Natasha Ryan

Natasha Anne Ryan (9 May 1984 – c. 2 June 2024) was an Australian woman from Rockhampton, Queensland, who went missing on 31 August 1998 when aged 14. Police wrongly assumed that her best friend Maioha Tokotaua—then 15 years old—killed Ryan, but later charged local serial killer Leonard Fraser, who had confessed to her "murder". In 2002, police received an anonymous letter stating that Ryan was alive—the letter also provided a phone number and address where she could be found. Upon raiding this location, Ryan was discovered alive and hiding in a wardrobe almost five years after she went missing. During Fraser's murder trial, it was revealed that 14-year-old Ryan had left home willingly to be with her boyfriend, 22-year-old Scott Black, and had been living and hiding in his home since her disappearance. In 2008, the couple married and reportedly have had three children. On 2 June 2024, 40-year-old Ryan was found dead by police at a Rockhampton golf course while they were undertaking a welfare check. Her death is not being classed as suspicious.