Suspected killing of Paddy Moriarty focus of new HBO doco Last Stop Larrimah

One of the Territory’s most remote towns is in the global spotlight as new HBO doco Last Stop Larrimah investigates the suspected killing of Paddy Moriarty.

A new HBO documentary on the mysterious disappearance of Paddy Moriarty has drawn global attention to one of the Territory’s most notorious tales.

Last Stop Larrimah hit Australian screens on Netflix last week, following its world premier at the iconic Texas festival South by Southwest in March and a general release in the US earlier this month.

Moriarty and his kelpie were last seen leaving Larrimah’s iconic Pink Panther pub on the evening of December 16, 2017, with no trace of them found to this day.

Director Thomas Tancred said it was the “fantastic characters” of the town that drew him to the story, but it wasn’t easy getting people to talk.

“I was kind of giving up the dream … I spent six months trying to do this, I gotta find the next (story),” he told US talk show The View.

But in a last ditch phone call to the pub Mr Tancred found himself talking to then owner Barry, one Moriarty’s best mates.

There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by Barry.

“He’s like, ‘No, I’m not going to talk to you,” Mr Tancred said.

“We just kept talking for a while, and then he said, ‘If you fly here, I will talk to you’.

“I was like, if I can get to Barry – because the pub in the town is kind of like the heart, that’s all they have – if I can get to him, maybe I can get to the rest of them. That’s how it all started,” he said.

Mr Tancred described Larrimah as “like a high school with a bunch of 70-year-olds”.

“The town is very divided … they’re either with Barry in the pub, or they’re on the other team.”

Paddy Moriarty was last seen leaving Larrimah’s pub in December 2017. Pic: Helen Orr

By the end of filming, he said he had “a pretty good idea” what happened to Moriarty.

“There’s parts that aren’t able to get into the film, but you learn a lot about these people and people will tell you things on the side.”

Moriarty’s disappearance first captured local audiences in the Walkley Award-winning podcast Lost in Larrimah.

Podcast makers Kylie Stevenson and Caroline Graham had struck a deal with HBO, but the agreement lapsed during Covid and they were not affiliated with Mr Tancred’s documentary.

“I can’t wait to see his finished product,” Ms Stevenson said.

A coronial inquest into Moriarty’s disappearance concluded that he likely died on the day he went missing.

While the coroner was unable to make a finding as to who had killed Moriarty, he found “Paddy and his dog were killed in the context of, and likely due, to the ongoing feud that he had with his nearest neighbours”.

No charges have ever been laid.

Originally published as Suspected killing of Paddy Moriarty focus of new HBO doco Last Stop Larrimah