The Case of Natasha Ryan

Natasha Ryan disappeared from her school in Australia in August 1998, but she had ran away before, so when her parents heard she was missing, they believed she would turn up again soon.

But, months passed and Natasha was nowhere to be found. Other girls and women started to go missing in the area, this sparked fears for Ryan's safety increased, the police started to suspect that she may have been a victim of serial killer Leonard Fraser.

Five years after Ryan disappeared, Fraser went on trail for various murders, including Ryan's, but on April 11th, 2003, a prosecutor on the case announced: "I am pleased to inform the court that Leonard John Fraser is not guilty of the murder of Natasha Ann Ryan. Natasha Ryan is alive."

Ryan wasn't abducted and killed, she had willingly disappeared and for five years she hid in a house that she shared with her boyfriend. The house was less than a mile from her mother's.

Natasha's Troubled Years

Natasha Ann Ryan was born in 1984, she grew up in Rockhampton, Queensland, the residents here called it "Rocky' and they knew each other's business.

When Ryan was just a child, her father nicknamed her "Grasshopper" because she walked instead of crawled. Her parents had divorced and moved to another Queensland city three hours away, Ryan stayed with her mother in North Rockhampton.

Ryan was a troubled teen, she would experiment with drugs, attempt suicide, and had a fondness for running away, all by the time she was 14. She was also dating a 21-year-old man named Scott Black.

In July 1998, Ryan ran away while walking the family dog. Police found her later on that week at an outdoor music venue in Rockhampton, they discovered that she had been staying with Black at a hotel. Police initially charged the man with abduction, but the charge was dropped, even with him later being fined for obstructing the police's investigation.

But Natasha Ryan would run away from home again.

Her Disappearance

On August 31st, 1998, Natasha's mother dropped her off at her high school. At some point, Natasha disappeared and it would be five years before she was seen again.

The police believed, with her history of running away, that they would find her again soon enough. But, months passed, and the hope that she would be found alive started to fade once three women between the ages 19 and 39 and a nine-year-old girl went missing. Eventually they were all confirmed victims of a serial killer, Leonard Fraser.

Leonard was described as a "sexual predator of the worst kind" and by police psychologists as a "classical psychopath." Leonard was a convicted rapist and once he was released from prison in 1997, he continued his evil ways.

On April 22nd, 1999, Leonard raped and murdered Keyra Steinhart, nine-years-old, after he stalked her on her walk home after school. The crime landed him in prison once again and police were convinced all of the local disappearances were connected. Fraser denied that he murdered Natasha Ryan.

Investigators persuaded another inmate to get a confession out of Fraser and eventually he admitted to murdering all five victims, including Ryan. He claimed that he met her at a local movie theatre and offered a ride home, he then attacked her in his car and hid her body in a pond.

Ryan's family held a memorial service for the girl in 2001 on her 17th birthday. But, Natasha Ryan's body was never found, even with Fraser showing authorities where he hid the remains of other victims.

Natasha Ryan's Life

Her family was gutted as they frantically searched for her, all while she was alive and well, hiding out with her boyfriend, Scott Black, in different local homes. The last one being only a few minutes away from her mother's home.

Black had a job as a milkman at a dairy factory, his coworkers had no clue he was harboring Ryan. When he did the laundry he would place only his on the clothing line outside and whenever he had visitors, Ryan simply hid in the cupboard until they left.

However, most of the time Ryan would move freely through the home with the curtains drawn. She was content to live out most of her teen years in darkness. She would cook, read, sew, and surf the web. And in the five years she was there, she went outside only a few times to move homes or go to a local beach at night.

But, the fate of the man that was accused of murdering her was weighing on her mind, it seems. So, three weeks before Fraser's trail, it's believed that Ryan contacted the helpline of a children's counseling service.

She used the name "Sally" and told the counselor that she spoke with that she was a runaway living with her boyfriend, and that a man was about to go on trial for her murder. On April 2nd, 2003, the counselor relayed the messaged to police anonymously. The officer on duty was unable to trace the call.

It wasn't long after that the police received an anonymous letter that had a phone number enclosed that claimed Ryan was alive and well.

On April 10th, police officers forced their way into a house on Mills Avenue in North Rockhampton. It was here that they found the "dead" girl hiding in the bedroom cupboard. She was pale from her years hiding indoors without any exposure to light.

Natasha Ryan Is Alive

It was the 12st day of Fraser's trail when a prosecuter received the phone call that Natasha Ryan was actually alive.

The prosecutor then rushed through the courtroom to find Ryan's father, Robert Ryan, and tell him the news he just received. Once Robert got the news, he assumed that meant they found her body, and once he heard that Ryan was alive, he almost collapsed.

Robert was told to call the police station to confirm that it was in fact his daughter, and when he did, he asked the woman who was on the line what the nickname was that he gave her as a child, this was to ensure he wasn't dealing with someone playing a sick game to impersonate his daughter.

"Dad, it's me, Grasshopper. I love you and I'm sorry," Ryan said to her father.

Her reunion with her mother wasn't so great. Jenny Ryan was furious that her daughter led her to believe that she was dead all these years, all while she lived only a mile away.

"I hated her," Her mother said, "I could have grabbed her and just shook the hell out of her. But when I seen her... You forget all that."

Natasha Ryan appeared in court at her own murder trial, it was as if the now 18-year-old had risen from the dead. She testified that she had not been murdered by Fraser.

The court deemed Fraser not guilty of Ryan's murder, but he was still found guilty of committing the handful of other murders he was charged with and sentenced to life in prison.

Now, Natasha Ryan was facing trials of her own.

The Aftermath

The world was rejoicing that Natasha Ryan was alive, others responded to her return with outrage, questioning how she put her loved ones through years of suffering by leading them to believe she was murdered.

In 2005 Black received a one-year prison sentence for perjury after he claimed he didn't know where Ryan was to police.

In 2006 Ryan was found guilty of creating a false police investigation. She was fined $4,000 and ordered to pay $16,000 worth of investigation costs.

Natasha was profiting off of the publicity, however. She was signed to a publicist and she made up for years of lost income by selling her story to the Australian 60 Minutes for 120,000 Australian dollars. Ryan and Black ended up getting married in 2008 and sold the news of their marriage for $200,000 to Women's Day. They have three children together.