Reddit sleuths help David Ryan find owner of lost 20-year-old diary

“If you’re about to read this, bloody don’t!’

Those were the first words David Ryan read when he opened a book found at the back of a cupboard during the tenant inspection of his new apartment in Melbourne in 2016.

“I opened it up and my jaw just dropped,” he said.

“Sitting in an empty apartment where every sound echoes, I felt like I was in the opening act of a horror movie.

“I kept reading.”

David had found a diary that had been written at least 15 years before.

The book itself looked its age, with a manky green cover that had been…