The 'dead' schoolgirl who fooled a nation - and her devastated family
Today's case is one that has a twist which managed to fool the world fourteen-year-old natasha ryan from rockhampton queensland australia was known as a troubled teen a later police report allegedly recorded that she had been suspended from school experimented with drugs and had reportedly been receiving counseling.
On july 12 1998 natasha had vanished when taking the dog for a walk she had purportedly attempted to run away with her boyfriend scott black the attempt hadn't lasted long in fact it was only for two days before she was found to be staying at a hotel by police scott had initially been charged with abduction and though the charge was soon dropped he was still fined one thousand dollars for obstructing the police investigation into natasha's disappearance though her family life was tumultuous things were about to take a turn for the worst on august 31st a month after her runaway attempt natasha's mother jennifer dropped her off at school around 8 15 am jennifer would later remark that she thought her daughter appeared to be in good spirits recently the last time natasha was seen was two days later as she played video games at a cinema she was reportedly seen by witnesses leaving with a man in his car her parents quickly reported that natasha was missing but it wasn't until a month later that her disappearance was brought to the public despite her parents insistence that their daughter had been taken police were convinced that she had simply run away again.
Constable robert newton even made a public plea for natasha to get in contact to tell her family that she was safe but as a month passed by and then another with no sign of natasha police soon changed their assessment of what could have happened to her at this time two more women in the small city went missing all within six months of natasha and then on april 22nd 1999 nine-year-old kira steinhardt was kidnapped as she walked home from her primary school the crime appalled the public who soon began to think that the other girls including natasha had possibly been killed by a serial killer living in the area devastated natasha's parents forced themselves to accept that their daughter was dead a memorial was even held on may 9 2001 for natasha on what would have been her 17th birthday pressure was placed on the police to solve the string of disappearances and suspected murders.
Their attention turned to a man named leonard frazier investigators suspected that leonard had killed kyra steinhardt and soon he was charged and reportedly led investigators to the girl's body as their suspicions that he had been involved in the other disappearances grew police set up an elaborate trap for leonard they had another inmate alan quinn who was serving time for fraud convinced him to write a confession letter for the woman's death under the name of squeaky allen told leonard that the letter would throw suspicion off of him instead all of the conversations between him and alan were secretly recorded including the details about the deaths of the three women things that only the killer would know leonard revealed details such as the fact that beverly lego had been strangled with her own underpants which were left around her throat when her body was dumped or that julie dawn turner was throttled with her bra and that sylvia maria benedetti was beaten with a log leonard was soon charged with multiple women's deaths including natasha's though he had reportedly denied being responsible for any of them the recorded conversations between him and alan were reportedly used against him in court included as evidence was a statement leonard allegedly made about natasha purportedly saying quote well i hit natasha and she was unconscious i drove her to the show grounds and that's where i murdered her i took her body out to the pink lily pond near the airport though leonard eventually confessed to several killings and led police to most of the bodies of his victims.
Natasha's body was never found still it seemed to many that her killer had finally been caught but then three weeks before leonard's trial was due to begin everything changed with one fateful letter according to the new zealand herald the kids helpline was called by someone who gave their name as sally the person claimed that they had run away from home but that a man was about to be tried for her murder the counselors who heard the message called the police but when they were unable to trace the call it was forgotten that is until the police were sent an unsigned letter that said natasha ryan is alive and well the letter also included a phone number investigators tracked the phone number and raided the home it belonged to on april 10 2003. what they found there shocked them the letter was right natasha ryan was alive police found her crouched in a cupboard where she was attempting to hide from them expecting to find that natasha had been taken and held against her will all this time investigators soon realized that this wasn't the case at all in fact she had spent the last four years and eight months living in secret with her boyfriend 27 year old scott black just 1.2 miles from her mother's house police didn't understand how they had missed this when natasha first went missing they had extensively looked into scott but there had been no sign of her investigators wanted to know how she had managed to remain hidden for so long over the four years she was missing natasha had lived as a recluse moving twice to remain unseen whenever scott's family visited the home natasha would hide in the cupboard sometimes for hours the curtains were almost always closed so that she wasn't seen the couple were even cautious enough to only ever put scott's clothing outside on the line to dry never natasha's for almost five years natasha never left the house except reportedly on six occasions when she went to swim at the beach in yapoon she spent her days cooking sewing reading and on the internet court documents reveal that the letter that outed natasha is believed to have been sent by one of scott's relatives though this wasn't confirmed.
When asked why she had stayed hidden for so long even when her parents had held a memorial for her natasha reportedly told investigators the lie had become too big according to a police statement natasha had not wanted to leave with them when they found her at leonard's trial prosecutor paul rutledge announced that the murder charge for natasha ryan against leonard would be dropped as the now 18 year old was still alive natasha even attended her own murder trial where she told the court that she had never met leonard and that he obviously hadn't killed her leonard was eventually convicted of the murders of two women and the manslaughter of another natasha and scott were held accountable for their lie according to the guardian scott was sentenced to three years in prison for lying to the police though he only served a year for natasha's parents being reunited with their daughter was as if they were seeing a ghost rather than feeling flooded with relief they were also distressed to learn that their daughter had chosen to hide from them for so long duping the entire world with her lie.
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