NATASHA DARCY THE WIDOW OF WALCHA

THE HEARTLESS KILLER WENT AFTER THE MEN SHE DUPED INTO LOVING HER

She's a black widow killer with an even darker heart. For years, Natasha Beth Darcy had murder on her mind. She'd almost killed her first husband in 2009, and finally succeeded in murdering her boyfriend, farmer Mathew Dunbar, in 2017 in the northern NSW town of Walcha by drugging him with powerful sedatives, putting a plastic bag over his head and filling it with helium.

She tried to pass his bizarre death off as a suicide, but a series of blunders by her and fortunate coincidences would lead to her undoing. Now, as Darcy, 46, serves 40 years in jail for murder, a new book sheds light on the lengths she was prepared to go to satisfy her greed and tells of the other men who were lucky enough to escape her clutches.

Author Emma Partridge, who was drawn to the case by those in Walcha who were concerned that Darcy was going to get away with murder, followed the case and sat through every day of the trial in the NSW Supreme Court.

"Staggering details emerged," Partridge tells WHO. "There was a bombshell bribery plot, a sickening cache of internet searches, and details of two 'dry runs' before the eventual murder. There were also many other men she'd duped, but who had lived to tell their frightening tales.