Tiny town of Larrimah torn by a long-running feud and a missing man

Paddy Moriarty was last seen dragging a dead kangaroo by its tail; NT pie shop owner says cops accused her over his disappearance.

Missing man Paddy Moriarty outside the Larrimah pub with his dog.

The exasperated owner of a landmark Northern Territory pie shop has told how police privately ­accused her of knowing where to find the body of missing man Paddy Moriarty.

Fran Hodgetts says she has been an open book with police since they began investigating Mr Moriarty’s disappearance from Larrimah, about 500km south of Darwin, more than two months ago. Denying any knowledge of what happened to Mr Moriarty, she has been peppered with questions from detectives about her live-in gardener, a reclusive “bushie” known only as Owen.

In repeated searches of her property, police have drained her septic tank, scoured her garden and examined her incinerator. Last weekend — when she was doing a crossword and Owen was “singing to the flowers” — police turned up again. This time they had a warrant to seize hammers and a pair of light-tan shoes. “Nobody wears shoes in the Territory,” she scoffed, in an interview with The Australian. Police left with two hammers and a hacksaw, which she says Owen used to cut up turkey and beef.

“They went through Owen’s place, they went through my place again, all through me knicker drawer, all through me bag, they went through everything.

“They went through me tea house — I think they must have thought I had Paddy pies in my freezer or something, all jokes aside. They opened me freezers and looked in me freezers in the shop.”

Fran Hodgetts outside her pie shop in Larrimah.

Although its population can be counted on two hands, Larrimah has been beset by long-running feuds, with Ms Hodgetts and Mr Moriarty at loggerheads for years.

Days before Mr Moriarty went missing, Ms Hodgetts looked out her window and saw him dragging a dead kangaroo by the tail and dumping it in front of her home. She says when she went to provide police a statement last month, a detective insisted: “You know where Paddy’s body is.”

Police have since told her she has been cleared and know she had nothing to do with Mr ­Moriarty’s suspected death, Ms Hodgetts says.

That hasn’t eased the concerns of the 75-year-old. Police told her last month that her gardener refused to talk to them and one line of inquiry was whether Owen’s dog, a pit bull, fought with Mr ­Moriarty’s dog, a red kelpie cross.

“I said, ‘do you know why he doesn’t talk to media and to the police? Because he doesn’t know anything, he never done anything’,” Ms Hodgetts said.

Ms Hodgetts has developed a firm friendship with Owen since he responded to her job advertisement and came to work for her in exchange for board about six months ago.

But as to whether there was anything more between them, she says she “laughed my f..king head off” when police asked if they were in a romantic relationship.

“You haven’t seen Owen. He’s 71,” said Ms Hodgetts. “He lives in his house, I live in mine. There’s nothing between us. He’s just a worker.

“They’ve been trying to turn me. I’m cleared. They told me they trust me, they believe me. They’re trying to break me up with Owen. I said no. Owen’s only been here six months but he’s trustworthy, he’s honest. You work with somebody, you know them.”

With no body, it’s not clear yet whether this a murder-mystery or just a mystery. Mr Moriarty, 70, went missing from his home, across the road from Ms Hodgetts’ shop, after earlier consuming 10 cans of beer at Larrimah’s Pink Panther Hotel on December 16.

He left behind his car, reading glasses, wallet and hat. Searchers around the outback town did not find any trace of him, or his dog, Kellie.

Fran Hodgetts with signs displaying her tea shop’s fare.

Ms Hodgetts says she read up on the case on a computer at her solicitor’s office because she doesn’t have one of her own.

The most likely explanation was that Mr Moriarty took his dog for a walk and became lost, she says. “Man leads dog. Man takes dog in the bush for a run. And he lets it off the leash.

“Dog didn’t come back. Man goes looking for dog. They can’t find the dog, they can’t find the man and they can’t find the lead.

“If anybody’s going to bump Paddy off, they’re not going to worry about a dog.

“Who would kill a dog? C’mon. I know I couldn’t. I know Owen, he loves animals. He loves dogs.”

For many years travellers on the Stuart Highway have stopped at her business, Fran’s Devonshire tea House, for her homemade goods including her famous buffalo, camel and crocodile pies.

She says Mr Moriarty harassed many of those customers, telling them to eat elsewhere.

It went back to bad blood ­between the pair over false and malicious rumours she says Mr Moriarty spread around town about her business being unclean.

“I was going through hell. But that doesn’t give the right for anybody to do anything to Paddy,” she said.

Pink Panther publican Barry Sharpe doubted Mr Moriarty, an experienced bushman, became lost. “He’s lived his whole life in the bush. He come out when he was 19 from Ireland and went straight to a cattle station,” he said. “No, he got into trouble with somebody and somebody got the better of him, I’d say.”

Mr Sharpe ruled out any ­involvement of his own 3.5m pet crocodile, Sam, who lives in a pen behind the pub.

“I’ve heard the theory someone’s thrown him to the croc. That didn’t happen,” he said.

“Nobody can get to him — he’s in a well-made pen, locked.”

He played down the conflict in the town. “Everything’s all right. A lot of things have been put out of context. We don’t spend our day going around fighting with the neighbours.”

NT Police said in a statement they “still don’t know what happened to Paddy and Kellie” and the priority remained for investigators to find them.