember. She's very striking, very good looking,
[0:48] Speaker 6: very high cheekbones.
[0:50] Speaker 2: Misha has done plenty of modelling and dancing, but tonight,
[0:54] Speaker 2: that's not how she's making money. In fact, Misha is
[0:58] Speaker 2: not a real name. Her name is Ravel Balmain, and tonight,
[1:03] Speaker 2: She's about to get a page that will not just
[1:05] Speaker 2: change her life. It will end it. This is the
[1:10] Speaker 2: last appointment. What happened to Ravel Balmain? Before we start,
[1:25] Speaker 2: this matter has been passed on from the New South
[1:27] Speaker 2: Wales coroner to a police task force called Strike Force Aramac.
[1:32] Speaker 2: RMAC is the New South Wales Police Strike Force created
[1:35] Speaker 2: to reinvestigate Ravel Balmain's disappearance and presumed murder. It was
[1:41] Speaker 2: an initial coroner's inquest into her death in 1999. In 2020,
[1:46] Speaker 2: Ravel's cold case was formally reviewed under their unsolved homicide framework.
[1:51] Speaker 2: After that review, the case was assigned to a senior
[1:54] Speaker 2: detective and the new investigation was given the name Strike
[1:58] Speaker 2: Force RMAC. There's been a lot said about the original
[2:05] Speaker 2: investigation into Ravel's disappearance. It's something the coroner and others
[2:10] Speaker 2: have questioned about its adequacy back in 1994. The inquest
[2:15] Speaker 2: finding that was delivered in 2026 made strong credibility findings
[2:21] Speaker 2: and identified unresolved lines of inquiry.
[2:24] Speaker 3: It is now an.
[2:26] Speaker 2: Active, unsolved homicide investigation. We've made contact with the task
[2:30] Speaker 2: force and have asked if they'd like to help us
[2:33] Speaker 2: in this podcast, as yet they've declined. There's also a
[2:36] Speaker 2: chance that while we're releasing this podcast, people or persons
[2:40] Speaker 2: of interest may have charges brought against them. They may
[2:43] Speaker 2: be people that we don't mention in the show as
[2:45] Speaker 2: police do their reinvestigation.
[2:48] Speaker 3: So why do I think bringing you this story is important?
[2:51] Speaker 2: Well, firstly, it's something that I feel pertinent. hasn't been
[2:53] Speaker 2: widely reported on in recent years. I heard about it
[2:56] Speaker 2: as the inquest was completed as part of the news cycle,
[3:00] Speaker 2: but I have to say the majority of Australians and
[3:02] Speaker 2: throughout the world have not heard of the case of
[3:05] Speaker 2: Revelle Balmain. Revelle Balmain was days away from flying overseas
[3:10] Speaker 2: to pursue her dream of dancing, but she never.
[3:12] Speaker 3: On a Saturday night.
[3:13] Speaker 1: In November 1994, 22-year-old Revelle Balmain disappeared.
[3:17] Speaker 6: She also worked as an escort, but had kept this
[3:19] Speaker 6: hidden from her family and friends.
[3:21] Speaker 4: She was lost.
[3:32] Speaker 2: So let's start first with who Ravel was. Ravel Sabine
[3:37] Speaker 2: Balmain was born on the 11th of July 1972. She
[3:41] Speaker 2: would now be around 54 years old. When she went missing,
[3:46] Speaker 2: she was just 22. Her mum and dad, Jan and Ivor,
[3:51] Speaker 2: have now passed. They died without knowing of what happened
[3:54] Speaker 2: to their daughter, which is so often the case with
[3:56] Speaker 2: long-term missing persons.
[3:59] Speaker 1: It was very difficult. I saw him breakdown on a
[4:03] Speaker 1: few occasions mum on the other hand is she's pretty
[4:07] Speaker 1: strong but even so our conversations at night were continuous
[4:14] Speaker 1: for about two years i think we took we spoke
[4:17] Speaker 1: every night for two years that's.
[4:19] Speaker 2: Sue ellen she's revel's stepsister i shared a mum but
[4:23] Speaker 2: different dads and she has agreed to speak to us
[4:26] Speaker 2: across this podcast in fact it's her only interview she's
[4:29] Speaker 2: done in recent years.
[4:32] Speaker 1: Neither of us had any counselling back then. Even though
[4:36] Speaker 1: the detective at the time said to me, the first
[4:38] Speaker 1: thing he said to me, you need counselling. And about
[4:43] Speaker 1: then I wanted to flatten him. But no, I've never
[4:46] Speaker 1: had counselling because of it. Mum only had counselling in
[4:50] Speaker 1: the later years of her life. The conversations that we
[4:52] Speaker 1: had on a nightly basis, that was how we coped.
[4:57] Speaker 1: and talking about anything to do with her investigation, the
[5:02] Speaker 1: police involved, what they were doing, what they didn't do,
[5:05] Speaker 1: and all the scenarios that we could think of of
[5:08] Speaker 1: what may have happened. We had no choice. We just
[5:11] Speaker 1: had to keep talking about it to get through it.
[5:15] Speaker 2: Jan and Iva, Ravel's parents, had a son called Matthew
[5:18] Speaker 2: who died tragically in an accident at 17 months old.
[5:22] Speaker 1: And that's where Matthew drowned in our backyard swimming.
[5:26] Speaker 3: Pool And Ravel was how old when he passed?
[5:30] Speaker 1: Ravel found him and she was about four, I think.
[5:36] Speaker 3: Oh, that's terrible for her.
[5:38] Speaker 1: Yeah, she was, mum was, I was at work in
[5:43] Speaker 1: North Sydney at the time and mum was, I believe,
[5:47] Speaker 1: hanging out washing down the backyard. Ivo was at the
[5:51] Speaker 1: front of the house washing his car and And there was,
[5:56] Speaker 1: mum had a studio at the house in Eleanor Heights
[5:58] Speaker 1: and I don't know how, but there was glass doors
[6:02] Speaker 1: that led out onto the swimming pool. Even though the
[6:05] Speaker 1: swimming pool was fenced three quarters of the way around,
[6:08] Speaker 1: he crawled into the pool from the sliding doors.
[6:12] Speaker 3: Tragic for your mum.
[6:14] Speaker 2: You know, they lost a child at such a young
[6:16] Speaker 2: age and then they both passed without knowing what happened
[6:21] Speaker 2: to Ravel.
[6:21] Speaker 3: How do you feel about that?
[6:25] Speaker 1: I think it's a bit much, to be honest. I
[6:27] Speaker 1: think losing a child is the worst thing in the world,
[6:29] Speaker 1: but losing two is more than anyone can cope with.
[6:33] Speaker 1: I know that Ivor fell apart because.
[6:37] Speaker 3: I was there.
[6:37] Speaker 1: As soon as Revelle went missing, I was there with them.
[6:40] Speaker 1: I came up from Melbourne to be with them, and
[6:43] Speaker 1: it was very difficult. I saw him break down on
[6:47] Speaker 1: a few occasions.
[6:49] Speaker 2: Revelle was destined to be famous, but probably not in
[6:52] Speaker 2: this way. Her mum was a qualified dance teacher. Ravel
[6:56] Speaker 2: began classical dance at about three years old. Her dad
[7:00] Speaker 2: Ivor was a World War II veteran, a chef, a
[7:03] Speaker 2: waiter and a maitre d'. Ravel loved acting and modelling.
[7:08] Speaker 2: Her mum told the first inquest into her death in
[7:11] Speaker 2: 1999 that Ravel went to a theatre school in England
[7:14] Speaker 2: as an exchange student for a year when she was
[7:17] Speaker 2: just a teenager.
[7:19] Speaker 1: It was great because we could communicate better than when
[7:23] Speaker 1: she was a three or four or five-year-old child, you know.
[7:27] Speaker 1: And she used to come and spend weekends at my place.
[7:31] Speaker 1: We used to have holidays in the snow together. There
[7:35] Speaker 1: was just times that were different away from home that
[7:37] Speaker 1: we could actually talk to each other without anyone being around.
[7:40] Speaker 1: It was nice.
[7:42] Speaker 3: What was she passionate about back when you were hanging
[7:44] Speaker 3: out as a teen?
[7:45] Speaker 1: She wanted to grow up too fast. She was eager,
[7:48] Speaker 1: eager to be a teenager, eager to enjoy life, and
[7:52] Speaker 1: she was still very, very young and quite naive, I
[7:56] Speaker 1: suppose you could say. But her passion was dance, and
[8:01] Speaker 1: it had been since she was very, very young.
[8:04] Speaker 2: Ravel used her mother's maiden name, Cheshire, for her dancing career.
[8:08] Speaker 2: Just before her death, she was excited to travel to
[8:11] Speaker 2: Japan on a dance contract. She told friends she was
[8:15] Speaker 2: over being an escort. and she wanted a fresh start.
[8:19] Speaker 2: It wasn't the first time she'd been to Japan. She'd
[8:22] Speaker 2: done multiple dance contracts prior to her disappearance. She attended
[8:26] Speaker 2: a state high school on the northern beaches in Sydney,
[8:29] Speaker 2: and from all accounts was a popular kid. Back in
[8:32] Speaker 2: the late 80s, the northern beaches was laid back and chilled,
[8:35] Speaker 2: probably a little too chilled for Ravel.
[8:40] Speaker 6: I think around about the time that Ravel had left
[8:42] Speaker 6: home and then moved into the city was around the
[8:45] Speaker 6: time that her parents had moved north up to Nelson's Bay,
[8:49] Speaker 6: I think. In her later teenage years, also went to England.
[8:53] Speaker 6: Her mother sent her over to do a couple of
[8:56] Speaker 6: years over there in a dance school that was a
[8:58] Speaker 6: pretty exclusive dance school. And it was education involved as well.
[9:03] Speaker 6: So I think she was probably, you know, 16, 17.
[9:06] Speaker 6: She had a bit of an English accent. It was
[9:08] Speaker 6: kind of, there was nothing awkward about her. She spoke well.
[9:12] Speaker 6: She was eloquent. The way she walked and everything like
[9:14] Speaker 6: that because she was a dancer. The way she held herself.
[9:17] Speaker 6: The way she spoke, it was like she's, it wasn't
[9:21] Speaker 6: a pretentious way that she spoke, but she just spoke
[9:23] Speaker 6: very well.
[9:24] Speaker 3: That's Clinton.
[9:25] Speaker 2: Clinton went out for Ravel just a few months before
[9:28] Speaker 2: she went missing. He wasn't her boyfriend at the time
[9:31] Speaker 2: of her disappearance. As she finished school, her dancing and
[9:34] Speaker 2: modelling career became her focus. She shot a cover for
[9:37] Speaker 2: Oyster magazine. Now, Oyster at the time was an international fashion, beauty,
[9:42] Speaker 2: music and pop culture title published in Australia from 1994,
[9:47] Speaker 2: when Ravel went missing, to 2019. It featured exclusive international
[9:52] Speaker 2: fashion editorials, interviews and extensive music and art editorials and
[9:57] Speaker 2: the young and up-and-coming talent from around the world.
[10:00] Speaker 3: It was renowned for.
[10:02] Speaker 2: Its avant-garde approach to style. Ravel appeared on the second
[10:06] Speaker 2: issue of the magazine, on the front cover, in 1994.
[10:10] Speaker 2: A short time later, she vanished.
[10:15] Speaker 6: Yes, I remember that period quite well. From what I remember,
[10:17] Speaker 6: Ravel had actually done the shoot a few weeks before
[10:20] Speaker 6: we met, so that was something that she talked about,
[10:23] Speaker 6: certain jobs that she'd done recently. But when the issue
[10:25] Speaker 6: came out, I remember Ravel and I were together and
[10:28] Speaker 6: she was very excited about it. To get a job
[10:30] Speaker 6: like that is quite substantial. You can move forward in
[10:34] Speaker 6: your career as far as getting a thing called a tear,
[10:37] Speaker 6: which you actually tear it out of the magazine and
[10:39] Speaker 6: you put it into your portfolio or book. So for
[10:43] Speaker 6: her to get her first tear of a pretty cool,
[10:48] Speaker 6: fashion-orientated magazine was something that she was very proud of.
[10:52] Speaker 6: I do remember it coming out when it was on
[10:54] Speaker 6: the newsstands and stuff like that, so it did mean
[10:57] Speaker 6: a lot to her. And to get her first magazine
[11:01] Speaker 6: cover is quite a big thing.
[11:03] Speaker 3: It's a really striking image.
[11:05] Speaker 2: The cover of that magazine shows Ravel as a blonde bombshell.
[11:09] Speaker 3: Staring off to the side.
[11:11] Speaker 2: Her hair dramatically teased out around her face against the
[11:14] Speaker 2: black background. It's bold and edgy and very much mid-90s.
[11:18] Speaker 2: That heroine's chic look. The kind of fashion image designed
[11:22] Speaker 2: to stop you in your tracks.
[11:27] Speaker 6: There was obviously a lot of... Young, beautiful women trying
[11:30] Speaker 6: to make it in modelling and entertainment in Sydney at
[11:32] Speaker 6: that time. It was the golden age of advertising. I
[11:36] Speaker 6: don't think it was just because Ravel was attractive, but
[11:40] Speaker 6: she had presence. When she walked into a room, I
[11:43] Speaker 6: know the cliche that people say is that she lit
[11:46] Speaker 6: up a room when she walked in. People like to...
[11:50] Speaker 6: say that about certain women but she did um she
[11:53] Speaker 6: had a combination of confidence um energy and a personality
[11:57] Speaker 6: that made her stand out um she didn't really have
[12:00] Speaker 6: to make herself noticed she just was noticed um she
[12:04] Speaker 6: didn't have to you know think to herself how can
[12:07] Speaker 6: i make myself stand out here she'd just walk into
[12:09] Speaker 6: a room and people would notice her um you know
[12:13] Speaker 6: she was um she had that ambition as well so
[12:16] Speaker 6: um To get, you know, a start in modelling or dance.
[12:22] Speaker 2: To take you back to Sydney in 1993 and 1994,
[12:26] Speaker 2: let's talk to Ravel's boyfriend during the summer of late
[12:30] Speaker 2: 93 into 94. His name's Clinton Barter.
[12:34] Speaker 6: I first met Ravel back in November of 1993. I
[12:39] Speaker 6: was out with a couple of mates of mine. All
[12:43] Speaker 6: had discovered this kind of left field nightclub called the
[12:48] Speaker 6: Hellfire Club and it was at Haymarket in Sydney. I
[12:51] Speaker 6: remember it was a Thursday night because they used to
[12:53] Speaker 6: have this Hellfire Club there and if people don't remember
[12:55] Speaker 6: it was like an S & M club which is
[12:59] Speaker 6: pretty much, I'm not into that type of thing, I
[13:01] Speaker 6: thought it would be pretty funny to go there along
[13:03] Speaker 6: and open my eyes a little bit and see what
[13:06] Speaker 6: goes on there. It was like people on racks getting
[13:10] Speaker 6: whipped and people in leather gear and S & M
[13:14] Speaker 6: gear and stuff like that. That night, Ravel was out
[13:17] Speaker 6: with her friend Kate and one of her other friends,
[13:19] Speaker 6: I don't remember. recall the other person the other girlfriend's
[13:23] Speaker 6: name but um that's actually the thing that got us
[13:25] Speaker 6: talking so there was three of us and three of
[13:28] Speaker 6: them and we'll stand near the bar and it was
[13:30] Speaker 6: kind of we gravitated towards each other because we're the
[13:33] Speaker 6: only you know six of us and uh we're dressed
[13:36] Speaker 6: not in normal clothes you know pair of jeans and
[13:40] Speaker 6: you know a top that um you know didn't really
[13:44] Speaker 6: um align with the you know the all the leather
[13:48] Speaker 6: and everything that everyone was wearing.
[13:49] Speaker 2: So it The Hellfire Club was one of those places
[13:52] Speaker 2: in Sydney in the 90s that had a bit of
[13:54] Speaker 2: a reputation. It opened in 93 and was part nightclub,
[13:58] Speaker 2: part fetish club and part underground performance space. It attracted
[14:03] Speaker 2: all sorts of people, models, musicians, artists, professionals and people
[14:08] Speaker 2: who were just part of that alternative Sydney scene. Some people,
[14:12] Speaker 2: like Clinton and Ravel, just wanted to check it out.
[14:15] Speaker 2: Others that went were more involved in leather, latex, bondage
[14:19] Speaker 2: and performance, and a pretty open attitude to sex and sexuality.
[14:24] Speaker 2: So it definitely wasn't your average Saturday night hour. By 1994,
[14:31] Speaker 2: it was still quite new, but it had already become
[14:34] Speaker 2: one of those places that people talked about. A bit edgy,
[14:36] Speaker 2: a bit secretive. very much part of Sydney's after-duck culture
[14:41] Speaker 2: at the time.
[14:43] Speaker 6: We kind of gravitated towards each other. I really do
[14:45] Speaker 6: remember that night very vividly.
[14:47] Speaker 5: It was.
[14:48] Speaker 6: They were standing near the bar and the three of
[14:50] Speaker 6: us started talking to those three and my mate Paul, he's,
[14:55] Speaker 6: you know, very good. He's got the gift of the gab,
[14:58] Speaker 6: so we sort of started talking to them and Ravel
[15:01] Speaker 6: and I sort of gravitated towards each other and I remember...
[15:06] Speaker 6: You know, seeing how beautiful she was, that was the
[15:08] Speaker 6: first thing that I remember. She was very striking, very
[15:12] Speaker 6: good looking, very high cheekbones.
[15:15] Speaker 2: After this first night in the Hellfire Club, Clinton and
[15:17] Speaker 2: Ravel hit it off. Ravel with her stunning good looks
[15:20] Speaker 2: and Clinton was also a good looking bloke. In fact,
[15:24] Speaker 2: he too had done some modelling.
[15:26] Speaker 6: Yeah, that's right.
[15:27] Speaker 1: Yeah, I was.
[15:28] Speaker 6: I was mainly modelling with Chadwick's at the time. So
[15:32] Speaker 6: that was something that we could, you know, instantly talk about. So,
[15:36] Speaker 6: you know, but straight away we had something in common
[15:39] Speaker 6: there and sort of, yeah, it was talking about, you know,
[15:42] Speaker 6: what sort of jobs we'd done recently and stuff like that.
[15:45] Speaker 6: I'd been doing it for about a year and a
[15:46] Speaker 6: half at that time. I think Ravel was basically just
[15:49] Speaker 6: sort of starting out within that first six months of
[15:52] Speaker 6: her modelling career. You know, things moved pretty quickly from there.
[15:55] Speaker 6: We started seeing each other and, And we dated for
[15:57] Speaker 6: about three or four months. So it was over the
[16:00] Speaker 6: summer of 93, 94. It had moved quite fast at first.
[16:05] Speaker 6: I think we were, you know, seeing each other maybe
[16:08] Speaker 6: three or four times a week. I was living down
[16:10] Speaker 6: in the Sutherland Shire at the time she was living in.
[16:14] Speaker 6: in Paddington itself, living actually above one of the shops.
[16:19] Speaker 6: So how you'd enter the place was from one of
[16:21] Speaker 6: the back lane behind Oxford Street. And I remember her
[16:24] Speaker 6: living up there upstairs with two flatmates. And one of them,
[16:29] Speaker 6: they weren't immediate friends. So I'm not too sure where
[16:32] Speaker 6: Kate lived at the time, but Kate was her best friend.
[16:35] Speaker 2: After Clinton and Ravel's summer fling fizzled out, Ravel met
[16:39] Speaker 2: a new boyfriend. We'll talk about him later. But it's
[16:42] Speaker 2: been widely reported that Ravel had a contract to dance
[16:45] Speaker 2: in Japan, and she was really excited about it. But
[16:49] Speaker 2: before she started that job, she took another job, this
[16:52] Speaker 2: time as an escort. It was January 1994. Ravel started
[16:58] Speaker 2: her first casual job with VIP escorts in trendy Paddington
[17:03] Speaker 2: in Sydney. She didn't use her own name in this
[17:06] Speaker 2: new casual job. She went by the name Rachel. Clinton
[17:10] Speaker 2: was seeing Ravel at the time she started as an escort,
[17:13] Speaker 2: but he told me he wasn't aware.
[17:15] Speaker 6: No, I generally, I didn't have any idea at.
[17:23] Speaker 1: All.
[17:23] Speaker 6: There was one incident actually during our relationship that I
[17:28] Speaker 6: thought about many times after Ravel disappeared. She rang me
[17:33] Speaker 6: one day and said, you know, we need to meet
[17:36] Speaker 6: and she's got something important going. that she needs to
[17:39] Speaker 6: tell me. Um, it's kind of sounded, you know, very serious. And, um,
[17:45] Speaker 6: you know, as a 22 year old, you immediately, your
[17:47] Speaker 6: mind starts to race. And I'm thinking, I remember driving
[17:51] Speaker 6: in to see her, um, driving into the city. I
[17:55] Speaker 6: was thinking, what's, what's so important that she has to
[17:57] Speaker 6: tell me? And I'm thinking, well, maybe she's pregnant. And, um,
[18:00] Speaker 6: you know, those sorts of thoughts come into your head. Um,
[18:04] Speaker 6: But we arranged to go to Eliza's in Double Bay.
[18:07] Speaker 6: So I remember, you know, the conversation like it was
[18:09] Speaker 6: yesterday basically, but, you know, Ravel arrived fashionably late, as
[18:14] Speaker 6: she kind of always did. So we got in the
[18:17] Speaker 6: conversation and said, what is it that you wanted to
[18:19] Speaker 6: tell me? So she basically felt like she was going
[18:23] Speaker 6: to say something and let me start to talk about it,
[18:26] Speaker 6: but something stopped her. She basically waved it away and
[18:29] Speaker 6: the conversation continued It didn't progress. I didn't really want
[18:33] Speaker 6: to push it anymore. I said, you know, are you okay, Ravel?
[18:36] Speaker 6: What's wrong? Are you in trouble? And, no, she didn't
[18:40] Speaker 6: tell me anything that she, you know, was so important,
[18:43] Speaker 6: you know, 24 hours before to get us to meet
[18:45] Speaker 6: up and, you know, to tell me.
[18:48] Speaker 1: So.
[18:48] Speaker 3: And.
[18:51] Speaker 6: When I actually found out about a disappearance on the
[18:53] Speaker 6: front page of the newspaper and then finding out at
[18:56] Speaker 6: that point, that's when I found out. So... And a
[18:58] Speaker 6: lot of people did find out that, you know, she'd
[19:01] Speaker 6: had this private part of her life that she didn't
[19:03] Speaker 6: tell anyone about. And then seeing that and reading about her,
[19:09] Speaker 6: you know, working as a high-class escort, I immediately went back,
[19:15] Speaker 6: my mind went back to that dinner at Double Bay.
[19:18] Speaker 6: And it kind of, that conversation made sense to me
[19:21] Speaker 6: a little bit.
[19:25] Speaker 2: That first job at VIP Escorts was owned by a
[19:28] Speaker 2: bloke called Tony Henderson. Tony participated in police interviews in
[19:32] Speaker 2: 1994 after Ravel went missing. He provided business records and
[19:37] Speaker 2: confirmed with the police at the time in a recorded
[19:40] Speaker 2: interview that Ravel had told him she was going overseas
[19:44] Speaker 2: and she'd be away for several months. Ravel only worked
[19:47] Speaker 2: at VIP Escorts until September 1994. It was the overseas
[19:52] Speaker 2: trip that she told Tony was why she was finishing up.
[19:56] Speaker 3: So was Tony ever a suspect? Well, that's not known.
[19:59] Speaker 2: However, police back in 1994 were able to look at
[20:02] Speaker 2: his telephone records and it confirmed he'd spent the day
[20:05] Speaker 2: Ravel went missing from 3.30pm to about 11pm that night,
[20:10] Speaker 2: investing on horse racing in Hong Kong.
[20:13] Speaker 3: Via his home computer.
[20:18] Speaker 4: Tony died before the new inquest and before anyone from
[20:25] Speaker 4: Strikeforce Aramac could interview him again.
[20:29] Speaker 2: But Ravel didn't go straight overseas after working at VIP.
[20:33] Speaker 2: She began working on a casual basis with another escort agency,
[20:38] Speaker 2: Select Companions.
[20:40] Speaker 3: This would be her last employer. The company, Select.
[20:43] Speaker 2: Companions, was located in Ritzy, Potts Point. The owners of
[20:47] Speaker 2: Select Companions were the husband and wife team of Jan
[20:50] Speaker 2: and Zoran. They also lived in Potts Point. They're no
[20:53] Speaker 2: longer together, and the most recent coronial report has named
[20:56] Speaker 2: them as persons of interest in Ravel's disappearance and probable death.
[21:01] Speaker 2: We'll get to that later. But let's understand the business
[21:04] Speaker 2: model behind Select Companions. Jane seemed to be the boss
[21:08] Speaker 2: of the business. I guess you could call her the madam.
[21:11] Speaker 2: Zoran was the driver. who would transport escorts to and
[21:14] Speaker 2: from jobs and would collect the fees after an engagement
[21:17] Speaker 2: with the client was done. Some ladies wouldn't want him
[21:20] Speaker 2: to drive them, so they would take a taxi to
[21:22] Speaker 2: certain jobs. It's unsure at this stage why they didn't
[21:25] Speaker 2: want him driving them. Ravel was one of those women.
[21:30] Speaker 2: Select Companions clients would book escorts by the hour and
[21:33] Speaker 2: pay cash, check or credit card. There was no tap
[21:37] Speaker 2: and go in 1994. The standard rate was $ 150 per hour. Plus,
[21:43] Speaker 2: if you use the check, you'd be charged an extra 10%.
[21:46] Speaker 2: The escort, and in Ravel's case, made $ 90 for the
[21:50] Speaker 2: first hour, and then $ 80 for.
[21:52] Speaker 3: Any hour afterwards.
[21:53] Speaker 2: So select companions would take almost 45% of the money
[21:57] Speaker 2: earned by the girls. Now, $ 150 doesn't seem like a
[22:01] Speaker 2: lot of cash, but back in 1994, it was a
[22:03] Speaker 2: fair bit. Using today's CPI, $ 150 is more like $ 350 now.
[22:06] Speaker 2: It's still not a lot of money. In 1994, mobile
[22:13] Speaker 2: phones had just hit Australia, but they were very expensive.
[22:17] Speaker 2: You might remember the first phone, the large Motorola Brick.
[22:20] Speaker 6: For mobile use, your phone uses your car's battery for power.
[22:24] Speaker 6: So connect the power cord, then press power to turn
[22:27] Speaker 6: your phone on or off.
[22:29] Speaker 2: The only way to get hold of people was to
[22:31] Speaker 2: either use a landline or call their paging service. And
[22:36] Speaker 2: that's how Ravel got jobs. In fact, that's how most
[22:40] Speaker 2: people got hold of her. either inside or outside of
[22:43] Speaker 2: being an escort. Carly Electric has been a high-class escort
[22:47] Speaker 2: for a while. She gave me an insight into the
[22:50] Speaker 2: world most of us don't know about.
[22:52] Speaker 5: I'm Carly Electric. I have been a full-service sex worker
[22:57] Speaker 5: for 10 years.
[22:59] Speaker 3: What got you into it?
[23:00] Speaker 5: I just wanted to, honestly, time. I never had time
[23:04] Speaker 5: for anything. I never had time to, you know, go
[23:07] Speaker 5: on holidays. I was working two jobs. I was just,
[23:12] Speaker 5: you know, I was working 60 to 80 hours a
[23:14] Speaker 5: week and I was just absolutely miserable. And I thought, God,
[23:18] Speaker 5: if I can give this a go and actually enjoy it, well, God,
[23:23] Speaker 5: I won't have to work so much. And, you know,
[23:25] Speaker 5: now I kind of work five hours a week.
[23:28] Speaker 2: So you got into this in essentially 2016. How's it
[23:33] Speaker 2: changed over those 10 years?
[23:35] Speaker 5: Back when I started, you know, most people were face in,
[23:40] Speaker 5: you know, hiding their identities. And it was kind of taboo, like,
[23:44] Speaker 5: you know, a lot of people didn't tell their friends
[23:46] Speaker 5: and family what they did. And Well, nowadays there's a
[23:49] Speaker 5: lot more women who are faced out and, you know,
[23:54] Speaker 5: everyone knows in their life, like friends, family, everybody supports them. It's,
[23:59] Speaker 5: you know, not as taboo now to be in the
[24:02] Speaker 5: sex industry.
[24:03] Speaker 3: Is it safe now?
[24:05] Speaker 5: There, of course, are risks. There are quite a lot of,
[24:09] Speaker 5: you know, really hectic risks with this profession. But, you know,
[24:13] Speaker 5: if you put things in place to safeguard yourself and,
[24:16] Speaker 5: you know, I do a lot. to make sure that
[24:19] Speaker 5: you know the person that I'm seeing has been you
[24:22] Speaker 5: know verified I've got their full name and I've got
[24:26] Speaker 5: details about them they can be traced you know they're
[24:29] Speaker 5: just not an anonymous person who comes to see me
[24:32] Speaker 5: so yeah it does keep me safe maybe back you
[24:36] Speaker 5: know when Technology wasn't what it is. I think that
[24:40] Speaker 5: women weren't as safe in this industry and you hear
[24:43] Speaker 5: the horror stories, but luckily, you know, I haven't had
[24:46] Speaker 5: to experience anything really bad.
[24:49] Speaker 2: So, I mean, it's hard for you to comment, but
[24:51] Speaker 2: in 1994, you would imagine that the safety that you
[24:54] Speaker 2: have now was very different.
[24:56] Speaker 5: Oh, yeah, I can't even imagine. What I do is I,
[25:01] Speaker 5: before I see somebody, they have to put a deposit
[25:03] Speaker 5: into my bank account. And just receiving a deposit into
[25:06] Speaker 5: my bank account, first of all, just leaves a paper trail.
[25:09] Speaker 5: I have their full name. And if anything was to happen, well,
[25:12] Speaker 5: then they're able to be traced. However, you know, back in, say, 1994,
[25:19] Speaker 5: you wouldn't be getting bank deposits or, you know, able
[25:22] Speaker 5: to see their full name. You literally don't know who
[25:24] Speaker 5: you're seeing.
[25:26] Speaker 2: Ravel Belmain, she was earning $ 150 per hour in 94,
[25:31] Speaker 2: which is equivalent to about $ 350 now.
[25:34] Speaker 3: Is that cheap for an escort?
[25:36] Speaker 5: When I first started out 10 years ago, I was
[25:38] Speaker 5: charging $ 300. It's quite different now. I'm almost four times that.
[25:44] Speaker 5: But yeah, that is kind of a starting kind of
[25:48] Speaker 5: low range.
[25:50] Speaker 2: And it seemed that she was giving away around 40%
[25:54] Speaker 2: of her money to the agency. Is that the case
[25:57] Speaker 2: now or you don't work for an agency?
[26:00] Speaker 5: No, so most women independent, we're called independent escorts. And
[26:04] Speaker 5: what we do is we are fully self-managed. I couldn't
[26:08] Speaker 5: imagine handing over and having to do all of that
[26:11] Speaker 5: work and then handing over money to somebody else. Yeah,
[26:14] Speaker 5: that's not ideal. but it's what it was like back then.
[26:18] Speaker 5: You know, there was so much fear around working on
[26:21] Speaker 5: your own and, you know, working for an agency, they
[26:25] Speaker 5: would in some way protect you. And yeah, it's, but
[26:31] Speaker 5: see nowadays, I couldn't imagine working for an agency. It
[26:34] Speaker 5: was just, they kind of don't exist. I really don't
[26:37] Speaker 5: hear that much about them. Generally women who are starting
[26:40] Speaker 5: out in the industry will go for an agency now. However, yeah,
[26:44] Speaker 5: it's not common.
[26:45] Speaker 2: Ravel was driven around at the time by a driver
[26:47] Speaker 2: who was the husband of the madam.
[26:49] Speaker 3: Is that pretty normal?
[26:50] Speaker 2: I think what you've just said is that's not normal now.
[26:52] Speaker 5: Yeah, back then that's so normal. However, now, no way. No,
[26:58] Speaker 5: I couldn't imagine.
[26:59] Speaker 3: How's the money collected now?
[27:01] Speaker 5: When I first started in this industry, you know, I
[27:03] Speaker 5: could pay my rent with cash. Like, I could pay
[27:06] Speaker 5: for hotel rooms with cash. Like, it was just a
[27:10] Speaker 5: full cash, you know, business. However, now it's getting to
[27:14] Speaker 5: a point where you know, men just transfer, like they
[27:18] Speaker 5: just transfer straight to my bank account. And it's pretty,
[27:21] Speaker 5: oh no, I'm still with, I do receive the deposit
[27:25] Speaker 5: into my bank account, but I am still getting maybe 50%
[27:29] Speaker 5: of clients will still pay with cash on arrival when
[27:32] Speaker 5: I see them. But most just transfer into my bank
[27:35] Speaker 5: account when they arrive.
[27:37] Speaker 3: Would you have taken a cheque back in the day, Carly?
[27:40] Speaker 5: No way. Can you imagine? Oh my God, I could
[27:44] Speaker 5: not imagine getting paid by cheque.
[27:45] Speaker 6: That would just be, that'd be wild.
[27:47] Speaker 5: I'd laugh so hard if somebody tried to write me
[27:49] Speaker 5: a cheque when they arrived.
[27:54] Speaker 2: Ravel started using the name Misha at Select Companions. She
[27:58] Speaker 2: sometimes went by the name of Rachel, a throwback to
[28:02] Speaker 2: her first job at VIP, and sometimes the name of Michaela.
[28:07] Speaker 2: At the time of her disappearance, Ravel had told people
[28:10] Speaker 2: she owed money to the owners of Select Companions, which
[28:13] Speaker 2: was approximately $ 400, a lot of money back then. And
[28:18] Speaker 2: in fact, that would have been at least three jobs
[28:21] Speaker 2: of an hour in duration. Ravel's bank records were checked,
[28:25] Speaker 2: and she didn't have that sort of money in her account.
[28:30] Speaker 2: Ravel was also known to do what's called moonlighting, which
[28:34] Speaker 2: is essentially visiting clients on a private basis. without the
[28:37] Speaker 2: knowledge of select companions. This, of course, would mean she'd
[28:41] Speaker 2: be able to keep most of the proceeds of each
[28:43] Speaker 2: job to herself. In the days leading up to her disappearance,
[28:47] Speaker 2: she also met up with some friends of hers. Ravel
[28:50] Speaker 2: told the friend that she was excited to go to Japan,
[28:52] Speaker 2: but was unhappy to be leaving her boyfriend. This boyfriend
[28:56] Speaker 2: is not Clinton that you've already heard from. It's another
[28:58] Speaker 2: man called Piers Fisher Pollard. Let's go back to the
[29:06] Speaker 2: days before her disappearance. In the days after their lunch,
[29:10] Speaker 2: the friend of Ravel tried to contact her on her
[29:12] Speaker 2: pager on both the 3rd and 6th of November.
[29:16] Speaker 3: Ravel never responded.
[29:18] Speaker 2: Ravel had definitely not gone missing by the 3rd of
[29:21] Speaker 2: November because she had a job on the 3rd of
[29:23] Speaker 2: November between 5pm and 6pm. The client was interviewed by
[29:28] Speaker 2: police in 1994. He confirmed that on a previous occasion
[29:32] Speaker 2: he had offered for Ravel to meet him as a
[29:34] Speaker 2: moonlighting client, without the knowledge of the agency, and she
[29:38] Speaker 2: felt conflicted, and instead suggested he reach out to a
[29:41] Speaker 2: friend of hers, Gitta. After the job with this man, Ravel...
[29:45] Speaker 2: went home and got ready to attend a birthday party
[29:47] Speaker 2: with a number of friends. The party was for the
[29:50] Speaker 2: owner of the modelling agency that Ravel had done some
[29:53] Speaker 2: work with. The next day, the 4th of November, Ravel
[29:56] Speaker 2: had lunch with another mate, her best friend, Kate. At
[30:03] Speaker 2: this lunch, she told her best mate, Kate, that she
[30:06] Speaker 2: owed a debt to Select Companions, and she was going
[30:08] Speaker 2: to get it paid off and then quit being an escort.
[30:11] Speaker 2: You'll remember the only way to reach Ravel back then
[30:14] Speaker 2: was by pager, and that afternoon, the 4th of November,
[30:18] Speaker 2: Ravel received a message on her pager. It was from
[30:21] Speaker 2: the owner of Select Companions, Jane, and the message read,
[30:26] Speaker 2: Jane referred to herself as Jenny in messages sent to
[30:30] Speaker 2: the escorts. Telephone records didn't show any calls from Ravel
[30:34] Speaker 2: to Jane on the 4th of November. At about 4pm
[30:38] Speaker 2: that day, Ravel ran into her friend, a fellow escort, Gitta,
[30:42] Speaker 2: in King's Cross. Ravel was on the way to a
[30:46] Speaker 2: modelling casting session with her friend, whose birthday she celebrated
[30:50] Speaker 2: the day before. Ravel told Gitta that she was doing
[30:53] Speaker 2: a job for Select Companions the next day to pay
[30:56] Speaker 2: off the debt she owed them. Gitta told police that
[30:59] Speaker 2: Ravel said.
[30:59] Speaker 7: Something like $ 150 and they knew she was leaving to
[31:03] Speaker 7: go to Japan.
[31:04] Speaker 2: Ravel told Gitta her escort mate and the agency was
[31:08] Speaker 2: pissed off that she owed them money. Gitta told police
[31:11] Speaker 2: Ravel was in good spirits. In 2021, Gitta was re-interviewed
[31:15] Speaker 2: by police and she told them that Ravel appeared to
[31:18] Speaker 2: be crying back in 94 when they met in the cross.
[31:21] Speaker 2: Ravel said that she needed the money and was going
[31:24] Speaker 2: to do one last job to pay her pimp back.
[31:26] Speaker 2: Her pimp wanted $ 350 and asked her then for money.
[31:31] Speaker 2: After the modelling audition, on the 4th of November, Ravel
[31:34] Speaker 2: went back to her shared house. Her boyfriend joined her
[31:38] Speaker 2: and they spent the night together at home. This would
[31:42] Speaker 2: be the last night they ever spent together. Next time
[31:48] Speaker 2: on What Happened to Ravel Balmain.
[31:52] Speaker 7: I was aware that she was doing other work outside,
[31:54] Speaker 7: which was a bit dark, so I knew she was
[31:56] Speaker 7: a bit of a dark horse. She had a hidden
[31:59] Speaker 7: agenda to make money, get successful and just make most
[32:05] Speaker 7: of her fame at the time. Well, the prince stole
[32:09] Speaker 7: her and she was six feet under and, you know,
[32:12] Speaker 7: it was all about some Arabian prince that wanted to
[32:16] Speaker 7: send her overseas. They kidnapped her or she was six
[32:18] Speaker 7: feet under. There was a rumour going on.
[32:28] Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to this episode and supporting this story.
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