The pencil pines that line the winding, dirt driveway mean we can’t see the farmhouse, leaving us blind as to what awaits us at the end. My chest tightens as we edge closer. As a crime reporter, I’ve travelled to the cool and misty town of Walcha, just east of Tamworth in the NSW Northern Tablelands, to confront a so-called ‘black widow’. She is being investigated for the murder of her grazier boyfriend, Mathew Dunbar, not long after he made her the sole beneficiary of his multimillion-dollar sheep farm. While the farmer’s girlfriend claims it was a suicide, most of the town is convinced she played a role in his death and, two months on, is still living free in town. Her past is chequered – well known for targeting her partners in her quest for wealth – and there is a collective sense of unease in the tight-knit community. Many want to know why she hasn’t been arrested, and why she’s still living on the farmer’s 1200-acre property, Pandora, with her three children.
Not long after photographer Nathan Edwards and I reach the farm gate at the end of the driveway, 42-year-old Natasha Beth Darcy walks towards us. This is Walcha’s black widow.
Wearing light denim jeans and a tight-fitting pink polo top, she flashes us an ear-to-ear smile. My heart is beating out of my chest. I begin a bumbling apology about turning up unannounced, and explain we are reporting on the death of
