Never Never

April 27, 2018·29 min·2 clips

In a tiny Outback town of 12 people, Paddy Moriarty vanished without a trace, and most residents suspect murder.

Cookie is in his underwear. The heat sits somewhere between 38 and 40 degrees Celsius when the visitors turn up, and the welcome is loose enough to be funny. Then Paddy comes up. The mood changes fast. Around Larrimah, plenty of people seem to believe Paddy Moriarty was killed. Cookie knew him, but not neatly, which fits this place: fondness, feuds, threats, and neighbourly distance all packed into the same few dusty streets. Chalky was among the first people at Paddy's house. What bothers him is not blood or broken furniture. It is the stillness of the place. Paddy's bank card, keys, hat, and food were all there, which makes the idea of a casual walk feel thin. The search has not left much room for comfort. Police are not treating the disappearance like a simple mishap, and most neighbours think someone in Larrimah murdered him. That is a hard thought to carry in a town of twelve people. Suspicion is said to point at one of the remaining eleven. The narrator has her own tie to Paddy. She had met him, liked him, and heard locals talk about a chatty larrikin who seemed likely to stay put. So the pub matters. Larrimah's hotel is the town's middle, though half the town stays away because they have been banned or fallen out with the publican. Barry Sharp hangs over that world: seventy-six, slow with his pauses, drinking tea or beer, often in the same cut-off khaki shirt. The case stays close to the ground. A missing man, an untouched house, and a pub full of bad history give the investigation its first rough map. The episode does not pretend to solve it. It ends with proof, Crimestoppers, and the still-open search for what happened to Paddy Moriarty.

As heard by us

A missing-person story where the outback town itself becomes part of the case.

Lost in Larrimah treats a missing-person case as a portrait of a small outback town, where a cuppa, a pub, and a long pause can carry as much weight as any formal statement. The locals come through clearly: blunt, funny, guarded, and often profane.

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Why you'd press play

You want a tiny outback-town missing-person mystery where the pub matters as much as the police.

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