The house at the center of the Outback cold case mystery of the man and his dog who disappeared from a small remote town is up for auction today.
Paddy Moriarty and his red kelpie cross Kellie were last seen leaving the Pink Panther Hotel in the Northern Territory town of Larrimah, population 12 (now seven), on the afternoon of December 16, 2017.
Irish-born Mr Moriarty, who had been embroiled in a dispute with his nearest neighbors in a small town, was heading home 280 meters from the pub.
Last seen wearing a T-shirt, dark shorts, a silver watch and black thongs, the 70-year-old got on his red quad bike with Kellie and drove away.
Neither Paddy nor Kellie were seen alive again, nor were their bodies found.
Now, in one of the final chapters of the mystery, his house will go up for auction when it goes on sale on Tuesday.
Paddy Moriarty ‘was murdered’ after a fight with his neighbors in 2017 – but the bodies of the Outback man and his dog were never found. Now his house in the small town of Larrimah is for sale.
Paddy’s home in Larrimah, population 7, is being auctioned in the Northern Territory after he was murdered in December 2017 and his remains were never recovered.
Larrimah, with a population of seven, is located 999 km north of Alice Springs and 498 km south of Darwin along the Stuart Highway.
The run-down fibro house in Larrimah, located on the Stuart Highway, 498km south of Darwin and 999km north of Alice Springs, is being sold as-is and may struggle to reach six figures.
But real estate agents hope his connection to the famous case could spark an unlikely bidding war.
Mr Moriarty’s disappearance from such a small community, whose population has now been reduced to seven, sparked wild rumors of murder and a gruesome end.
Stories about Paddy ending up in local handmade pies, or in the belly of Sneaky Sam, the Pink Panther’s resident crocodile, have revolved around mystery.
Police immediately suspected foul play and installed recording devices at the home of local man Owen Laurie two weeks after Moriarty disappeared.
In 2022, an inquest heard alleged recordings from Laurie’s home in Larrimah, in which a voice says: “The f***er killed Paddy, hit him on the head.”
‘I hit him in the fucking nostrils with my hammer’ and ‘I killed old Paddy… I hit him in the fucking head and I killed the bastard… I beat him up’.
Mr Laurie denied that the voice was his. He had worked as a janitor and gardener for Frances Hodgetts and lived on her property where she ran Fran’s Teahouse, opposite Moriarty’s house.
Hodgetts, who has since left Larrimah, allegedly had a long-running dispute with Moriarty, whom he suspected of repeatedly poisoning his plants, the investigation heard.
The inquest heard she had warned Moriarty, saying: “If anyone touches my garden it will be the first murder in Larrimah.”
Northern Territory coroner Greg Cavanagh concluded that “Paddy was murdered in the context of and probably because of the ongoing dispute he was having with his nearest neighbours.”
“He probably died on the night of December 16, 2017.”
Wild rumors about Paddy and dog Kellie’s gruesome disappearance after they disappeared included them being made into cakes and fed to the local crocodile, Sam.
Larrimah’s famous Pink Panther Hotel has its own resident crocodile, Sam, and can also be put up for sale in the Northern Territory town.
However, he said the 70-year-old’s cause of death “could not be determined.”
But he added: “It is possible that crimes may have been committed in relation to the death of Patrick Joseph Moriarty and… I inform the Commissioner of Police and the Director of Public Prosecutions of my belief.”
The case was turned into an award-winning podcast, Lost in Larrimah, and Moriarty’s home now appears on Google Maps as “Paddy’s Place.”
The house, which is on Stuart Highway, is in the state it was in when Paddy disappeared, but weathered and overgrown.
local told ABC that they hoped its sale would bring fresh blood to the dying city.
Larrimah has been slowly shrinking since the Second World War, when nearby Gorrie was Australia’s largest military base.
Australia’s longest dirt runway at Gorrie remains, but Pink Panther publican Steve Baldwin said he also wants to put the hotel up for sale.
However, he predicted the city’s population would “explode” in the coming years due to its proximity to the Beetaloo Basin gas fields, 250 kilometers southeast of the city.
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