Queensland’s ‘girl in the cupboard’ Natasha Ryan, 40, found dead on golf course
The life of Queensland’s ‘girl in the cupboard’ Natasha Ryan has come to a tragic end after she was found dead on a golf course. Some locals say she should be remembered for the person she became, not her past. A TIMELINE OF TRAGEDY
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The life of Queensland’s ‘girl in the cupboard’ Natasha Ryan has come to a tragic end after she was found dead on a golf course in Rockhampton.
The mother of four and nurse, aged 40, went missing overnight with her husband Scott Black raising the alarm.
It is understood Ryan, who had changed her name to Tash Black, left her home in Rockhampton on foot and began walking in the direction of the golf course.
Her body is believed to have been found soon after on the golf course.
A Queensland Police Service spokesman earlier said a person from Depot Hill was reported missing.
Regional SES controller Eddie Cowie confirmed many people have been involved in the search as he headed into a briefing.
An update provided by Queensland Police Service at 10.50am Sunday stated the body of a missing 40-year-old woman was found by emergency crews and a report will be prepared for the coroner.
There were no suspicious circumstances.
News of her death has been met with shock in the Central Queensland community with some locals saying she should be remembered as a nurse, wife and mother of her children, rather than what she did years ago.
Kodi Kelly posted: “She was a person who made a mistake. She had a family, she was a devoted mum who loved her kids, she had a good job and just wanted a peaceful life. Remember her now for who she was.”
“Really sad for Natasha, her husband, and four kids as well as her family,’’ another posted.
Kirstie Fletcher said Mrs Black became “a gorgeous lady” who “bettered herself in enormous ways and had a beautiful family with the man she loved”.
Sue Dodt said Mrs Black was a wonderful nurse who was always talking about her husband and her children. “Thank you for looking after me you always made laugh when I was up in hospital.’’
“Fly high Tash, the angels will love you. We all did.’’
Trudy McCabe said she “had the pleasure of working with Tash”. “She was a fabulous nurse and a treasured friend. This is so very sad. I truly feel for all her family and friends. Be at peace now Tash you will never be forgotten.”
Pat Ebert said she would remember a ‘beautiful, kind, caring woman’. “I will miss seeing you in the shops as we passed we would say hello. “The most important people in your life was your family.”
James Elliot remembered her as a student who loved high jump.
“She lost her way and made some big life choices and mistakes. So sorry for her family and friends,’’ he wrote.
Bev Proefke said Natasha Ryan was ‘not the girl in the cupboard … she is someone's wife, someone's mother, someone's daughter’.
Another posted that “Tash was so much more than that one moment in time and she had ascended far beyond what so many people in this town expected she would. She is a caring and amazingly talented health care professional and a beautifully dedicated parent. She will be greatly missed.”
THE NATASHA RYAN STORY
As a 14-year-old, back in 1998, was at the centre of one of Australia’s most bizarre disappearances.
Ms Ryan ran away from home in 1998 to be with her then 21-year-old boyfriend Mr Black.
She was presumed to have been murdered by serial killer and rapist Leonard John Fraser.
But following a tip off to police, she was found hiding in a cupboard at the home of Mr Black in central Queensland in 2003.
Eight months after Ryan went missing, Rockhampton — known as the beef capital of Australia — was rocked by the disappearance of Keyra Steinhardt as she walked home from school.
Hundreds of volunteers scoured parks, waterways and the bush in a bid to find the nine-year-old, while police began following leads that eventually led to Fraser.
THE GIRL IN THE CUPBOARD
Ryan vanished on August 31, 1998, last seen alive outside a cinema that evening smoking a cigarette and talking to an older man.
Witnesses told police they heard the sound of screeching car tyres and a large-scale search began the following morning when her concerned mother phoned police.
The investigation dragged on for years at an estimated cost of $400,000.
Every possible lead was a dead-end and police eventually came to the conclusion that Ryan was dead.
After Fraser confessed, her family held a memorial service in her honour on what would’ve been her 17th birthday.
Less than two years later, she was found in sensational circumstances. “Natasha Ryan is alive and well,” an anonymous note sent to police read, including a telephone number of a house in the suburb of Frenchville.
Officers raided the property, rented by Scott Black, a milkman who was 21 when he began dating the teen prior to her disappearance.
They found Ryan, then 18, cowering in a cupboard, where she would routinely hide whenever someone came to the house.
When an officer called her mother Jenny, she assumed they were talking about having found a body — not her daughter alive.
“Mrs Ryan was in shock, she didn’t know if she could believe it and she was concerned it may have been a false alarm,” the family’s lawyer said at the time.
For four-and-a-half years, she had been in hiding, rarely leaving the house and staying inside in the dark with the curtains closed.
They moved a number of times, always in the cover of night, between properties in Rockhampton and the nearby costal town of Yeppoon.
Their final residence was mere blocks from Ryan’s totally clueless family.
She was described as a troubled youth who had been suspended from school and regularly fought with her mother.
Before she vanished, Ryan ran away on a number of occasions before meeting Black and deciding to leave her life for good.
In later interviews, she said by the time she wanted to reunite with her mother, it was too late — the lie had become too big.
The pair were paranoid of being discovered and went to great lengths to avoid detection.
“He was protecting me and I caused him to do it — it was my fault he did that,” Ryan told the magazine New Idea in 2007.
“It was my decision to run away. He was doing something really lovely and protecting me and I felt like I should have been, or deserved to be, punished.”
A day after she was discovered alive, celebrity agent Max Markson flew from Sydney to central Queensland to represent Ryan. Media outlets here and abroad were bidding for the exclusive rights to her remarkable story, with Channel 9’s 60 Minutes program and two magazines paying a reported $250,000.
Journalists descended on the normally quiet town, desperate to catch a glimpse of Ryan as she adjusted to her new life in the open. She pocketed cheques from international outlets, including the British tabloid News of the World, for which she happily posed inside the infamous cupboard.
There were calls for her to hand over that money to cover the cost of the police investigation and search. And there were calls for Ryan and Scott to be jailed for their painful ruse.
In 2005, Rockhampton District Court sentenced Scott to three years in jail, suspended after 12 months, for perjury. He pleaded guilty to telling investigating officers that he didn’t know where Ryan was.
A year later, she was found guilty of causing a false police investigation and was fined $1000. For almost five years, a missing schoolgirl’s traumatised family believed that she was the victim of a psychopathic serial killer.
NATASHA RYAN’S WEDDING TO SCOTT BLACK
Fifteen years after she was found, Natasha Ryan disappeared from the public eye with her husband and their young family.
She studied nursing at Central Queensland University.
Natasha Ryan married Scott Black in September 2008, reportedly selling her exclusive wedding photo to Woman’s Day for $200,000.
Ferns Hideaway owner John Marto Martin watched the ceremony and provided entertainment at the reception.
"It was all very covert Woman's Day were there with security,’’ Mr Martin told this publication at the time.
"The wedding went really well it was a really happy wedding," he said.
"It was a family wedding with about 35 guests before celebrant Anne Donaghy.
"Natasha wore a white wedding gown and Scott had a suit there were six in the bridal party."
Natasha's parents Jenny Kirwan and Robert Ryan attended.
Originally published as Queensland’s ‘girl in the cupboard’ Natasha Ryan, 40, found dead on golf course
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