Lost In Larrimah
One outback town. Twelve residents. One murder-mystery.
When Paddy Moriarty left the pub on his quad bike along with his red kelpie Kellie on a late summer’s night in December 2017, it was just like any other day.
The 70-year-old local larrikin made it home – his treasured hat was in its usual place, there was food in the dog’s bowl and his own meal out of the freezer, thawing. But neither Paddy nor Kellie were seen again.
Despite extensive searches and a coronial inquest, Paddy’s disappearance initially stumped NT police.
A year later, writers Caroline Graham and Kylie Stevenson travelled to Larrimah after hearing about Paddy’s case, and began asking questions, uncovering new leads.
With more than 40 hours of recorded interviews, feuds were exposed, neighbourly disagreements unearthed, frank conversations with witnesses were had and foul play was established.
“We’ve gone back and forth so many times – the landscape is so harsh, there’s so little evidence in Paddy’s case. [The coroner’s finding] was much more than what we thought was possible,” Caroline, 38, tells Woman’s Day. “Podcasts bring a degree of closeness to a story, and that’s been a really good way to get the public invested in these stories.”
In April, an inquest into Paddy’s death found he was “killed in the context of and likely due to an ongoing feud he had with his nearest neighbours”.
The case has now been referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions.