Natasha Ryan lived in Australia with her parents, Robert and Jennifer. She was an 8th-grade student at Rockhampton High School.
On August 31, 1998, Jennifer dropped Natasha off at school. She was supposed to take the bus home but she never returned. Later that evening, a frantic Jennifer called the police and reported her daughter missing,
Natasha was classified as a “troubled teen” who had a history of school suspensions, drug use, and self-harm. She often ran away from home.
Natasha took off in July but was found just two days later, hiding out at a motel with her 22-year-old boyfriend Scott Black, a milk delivery man.
Since Natasha had run away from home just a month earlier, the police didn’t take her disappearance seriously. They assumed that she was with Scott but when they knocked on his door he insisted that she was not there. Scott told the police that he had no idea where Natasha was.
Natasha was one of several females who had vanished in Rockhampton. The city was paralyzed with fear that a crazed serial killer was on the loose.
An extensive search was initiated. More than 100 volunteers rallied together hoping Natasha would be found alive — if found at all.
In May of 1999, Leonard John Fraser was charged with the rape and murder of a child. While in prison awaiting trial, he confessed to three other murders including Natasha’s. He even drew a map to where the authorities could locate Natasha’s remains but they were not there.
Three years after Natasha disappeared, her parents held a memorial service on what would have been her 17th birthday and they said their final goodbyes. Two years later, they received the biggest shock of their lives when they discovered that their daughter had come back from the dead.
Despite his confession, Leonard pleaded not guilty to Natasha’s murder. Eight days into the trial, prosecutors announced that he was innocent. Shock filled the courtroom, and Natasha’s father collapsed in disbelief.
Prosecutors explained that an anonymous note had been sent to the police with Natasha’s location. It turned out she had been alive and well all along, living with Scott just five minutes away from the home she grew up in.
Natasha and Scott went to great lengths to conceal her existence. She spent nearly five years hiding inside a bedroom closet and that is where the police found her when they raided Scott’s home on April 10, 2003.
Natasha, then 18, attended her own murder trial. She told the court she had never met Leonard, that she had run away because she could no longer stand her mother’s strict rules and their volatile relationship. Natasha said she hated her school, her home, and her life, so she created a new one.
Natasha claimed that she started to regret her decision while hiding at Scott’s house. She wanted to repair her relationship with her mother but she felt that her lie had gone on for too long and that it was too late.
If not for the anonymous note, which was speculated to have been written by a relative of Scott’s, Natasha would have likely remained “dead.”
The investigation cost $151,000 and Scott was ordered to repay $16,000. He was also sentenced to one year in prison for perjury but he was never charged with statutory rape for his relationship with a 14-year-old girl.
Natasha was fined $1,000. She signed a contract with 60 Minutes and Woman’s Day magazine receiving more than $120,000 in exchange for exclusive interviews in which she reenacted hiding in a bedroom closet.
Natasha eventually reunited with her parents and became a nurse. She married Scott in 2008 and they sold photos of their wedding for $200,000.
On June 2, 2024, Scott reported Natasha missing. She was found deceased in a park after allegedly taking her own life. She was 40-years-old.
