Natalie Maureen Posner was born the day after Valentine's Day, February 15, 1969 in Sunland, California. Her mother, Lana Kay Rucker was pregnant and technically a minor when she married Larry George Posner, just two months before Natalie was born. Though initially Larry claimed not to be the marrying kind, Lana's mother, Dee Rucker (who was reportedly very persuasive with a shotgun) managed to convince Larry to do the right thing and make an honest woman of her daughter.

The marriage was rocky at best, and when Natalie was barely three years old, Larry left to get a pint of Jack Daniel's and never returned. Lana took it in her stride and had no trouble finding a replacement for Larry. When that one left, another one quickly followed; Lana just refused to go through life without a man. Though Lana told Natalie to think of this successive chain of boyfriends as "father figures," Natalie knew they were monsters. She worried that all men were creepy and nasty and she would never love or be loved.

Natalie was an "early bloomer" and her body matured seemingly overnight when she was eleven. Not long afterward, neighbors noticed one of Lana's boyfriends paying inappropriate attention to Natalie and contacted Social Services. After a short investigation, Natalie was sent to live with her maternal grandmother, Dee Rucker.

And though Natalie was saved from the evils of indiscriminate gropers, she was still the subject of tyranny. Dee had found religion a year before Natalie went to live with her and insisted anyone in her life, "be one with the Lord Jesus, our Savior." As far as Natalie was concerned, she had swapped one monster for another. She always had clean clothes, ate regularly and attended a good school, but Natalie was miserable.

Though she was a highly intelligent girl and excelled in any scholastic endeavor she pursued, she was socially inept and painfully shy. She barely spoke to a soul, much less made any friends, save one. Sandy Evanuick was a girl not unlike Natalie, passed off to a grandparent because of parental neglect, having seen too much of the darker side of life at too young an age. The girls became instant comrades and were inseparable. Together, they made plans to "escape" the Sunland Trailer Park where they lived, and to go to college and film school and become great female film makers.

The last day of her junior year in high school, Natalie received word that her best and only friend, Sandy, had been killed by a hit and run driver. She felt her world collapse. How was it possible that the one person in all the world she could trust and care for could be gone?

She managed to go on and dug in even deeper in her studies. A teacher helped her apply for and get a scholarship to the University of Southern California. At least one dream would come true. It enabled her to move away from the horrid trailer park, start a new life, and be a new person. And she did. Natalie began to come out of her shell and make friends, and found young men were attracted to her. Especially after she dyed her hair deep red and donned brown contacts. It was a look she saw on Judy Garland in an old movie Meet Me In St. Louis, which she copied and made her own.

In her sophomore year Natalie met Ivan Riesling, the Entertainment Editor for an up and coming publication, Los Angeles Magazine. He was the most handsome man Natalie had ever seen. To her amazement, Ivan had spotted her in the crowd and sought her out. Being positively wild for redheads, he told her he had to get a date with her or he would just be beside himself. Not used to such attention, Natalie was flattered and easily persuaded.

They quickly became an item and within six weeks, Ivan convinced Natalie to quit school and come to work for him at the magazine as a researcher. Her high intelligence and photographic memory made her a natural for the position.

In 1990, Lana Kaye experienced some maternal pangs and decided to seek out her daughter for a reconciliation. When Natalie opened the door and saw her mother, she could barely move. She was sure she would never have to see this creature again and there she was standing in front of her - in over-tight slacks and low cut shirt with her trademark tacky, jangling jewelry - expecting to be invited in. Expecting Natalie to welcome her with open arms, as if she would be glad to see her.

Natalie allowed her into her home, hoping to be rid of her before Ivan returned from a tennis date. But Lana wanted to talk, have some lunch and just catch up on everything. She was very impressed with how well her daughter had done for herself, and wondered aloud if Natalie might have some extra cash for her "poor old mama."

Ivan returned and was quite cordial to Lana, seeing how distressed Natalie was by her visit. When finally she left, Lana made a parting comment to Natalie that she shouldn't have dyed her beautiful brown hair that awful tacky orange color and asked how she had made her blue-green eyes brown. Ivan was furious. How could she have deceived him? Why would she use something as basic as her looks to trick him. Natalie was stunned by his reaction and didn't see the fist coming, but felt the impact and heard the crack as her nose broke.

Once at the Emergency Room, they both insisted it was an accident, that Natalie had walked right into a door. Over the next two years, the trips to the Emergency Room became more frequent. After a while, Ivan didn't even go with her. While she told her mother the truth about the beatings, Natalie insisted to her girlfriends that Ivan would never raise a hand, much less a fist to her. Despite the fact that the police were called and sent to Ivan and Natalie's home on many occasions to investigate reports of domestic violence, no charges were ever filed.

What was once the perfect love affair grew more and more desperate. The fights were constant. Natalie realized Ivan was seeing other women and followed him to verify her suspicions. Though she threatened to leave him in hopes of manipulating him, she also swore if he ever left her, she would kill him.

Police believe Ivan Riesling interrupted an attempted burglary at his home late on the night of May 7, 1992 or in the early morning hours of May 8. Ivan was beaten about the head and shoulders until dead. Police later determined a bloody fire poker found at the scene was the murder weapon.

Ivan Riesling's body was discovered by his secretary on May 9, 1992. Natalie was gone, with some but not all of her things missing, as though she'd left in a hurry. Her car was also missing but found two weeks later, abandoned in Bakersfield, California. Her mother received one postcard, believed to be from Natalie, that read: "They saw me and they will kill me if I come back. Pray for me."

The last alleged sighting of Natalie Posner was in November 1997 in Aspen, Colorado. An acquaintance of Ivan Riesling's, Jim Arnold, believed he saw Natalie at a ski lodge he frequented that winter. She was thinner and her hair was brown instead of red, but according to him, the voice was the same. Mr. Arnold told police he didn't immediately recall who Natalie was and by the time he did place her, she had checked out and disappeared once again into thin air.