The court immediately declared Fraser not guilty of Natasha Ryan's murder and his lawyers applied to have the whole trial cancelled. The court was then adjourned to consider the ramifications of the new turn in events.
Much to the relief of the victim's parents, after a four day adjournment Justice Ambrose ruled that the trial would resume on the remaining charges. Mr. Gundelach indicated immediately that he intended to call Natasha Ryan as a witness when the occasion arose.
When the trial resumed on April 15, 2003, the jury heard evidence from Fraser's former cellmate, Allan Quinn, who said that Fraser often boasted to the other inmates, saying with bravado "they're trying to get me on these murders... but they won't be able to pin them on me."
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| Allan Quinn |
Quinn went on to say that Fraser had falsely confessed to him of killing Natasha Ryan, saying that the murder weapon, a knife, would never be found. Fraser said that Ms. Ryan had asked him for a lift to the beachside township of Yeppoon and was knocked out after falling asleep on his shoulder in the car. Fraser had also said that he had disposed of her body underneath a mango tree and that it had been removed by a mystery man named Casper who had moved it to Yamba.
But that was just one of a multitude of lies among the truths that Fraser had told Quinn who relayed them back to police who acted on every one. Another fantasy was that he (Fraser) had murdered a female backpacker and had dumped her body in a crocodile pond in an abandoned wildlife park north of Rockhampton. Only after police had dug up the pond and searched the farm extensively did they put it down as a hoax.
Quinn also said that Fraser also boasted about how he drove his ute (pickup truck) with the body of one of his alleged victims, Julie Turner, in the back after he had covered it with a tarpaulin, past a police car in Rockhampton. Fraser also said that he had used the ute before.
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