By Seamus McGraw
Killer wipes away a tear as prosecutor declares "Natasha is alive"
He did not keep his conversation with Natasha entirely secret, however. He confided his concerns to a colorful older man by the name of Leonard Bauer. A born-again masseur who helps make ends meet by selling Christian books, Bauer is a well-known eccentric in Rockhampton, a man, who in LoMonoco's words "walks around town like he's the bloody messiah."
Bauer took matters into his own hands. He wrote an anonymous letter to the police, a missive peppered with Biblical references and admonitions about the virtue of forgiveness, which led authorities back to Scott Black's tiny house, a house that was less than a mile from Natasha Ryan's childhood home.
It is far from clear whether Bauer planned it this way — he told Stuff that he didn't — but police arrived at Black's house and pulled a reluctant Natasha into a kind of forced resurrection on Easter Sunday.
The following day, Rutledge appeared in court and announced that Natasha Ryan was alive, and when he did, Fraser, the killer, took off his glasses and stifled a sob.
The touching display did nothing to improve the killer's image in the eyes of the judge. He was still sentenced to spend the rest of his life behind bars, punishment for the murders he did commit.
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| Natasha Ryan |
In the months after her reemergence from the cupboard, Natasha Ryan, by then an adult, returned to Black's house. The couple since has had a child.
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See Crime Library Feature Story on Leonard John Fraser
See Full Coverage of Tanya Nicole Kach Case
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