The Widow of Walcha is a shocking true story about death, love and lies in the small NSW town of Walcha.
All farmer Mathew Dunbar ever wanted was to find love and have a family of his own. That’s why the much-loved grazier didn’t hesitate to sign over his multi-million-dollar estate to his partner, Natasha Darcy, just months after meeting her.
‘Don’t forget you need to change your will’, 46-year-old Natasha texted Mathew.
After ensuring she was the sole beneficiary of his estate, Darcy adopted a false name to source animal sedatives, which were later blended with a cocktail of drugs before she gassed the 42-year-old with a canister of helium on his property, Pandora.
In a stranger than fiction twist, Natasha’s estranged husband – who she was once charged with trying to kill – was the first paramedic on the scene after the murder.
Police later uncovered hundreds of Google searches made by Natasha in the lead-up to Mathew’s death, including ‘toxic wild plants that look like food’ and ‘the science of getting away with murder’. Following a two-month trial in the NSW Supreme Court, a jury found Natasha guilty of murdering Mathew in June 2021.
Journalist and author Emma Partridge travelled to the cool and misty town of Walcha in the Northern Tablelands of NSW in the months after Mathew Dunbar's death, drawn by the town's collective worry Natasha was going to get away with murder. Partridge spent months researching the case, interviewing Mathew’s friends, family and Natasha herself in an attempt to uncover her sickening web of lies and crimes.
The Widow of Walcha is about one of the most extraordinary criminal trials in Australia’s history and reveals Natasha’s sickening crimes against other partners, fuelled by her obsession with money.
Share This Book: