Police wrongly assumed that her best friend Maioha Tokotaua—then 15 years old—killed Ryan, but later charged local serial killer Leonard Fraser.
An extensive and exhaustive search was undertaken for her and three other girls two years after her disappearance by police and local State Emergency Service (SES) volunteers as part of an investigation into a serial killer.
Black faced Rockhampton Magistrates Court in November 1999, where he pleaded guilty to wilful obstruction of police after he had told officers that he did not know Ryan's whereabouts.
[5] On 11 April 2003, during Fraser's murder trial in Brisbane, police prosecutor Paul Rutledge informed the court that Ryan had been found alive.
[6] Police had raided a house in North Rockhampton on the night of 10 April 2003 after a tip-off and had found Ryan alive, hiding in a bedroom cupboard.
It was reported that for most of that time, Ryan had shared a house in Yeppoon, Queensland, but had moved back to Rockhampton after Black received a transfer with his milk delivery job.
[8] Soon after being discovered alive, it became apparent that Ryan and Black would likely face criminal charges for their role in the false investigation into her murder.
[13][14][15][16][17] Following her re-appearance, Australian publicist Max Markson signed Ryan up as a client, and negotiated potential deals with several media organisations.
Markson eventually secured a media deal with Publishing and Broadcasting Limited, which was the parent company of ACP Magazines and the Nine Network.
Assuming Ryan's story was going to hand them a ratings-winning program, 60 Minutes held the broadcast until 20 April 2003 in an attempt to take viewers away from Network Ten's premiere of the third season of their ratings winner, Big Brother.