Missing teen appears after four years

An Australian teenager who was missing and feared dead for four years has resurfaced midway through the trial of her alleged murderer.

Natasha Ryan, 18, was found living with her boyfriend in a house just half a mile from her mother’s home in Rockhampton, Queensland.

Her reappearance coincided with the trial of Leonard John Fraser, 51, who was accused of murdering her and three other women.

Prosecutors immediately dropped the charge that he had killed Ryan.

Ryan’s family were so sure she was dead, they held a memorial service for her a year ago. Police said she was found yesterday hiding in a cupboard at her boyfriend’s house after a tip-off arising from Fraser’s trial.

A Ryan family spokesman said that when officers phoned the mother, Jenny, to tell her they had found Natasha, she at first assumed they were talking about a corpse.

“Mrs Ryan was in shock, she didn’t know if she could believe it and she was concerned it may have been a false alarm,” he said.