Natasha Ryan, the Necromancer

In 1999, fourteen year old Natasha Ryan disappeared from her home in Rockhampton in the state of Queensland, Australia. The worst was feared since a serial killer had been terrorizing the area. Blood of a nine year old missing girl was later found in the car of Leonard John Fraser, 51, who was eventually charged and convicted of her rape and murder. More horrifically, other blood was discovered in Fraser’s car but to make a solid case against him for other murders, including Natasha’s, a confession and corpses are sought.

A jailed con man enters the picture who decides to make it his mission to break the case by getting Fraser to confess to where the bodies are. The two are purposely holed up together. Chameleon-like, the con man builds a rapport and Fraser buys into the bravado. After detectives secretly taped his confession in prison with the help of the con man who befriended him, Fraser was charged in four other murders. On the tape, Fraser confessed to killing not only Natasha Ryan but three other Australian women. Fraser leads police to a crime scene where human remains are discovered in grisly fashion.

During the murder trial, Natasha magically appears like a necromancer altering future events. Incredibly, it is learned that Natasha is alive and well. Fraser had either killed too many people to remember all their names or bravado consumed him. Natasha is found in hiding and Fraser has absolutely nothing to do with her disappearance. As an emancipated eighteen year old adult, Natasha admits to staging her disappearance four years earlier to go live with an older man working as a milkman, the one time boyfriend of her older sister. She went into hiding fearing her parent’s disapproval of her illicit relationship. Necromancing.

Innumerable dollars for search and rescue personnel, the time of countless volunteers, the banding together of a community on a united front, and incalculable resources all were spent looking for poor Natasha. She lived in a silent retreat all squirreled away less than a mile from her home. So convinced that she was killed by the confessing Fraser, her parents held a teary-eyed funeral. Natasha chose not to go. The parents endured years of needless anguish thinking some meat cleaver of a serial killer sliced and diced their daughter. Natasha did not let them think otherwise. In fact, while Natasha rarely left the house she followed her celebrated case in the newspaper. As the media wildly followed the case on television it was Natasha who watched the programming.

After a tip off, the authorities raided the boyfriend’s house and found Natasha holed up in a breakaway closet, a place she willingly hid whenever someone entered her boyfriend’s home. During a break in the trial of her alleged murderer, Nastasha was encouraged to telephone her father. To the shock of her grieving parents, they both learned that Natasha was not only alive but alive and well. Eventually, she showed up in court where her paramour was set to perjure himself with testimony that he had not seen Natasha since 1998 despite co-habitating with her. The tables turn and the milkman now finds himself in hot water. Because the milkman bottled up sensitive information he faces obstruction of justice. Meanwhile, Natasha is a witness for the Defense and the very man accused of killing her by his own admission. Now that she is back from the dead, the Prosecutor for her own murder asks Natasha on the stand if she has indeed been murdered. In a bizarre twist, she affirms her identity, her life, and denies ever being murdered. One murder charge against the accused is dropped.

The reunion with her distraught parents proved emotional but hollow. Reportedly, Natasha shares a strained relationship with her mother and remains estranged from her father. I wonder if the parents thought more kindly of their daughter when she was presumed murdered. This may be the rare instance in which thinking your daughter has been murdered may not be the worst case scenario. Natasha’s dramatic return from the dead has made headlines internationally with media outlets around the world bidding for her celebrated story. Natasha now seeks a king's ransom for her story. Natasha’s silence is all I need to know about her. Let’s leave her alone. Tight-lipped Natasha always preferred it that way. Just ask her grieving parents.