'It's kind of like Wolf Creek': Where are Paddy Moriarty and his dog Kellie?
In Larrimah in the Northern Territory, feuds run deep and grudges hold fast. In the case of missing person Paddy Moriarty, police suspect foul play and that his missing dog Kellie holds the key to unravelling the mystery.
At dusk on a stinking hot afternoon late last year, Mr Moriarty and his red kelpie cross Kellie left their local, the Pink Panther Hotel, in the remote town of Larrimah and vanished into thin air.
It was December 16.
Despite an extensive search of the area, police haven't shed any light on the disappearance and fear he may be dead.
Some of the dozen or so residents ?who have a history of long-running feuds ? are concerned the 70-year-old Irishman may have been killed.
Police have no suspects, but they have turned to a new focus. The loyal red dog Kellie.
The officer in charge of the case, Detective Sergeant Matt Allen, hopes the dog might have been dumped with a shelter or a vet and will lead them to find out what's happened to Mr Moriarty.
The town's mechanic Mark Rayner is on the same page as police.
"The key to this is the dog, the dog hasn't come back," he said.
"Find the dog, you find Paddy, we think."
A man in a garage
PHOTO: Mark Rayner works as a mechanic in Larrimah. (ABC News: Kristy O'Brien)
'It's kind of like Wolf Creek'
A man sits on a motorised Esky
PHOTO: Paddy Moriarty at an Esky race in October 2016. (Supplied)
The isolated town of Larrimah has been beset by deep enmities for many years, where residents living hundreds of metres apart completely ignore each other.
Police are treating the disappearance of the pensioner ? who came to Australia at 19 ? as suspicious, although they stress there are no suspects identified at this time.
But the town's other dozen residents are left on edge: has Mr Moriarty met a grisly end? Have the simmering tensions of the town's long-running feud boiled over to violence?
Town publican Barry Sharpe doesn't think there's a "psychopath" on the loose; he thinks it's a targeted attack.
Mr Rayner told the ABC he felt safe, but "a lot people are talking that it's kind of like Wolf Creek at the moment".
Sifting fact from rumour
Mr Moriarty has been described by friends as a jolly larrikin with a sense of humour who would do anything for his mates.
But the 70-year-old pensioner also had enemies. Two residents in the community have openly admitted in interviews with the ABC that at times they had wished him harm ? but they both add the caveat that they certainly haven't had anything to do with his disappearance.
This is a story with many layers in an isolated world whose inhabitants live differently to most Australians.
There are stories of sabotage. Pet peacocks fed to a crocodile. Roadkill used for retribution. Rivalry over the sale of meat pies.
Police now have the difficult task of sifting fact from rumour and innuendo as they investigate the case.
PHOTO: The isolated town of Larrimah, 430 kilometres south-east of Darwin. (ABC News: Ian Redfearn)
A town plagued by a feud
Larrimah is perched six hours' drive south of Darwin on the edge of the almost 3,000km-long Stuart Highway.
The road is internationally notorious for missing persons cases, especially since the disappearance of British backpacker Peter Falconio 17 years ago.
Dozens of others have gone missing on this stretch of road over the years.
Relics from its time as a transport hub during World War II are everywhere, and so are the hidden and forgotten caverns and crevices.
The town has become neglected and run down. It's a tiny blip to the travellers passing through and the competition for their attention is fierce.
A man in a cut-off shirt
PHOTO: Barry Sharpe owns Larrimah's Pink Panther Roadhouse. (ABC News: Kristy O'Brien)
The fight over pies
Passions run deep in the town and grudges hold fast. Take the meat pie war, for example.
Larrimah's two main tourist businesses ? The Pink Panther Hotel and Fran's Tea House ? are separated by a few hundred metres and a lot of bad blood.
Fran Hodgetts serves Devonshire tea and is proud of her reputation for selling meat pies.
Years ago, when publican Barry Sharpe decided the pub's pet crocodile wasn't enough of an attraction, he started to sell meat pies in direct competition. Mrs Hodgetts was not impressed.
A crocodile snaps its jaws on a feed of chicken
PHOTO: Larrimah pub's crocodile "Sneeky Sam" snaps the chicken fed to it by publican Barry Sharpe. (ABC News: Anna Henderson)
"There's no claim to saying, 'I sell pies so you can't sell pies'. It's like saying to you, 'I sell soft drinks so you can't sell them'. It's ridiculous," he said.
Mrs Hodgetts' business is across the road from Mr Moriarty's house. The neighbours were once amicable but things turned sour.
Mrs Hodgetts accused Mr Moriarty of waging a vendetta against her in an interview with the ABC before Christmas.
"I stopped him coming here and that's where all the trouble started. He started pinching stuff, pinching umbrellas from here, damaging my property and give me big heaps of cheek and telling customers not to come in, putting broken glass under car wheels?" she said.
They'd pull up in front of his place and he'd tell them not to come in here, nothing was homemade. I mean, I'm not rubbishing the man!
Fran Hodgetts
PHOTO: Fran Hodgetts in Larrimah this week. (ABC News: Kristy O'Brien)
'
The dog wouldn't eat Fran's pie'
In a never-before-seen ABC interview with former ABC senior journalist Murray McLaughlin from 2011, Mr Moriarty spoke about Mrs Hodgetts. He was disparaging about her pie shop.
"Fran's got the worst pies. And I'll f***ing tell you that," he said.
They were shit over there, I used to go over there and the dog wouldn't eat Fran's pies.
More recently, Mrs Hodgetts accused Mr Moriarty of putting a dead kangaroo under her house.
Before Christmas, Mrs Hodgetts spoke to reporters about the missing persons search.
"I don't know where he is and I'm not sad that he's gone. But I hope they find him because I've had so much trouble with him," she said.
When the ABC approached Mrs Hodgetts this week, she declined an interview.
"I don't know nothing ? the lawyers said not to say nothing, we don't say nothing."
It's just one of the major feuds the town has seen. In an earlier scrap with a now defunct petrol station, the pub's pet peacocks were fed to a crocodile in retaliation for the death of a pet buffalo that was turned into pies.
PHOTO: Richard Simpson and Barry Sharpe man the bar at Larrimah, where Paddy Moriarty was last seen. (ABC News: Kirsty O'Brien)
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