In Larrimah in the Northern Territory, feuds run deep and grudges hold fast. In the case of missing person Paddy Moriarty, police suspect foul play and that his missing dog Kellie holds the key to unravelling the mystery.

At dusk on a stinking hot afternoon late last year, Mr Moriarty and his red kelpie cross Kellie left their local, the Pink Panther Hotel, in the remote town of Larrimah and vanished into thin air.

It was December 16.

Despite an extensive search of the area, police haven't shed any light on the disappearance and fear he may be dead.

Some of the dozen or so residents —who have a history of long-running feuds — are concerned the 70-year-old Irishman may have been killed.

Police have no suspects, but they have turned to a new focus. The loyal red dog Kellie.

The officer in charge of the case, Detective Sergeant Matt Allen, hopes the dog might have been dumped with a shelter or a vet and will lead them to find out what's happened to Mr Moriarty.

The town's mechanic Mark Rayner is on the same page as police.

"The key to this is the dog, the dog hasn't come back," he said.

"Find the dog, you find Paddy, we think."

'It's kind of like Wolf Creek'

The isolated town of Larrimah has been beset by deep enmities for many years, where residents living hundreds of metres apart completely ignore each other.

Police are treating the disappearance of the pensioner — who came to Australia at 19 — as suspicious, although they stress there are no suspects identified at this time.

But the town's other dozen residents are left on edge: has Mr Moriarty met a grisly end? Have the simmering tensions of the town's long-running feud boiled over to violence?

Town publican Barry Sharpe doesn't think there's a "psychopath" on the loose; he thinks it's a targeted attack.

Mr Rayner told the ABC he felt safe, but "a lot people are talking that it's kind of like Wolf Creek at the moment".

Sifting fact from rumour

Mr Moriarty has been described by friends as a jolly larrikin with a sense of humour who would do anything for his mates.

But the 70-year-old pensioner also had enemies. Two residents in the community have openly admitted in interviews with the ABC that at times they had wished him harm — but they both add the caveat that they certainly haven't had anything to do with his disappearance.

This is a story with many layers in an isolated world whose inhabitants live differently to most Australians.

There are stories of sabotage. Pet peacocks fed to a crocodile. Roadkill used for retribution. Rivalry over the sale of meat pies.

Police now have the difficult task of sifting fact from rumour and innuendo as they investigate the case.

A town plagued by a feud

Larrimah is perched six hours' drive south of Darwin on the edge of the almost 3,000km-long Stuart Highway.

The road is internationally notorious for missing persons cases, especially since the disappearance of British backpacker Peter Falconio 17 years ago.

Dozens of others have gone missing on this stretch of road over the years.

Relics from its time as a transport hub during World War II are everywhere, and so are the hidden and forgotten caverns and crevices.

The town has become neglected and run down. It's a tiny blip to the travellers passing through and the competition for their attention is fierce.

The fight over pies

Passions run deep in the town and grudges hold fast. Take the meat pie war, for example.

Larrimah's two main tourist businesses — The Pink Panther Hotel and Fran's Tea House — are separated by a few hundred metres and a lot of bad blood.

Fran Hodgetts serves Devonshire tea and is proud of her reputation for selling meat pies.

Years ago, when publican Barry Sharpe decided the pub's pet crocodile wasn't enough of an attraction, he started to sell meat pies in direct competition. Mrs Hodgetts was not impressed.

"There's no claim to saying, 'I sell pies so you can't sell pies'. It's like saying to you, 'I sell soft drinks so you can't sell them'. It's ridiculous," he said.

Mrs Hodgetts' business is across the road from Mr Moriarty's house. The neighbours were once amicable but things turned sour.

Mrs Hodgetts accused Mr Moriarty of waging a vendetta against her in an interview with the ABC before Christmas.

"I stopped him coming here and that's where all the trouble started. He started pinching stuff, pinching umbrellas from here, damaging my property and give me big heaps of cheek and telling customers not to come in, putting broken glass under car wheels…" she said.

"They'd pull up in front of his place and he'd tell them not to come in here, nothing was homemade. I mean, I'm not rubbishing the man!"

'The dog wouldn't eat Fran's pie'

In a never-before-seen ABC interview with former ABC senior journalist Murray McLaughlin from 2011, Mr Moriarty spoke about Mrs Hodgetts. He was disparaging about her pie shop.

"Fran's got the worst pies. And I'll f***ing tell you that," he said.

"They were shit over there, I used to go over there and the dog wouldn't eat Fran's pies."

More recently, Mrs Hodgetts accused Mr Moriarty of putting a dead kangaroo under her house.

Before Christmas, Mrs Hodgetts spoke to reporters about the missing persons search.

"I don't know where he is and I'm not sad that he's gone. But I hope they find him because I've had so much trouble with him," she said.

When the ABC approached Mrs Hodgetts this week, she declined an interview.

"I don't know nothing … the lawyers said not to say nothing, we don't say nothing."

It's just one of the major feuds the town has seen. In an earlier scrap with a now defunct petrol station, the pub's pet peacocks were fed to a crocodile in retaliation for the death of a pet buffalo that was turned into pies.

Life at the country pub

There is more drama at the pub too. Mr Sharpe is ill and wants to sell up.

He has been trying to sell the pub for some time, and plans to put it up for auction in March so he can focus on his treatment.

Mr Moriarty's daily routine was to help Mr Sharpe clean the toilets and shower cubicles out the back before settling in at the bar for the afternoon.

He usually bought eight mid strength beers. On the day he went missing, Mr Sharpe says he had consumed about 10 XXXX cans.

That's backed up by bartender Richard Simpson, who has lived in Larrimah several times and recently returned to work in the pub when he heard Mr Sharpe was unwell.

He says Mr Moriarty had a bit of a "wobbly boot", but was not intoxicated when he left.

Mr Simpson is pretty sure he knows what happened, but he does offer an alternative theory.

"OK, 2 per cent it might be aliens right," he said.

"There ain't no f***ing aliens that have captured Paddy and if they had have done they would have dropped him back by now, cause he would have talked them into it."

'His own worst enemy'

Mrs Hodgetts wasn't the only resident to have frustrations with Mr Moriarty. Barry "Cookie" Burke said he "was his own worst enemy" and would "make trouble in an empty house".

He said despite their falling out, it wasn't motivation to kill him.

"I'm flat out here doing what I'm doing. I got no time to muck around going down there and doing freaking stupid things like that," he said.

"I'll be honest with you, I felt like breaking the guy's neck sometimes, but it never happened."

The ABC asked every resident who was interviewed whether they had anything to do with Mr Moriarty's disappearance — each one said no.

Billy Hodgetts met Mr Moriarty 30 years ago working on stations — he's also Fran's ex-husband.

"I think someone has killed him, for sure, if he was going somewhere he would have taken his car, wouldn't he, and he never went out without his hat," Mr Hodgetts said.

The only missing thing

Mr Sharpe at the pub raised the alarm with police when Mr Moriarty and his dog failed to turn up for their usual afternoon beers.

Detective Sergeant Allen has confirmed police are investigating the feuds as part of their missing persons inquiry.

"If the feud leads to working out what happens to Paddy, so be it. But it's not the only thing we are investigating," he said.

Kellie is the only thing missing from Mr Moriarty's house: his car is in the drive and his reading glasses, wallet and hat — which he always wore because he was bald — are all accounted for. He hasn't accessed his bank accounts.

Mr Moriarty got the dog about three months before he disappeared, not long after his last dog Rover had to be put down. The pair went everywhere together; kelpies are known for their loyalty.

The last known person to see Mr Moriarty is a backpacker, who gave him a chicken as a gift for Kellie. The wrapper and chicken were still in the microwave when police searched Mr Moriarty's house.

A thorough investigation

Police have interviewed every resident, tourists who passed through the town, people who live on the sprawling cattle stations around the town and some previous residents.

They've scoured the surrounding area. The local tip has been sifted, an area Mr Moriarty was known to visit on his regular morning walks with his dog.

Police investigated the possibility of sinkholes in the limestone rock around the region, but ruled them out.

A car linked to one resident was taken away and forensically searched. It has since been returned.

Police have failed to find any relatives of Mr Moriarty, despite reaching out to the Irish police and notifying Interpol that he is missing. They haven't located any next of kin in Australia either.

They can't rule out that their extensive searches of the surrounding bush have missed something and concede there are many places where Mr Moriarty's body could be hidden or lost.

Detective Sergeant Allen says the evidence is not pointing to misadventure or a suicide at this stage.

He is worried this could turn out to be something more sinister.

The search for Kellie

Detective Sergeant Allen hopes the dog is still alive and it may have been taken to a dog shelter interstate, or adopted by an unsuspecting new owner.

"I want to reach out to all dog shelters, animal shelters, vets or any person who's come across or is a new owner of a red kelpie cross, about 12 months old, anywhere in Australia," Mr Allen told the ABC.

Police describe Kellie as having big ears, a white chest and a small white patch on the nose.

Detective Sergeant Allen also called for anyone who travelled in the area on December 16 who hasn't spoken to police to get in touch.

If you have any information, call Northern Territory Police on 131 444.

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