Feuding townsfolk suspects in disappearance

He was a solitary Irishman who drifted across the Australian Outback for most of his 71 years. Now an entire town is being asked if they know how he died.

A strange coroner’s inquiry has begun into the disappearance of Paddy Moriarty, pictured, just before Christmas from Larrimah, a community on the edge of the desert 480km south of Darwin.

In a rare window into life in Australia’s remote interior, all 12 of Larrimah’s residents – some of whom loathe each other, and many of whom disliked Moriarty – are being questioned in court about what they know about the former rodeo rider’s disappearance.

The hearing has been hastily brought forward by a magistrate because of fears that the townsfolk, all aged over 70 and in varying degrees of health, may not be available as witnesses for much longer.

Moriarty and his dog, Kellie, vanished from his home in a disused petrol station at the edge of town, leaving an untouched chicken dinner and a crumpled hat he never left home without.

Moriarty arrived in Australia alone from Ireland as a teenager, never married, and had worked peripatetically on Outback cattle stations before retiring to Larrimah a decade ago. He habitually drank eight beers each afternoon, crossed the day off his calendar, and went to bed in the early evening.

He was last seen ambling from the town’s bar, the Pink Panther, to his home on the late afternoon of December 16. Police believe that he is dead.

The detective heading the investigation told the opening of the inquest that police had scoured the town, its rubbish dump, dam and hundreds of kilometres of ground for Moriarty, and were confident that his body would have been found ‘‘if he was above ground’’.

The inquest heard that the town had been beset by feuds between Moriarty and other residents, many caused by his disdain for the town’s sole cafe and its owner, Fran Hodgetts, and her home-made pies, which Moriarty discouraged passing travellers from eating. Hodgetts, who lived next door to Moriarty, claimed that he placed dead kangaroos beneath her house and she had sued him unsuccessfully for poisoning her garden.

There are allegations that arguments in the town led to pets being kidnapped and fed to the community’s caged crocodile, Sneaky Sam.

One resident who used to work for Hodgetts told the inquest that the cafe owner repeatedly threatened to kill Moriarty. Bobbie Roth, who has lived in Larrimah for 19 years, was in tears as she told the coroner, Greg Cavanagh: ‘‘She used to say, ‘I’ll kill Paddy’. She didn’t like Paddy, she was always accusing him of stealing things from her property. Magazines would go missing off the tables and she’d always blame Paddy.’’

Moriarty was certainly no saint. He frequently called his next-door neighbour ‘‘the bush pig’’.

He once told a television interviewer that he liked living in Larrimah but that the people there didn’t get on.

‘‘Fran’s got the worst pies. I used to go over there and the dog wouldn’t eat Fran’s pie,’’ he said.

Hodgetts’s home has been repeatedly searched. She denies any knowledge of his whereabouts.

– The Times