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| Natasha Ryan |
On Thursday, April 10, 2003, the case took a sensational turn when one of the alleged victims, 18-year-old Natasha Ryan, was discovered by police hiding in a cupboard at the home of her boyfriend, 26-year-old Scott Black, a kilometer from her mother's home in Rockhampton. Police said that they acted on a tip-off arising from the trial.
But despite media frenzy, there was no forthcoming explanation for Natasha Ryan's disappearance and re-emergence four-and-a-half-years later. Instead the story was put up for grabs to the highest bidder and it was being brokered by Sydney celebrity public relations agent Max Markson who had flown to Rockhampton to keep his latest acquisition under tight wraps.
Now living back with her bewildered mother, it was rumored that Natasha Ryan wanted $250,000 for her story. All that her father, Robert Ryan, who was separated from Natasha's mother, could tell the local press was that after believing his daughter to be dead for all that time; "I couldn't stop cuddling her. It was like I saw a ghost."
The detective in charge of the case, Detective Senior Sergeant David Hickey, told Fraser's lawyer, Mr Adrian Gundelach, that when Natasha Ryan went missing in 1998, they searched Scott Black's home but couldn't come up with the slightest indication that a female lived there.
Detective Hickey said that a surveillance team was assigned to Mr. Black's house and also to observe his comings and goings and the people he associated with but there was nothing whatever to connect him with the disappearance of Natasha Ryan.
Detective Hickey did not indicate if any charges would be laid against Natasha Ryan or Scott Black.
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