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Metropolis Reality Forums « Back-from-dead saga grips nation »

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Rhune
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Back-from-dead saga grips nation
« on: Apr 16th, 2003, 9:56am »		 Quote Quote Modify Modify
Back-from-dead saga grips nation
Wednesday, April 16, 2003 Posted: 12:47 AM EDT (0447 GMT)
 
ROCKHAMPTON, Australia (Reuters) -- The shock re-appearance of a pretty teenager who went missing almost five years ago, mourned as the victim of a serial killer, has transfixed Australia.  
 
Natasha Ryan disappeared in September 1998, aged 14, after failing return to her home in Rockhampton in the northern state of Queensland, after a day at school.  
 
For months, her recently estranged parents and volunteers scoured nearby bushland and rivers for any sign of the missing teenager, nicknamed "grasshopper" by her doting father.  
 
Three years later Leonard Fraser was charged with murdering the teenager, as well as three other women, and her father held a memorial service to finally say farewell to his daughter.  
 
But last week, crown prosecutor Paul Rutledge arose a week into Fraser's trial to drop a bombshell.  
 
"Your honor, I am pleased to inform the court that Leonard John Fraser is not guilty of the murder of Natasha Ann Ryan. Natasha Ryan is alive," he told a stunned court, as Fraser sat down, removed his glasses and started to weep.  
 
Ryan was found hiding in a house rented by her boyfriend at the time of her disappearance, 27-year-old milkman Scott Black, after an anonymous written tip-off, probably from Ryan herself. The house was just two kilometers from her mother's house.  
 
The raid on Black's house ended five years of self-imposed house detention for Ryan who only went outside a few times and would hide in a cupboard for up to six hours when visitors came.  
 
Big lie
The teenager told police she stayed hidden because "the lie had become too big."  
 
Ryan has not yet told anyone why she ran away, with the media speculating she was pregnant at the time or staged her disappearance to spare Black being prosecuted over helping her run away from home on a previous occasion three months earlier.  
 
A police spokeswoman refused to say whether Ryan would face charges for attempting to pervert the course of justice or if Black would face charges for blocking police work or child stealing.  
 
Ryan's father, Robert, has cried with joy, despair and confusion since he heard his daughter was alive.  
 
"I'm totally mixed up, I really am," he told reporters.  
 
The media frenzy to reach Ryan and snare the story of the girl-back-from-the-dead has been frenetic.  
 
Story sold
But publicist Max Markson won the race, announcing media giant Kerry Packer's Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd, which owns the Nine television network television and The Australian Women's Weekly magazine, had won the rights to interview Ryan and her family.  
 
The price? A reported $122,000 (Aust. $200,000) -- while police have estimated the search for Ryan cost over $300,000.  
 
With the deal sparking an angry response from volunteers and police who spent long hours searching for Ryan, Markson was quick to add the family would not profit, but would not say who would.  
 
As for Ryan, she remains in Rockhampton and is being chaperoned by Markson to keep her away from the media.  
 
And Fraser? The judge has ordered the continuation of Fraser's trial for the murder of three other women, aged 19, 36, and 39, all of whom disappeared in Rockhampton in 1998 and 1999.  
 
But defense lawyers are pushing for Ryan to give evidence, hoping to discredit the other charges laid against their client who denies committing any of the murders.  
 
 
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Re: Back-from-dead saga grips nation
« Reply #1 on: Apr 16th, 2003, 10:09am »		 Quote Quote Modify Modify
I read this.  It's hard to know how that family must feel.  The girl must have felt so trapped - I am glad she finally admitted to being alive.  My goodness it took someone being charged with her murder
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Re: Back-from-dead saga grips nation
« Reply #2 on: Apr 16th, 2003, 10:15am »		 Quote Quote Modify Modify
I think if I were her family I would be so angry...I'd be glad to have her back, but I'd be so angry she let me believe she was dead like that...
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Re: Back-from-dead saga grips nation
« Reply #3 on: Apr 16th, 2003, 10:26am »		 Quote Quote Modify Modify
I know - that must be how her Dad feels.  I hope that the good feelings of knowing she is Ok overcome the other feelings.
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