She was known as The Girl in the Closet in a missing person investigation that shocked the nation, but the tragic Natasha Ryan took her biggest secret to the grave.
The body of Ms Ryan, now known as Tash Black, was found by police at Rockhampton Golf Course on Sunday after her husband reported her missing.
It is understood she had previously left her home on foot in the direction of the golf course, prompting her husband to call for help.
His death is not being considered suspicious and a report is being prepared for the coroner.
But he died without ever revealing the reason why he first made headlines 26 years ago, when he suddenly disappeared, aged just 14.
She was finally discovered almost five years later hiding in the closet of her older boyfriend, Scott Black.
They later married and had four children together before his tragic death over the weekend.
Natasha Ryan was found hiding in her boyfriend’s house in Rockhampton in 2003.
It was revealed that she had been hiding in the closet when visitors came to the house and only moved around the property with the curtains closed.
Scott Black (pictured) was charged with perjury after concealing Ms Ryan and hindering the police investigation.
Despite being at the center of one of Australia’s most high-profile cases and the intense scrutiny that followed, the couple remained in the central Queensland community.
Until recently, the family lived a quiet suburban life just a few streets from the house in north Rockhampton where they hid all those years ago.
The mother of four became a dedicated radiology nurse, where she proudly shared social media posts about frontline workers during the Covid lockdowns in 2021.
She is understood as an adventure seeker who in 2022 shared photos of herself skydiving and proudly tattooed her family members’ names in a series of tattoos.
She and Black married in a covert ceremony in 2008 north of Yeppoon, surrounded by their family and friends, before starting a family together.
The couple reportedly sold their wedding photo on Women’s Day for a huge sum, but despite that, she always avoided answering the key question of why she ran away.
During her long years in hiding, she had no contact with the outside world and only ventured outdoors on rare occasions at night to visit the ocean.
The former teenage runaway was seen visiting her boyfriend-turned-husband Scott Black at the Capricornia Correctional Center in 2005.
Teenage runaway Natasha Ryan, now known as Tash Black, with one of the couple’s four children in 2005.
Her family was so sure of her death that, three years after her disappearance, they held a formal memorial for the teenager in 2001 to give the family “closure.”
Her disappearance came around the time of a series of highly publicized disappearances of women and girls in Rockhampton, who were later discovered to be victims of serial killer Leonard John Fraser.
Fraser was charged with the teenager’s murder, but the case took a turn in 2003 after local police received a strange anonymous note purportedly saying: “Natasha Ryan is alive and well.”
During Fraser’s trial, police received an anonymous tip that Ms Ryan was hiding in Mr Black’s home. She was found hiding in a closet during a subsequent raid.
It was later revealed that she had been keeping herself in the closet when visitors came to the house and only moved around the property with the curtains closed.
Black was charged with perjury, and both he and Ryan were accused of provoking a false police investigation during Fraser’s trial, during which he testified that he had not seen Ryan since he disappeared.
He was jailed for three years, suspended after one, in 2005.
She was 18 at the time and was fined $1,000 for provoking the false police investigation.
Shortly after she was found in 2003, Ryan appeared on Nine’s 60 Minutes program insisting that Black, seven years her senior, was not holding her against her will and said he had tried on several occasions to get her to call home.
Tributes have been pouring in for the mother of four and dedicated nurse
Tash (pictured right) with her mother Jenny Kerwin (left)
Several years later, he told New Idea magazine that he would never publicly reveal why he ran away.
“He was protecting me and I made him do it; it was my fault he did it,” she told the magazine in 2005.
“It was my decision to flee. “He was doing something really lovely and protecting me and I felt like he should have been, or deserved to be, punished.”
Community members who knew her posted online about her death, with one remembering her as a “caring and incredibly talented healthcare professional” and a “wonderfully dedicated mother.”
‘She was a fabulous nurse and a very valued friend. This is very sad. I am truly sorry for all of her family and friends. May you be at peace now Tash, we will never forget you,” wrote another.
When asked about his death at a press conference this morning, Queensland Premier Steven Miles said it was a tragic story.
“My deepest condolences to his family and loved ones,” he said.
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