AUSTALIA: An Australian teenager has been found alive in the middle of the trial of her suspected killer, four years after she vanished and two years after her family gave her up for dead.
Ms Natasha Ryan, now 18, had been living with her boyfriend Mr Scott Black, 26, a milkman, half a mile from her mother's home in Rockhampton, northern Queensland.
There had been several claimed sightings of Natasha. but it was not until they were given a tip-off on Wednesday that the police found her hiding in a cupboard when they raided Mr Black's home the following day.
Her skin was bleached white, reportedly because she had been outdoors only six times in four years.
During the raid Mr Black allegedly said that he had no idea of her whereabouts. Although he was allegedly involved in an illegal relationship with her when she vanished in 1998, he denied knowing where she was.
Natasha's existence was revealed to the stunned supreme court in Brisbane during the trial of Mr Leonard Fraser, a convicted killer accused of killing Natasha and three other women in Rockhampton in 1998-99.
The Queensland deputy director of public prosecutions, Mr Paul Rutledge, told the court that Mr Fraser is not guilty of her murder. Natasha's mother, Jennifer, was in shock, the family lawyer Ross Lo Monaco said. "She didn't know if she could believe it and she was concerned it may have been a false alarm." Justice Brian Ambrose discharged Mr Fraser of all charges relating to Natasha's murder. His case has been adjourned until Monday, when his lawyers are expected to argue that all charges should be withdrawn and the entire trial abandoned. Serious questions will be asked about the police investigation of the case. - (Guardian Service)