A woman who was at the centre of one of Australia’s most well known and bizarre disappearances has been found dead on a golf course.
The body of Natasha Ryan, 40, was found on the Rockhampton golf course on Sunday. There are no suspicious circumstances.
Ms Ryan, then aged 14, ran away from home in 1998 to be with her 21-year-old boyfriend Scott Black.
Former missing person Natasha Ryan (pictured during her interview on TV program ’60 Minutes’ on April 27 2003) has been found dead
Ms Ryan hid in her boyfriend’s cupboard (pictured) when there were other people at the house while sparking a massive missing person investigation that lasted years
Ms Ryan was presumed to have been murdered by serial killer and rapist Leonard John Fraser.
But following a tip off to police, MS Ryan was found hiding in a cupboard at the home of Mr Black in central Queensland in 2003, about four years later.
The pair stood trial on charges of falsely causing a police investigation.
In 2005, Mr Black pleaded guilty to perjury for telling police he didn’t know where Ms Ryan was, and was jailed for 12 months.
Ms Ryan was also found guilty of causing a false police investigation and fined $1000.
They later married and had four children.
Ms Ryan had secretly moved in with Mr Black, who worked as a milkman, after she was banned from seeing the man seven years her senior.
Even when she watched a documentary about her disappearance and suspected murder on television, she remained in hiding.
The trial of Fraser, who confessed to her murder, was stopped when police told the judge: ‘We have found Natasha alive and well.’
A tip-off had caused police to search Mr Black’s home in Rockhampton – a kilometre from her former house – where Ms Ryan was found hiding in the cupboard.
Natasha Ryan was found alive in 2003 having been presumed murdered
Ms Ryan (pictured left and right) sparked national concern when she vanished but was hiding for years in her boyfriend’s home, within walking distance from her parent’s property
Natasha, then 18, returned to live with her mother, Jenny.
A few years later she married Mr Black in front of about 35 guests including her mother who said she had forgiven her.
Her wedding band reportedly read ‘Happy Days Always’.
She also reportedly charged Woman’s Day $200,000 for exclusive rights to the wedding pictures despite the cost of her search, $400,000, not getting repaid.
Emergency services had been searching, via land and air, for a missing person in the Rockhampton region for a number of hours on June 2.
It is understood Ms Ryan, who changed her name to Tash Black, had left her home on foot in the direction on the golf course.
The RACQ CapRescue chopper service was assisting this morning searching the Rockhampton Golf Course area in West Rockhampton near the zoo and botanical gardens.
A statement from Queensland Police said emergency crews conducting a search for a 40-year-old woman found her body this morning.
‘Police will prepare a report for the coroner following the sudden and non-suspicious death of a woman in Rockhampton,’ it said.
Tributes have been posted online saying Ms Ryan, who worked as a nurse, should be remembered for the person she became.
‘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 for who she was,’ one friend said.
‘She bettered herself in enormous ways and had a beautiful family with the man she loved,’ another said.