The unsolved case of Paddy Moriarty, who went missing from the tiny Northern Territory town of Larrimah, has been handed to the highest office of prosecutions to determine whether his mysterious disappearance was the result of criminal offences.
It has been five months since former NT coroner Greg Cavanagh handed down his considerations from an extended inquest, finding that even without a body he believed Mr Moriarty was killed in suspicious circumstances on the evening of December 16, 2017.
NT Police have now wrapped up their investigation and handed the file over to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
"A file has been submitted to the DPP in line with the recommendation of the coroner," an NT Police spokesman told the ABC.
Mr Moriarty, aged 70, and his red kelpie Kellie were last seen at the blink-and-you-miss-it highway town's Pink Panther Pub, where the pair would often end the day.
He rode home on his quad bike, then according to the coroner's findings, "put [a] mostly eaten chicken in the microwave, put his wallet on the table and his hat in its usual place, put the dog food in the dog's bowl and got his own meal out of the freezer."
Mr Cavanagh wrote "there is no evidence as to where he went".
"In my opinion Paddy was killed in the context of and likely due to the ongoing feud he had with his nearest neighbours," the findings read.
His disappearance triggered extensive land and air searches, which saw police sift through the town's dump, dam and surrounding scrubland.
Last year, NT Police offered up a quarter of a million dollars for information and announced they believed Mr Moriarty had been murdered.
Mr Moriarty's nearest neighbour Fran Hodgett told the inquest she had nothing to do with his disappearance and refuted claims she had offered to pay up to $10,000 for him to be killed by a hit man.
Secret recording devices hidden by police in the weeks after Mr Moriarty's disappearance at the Larrimah residence of Owen Laurie – Fran Hodgett's gardener – were also revealed to the inquest.
Eight hard-to-decipher audio clips of a man singing to himself were played to the court, each one clarified by counsel assisting the coroner Kelvin Currie.
Mr Currie told the inquest that detectives believed Mr Laurie had allegedly said he had killed Mr Moriarty with a hammer.
"I killerated old Paddy. I f***ing killerated him … struck him on the head and killerated him … basherated him, doof, yes he did, basherated him," Mr Laurie is alleged to have said in one of the recordings.
Mr Laurie told the inquest the recordings were not of him, and then exercised his right to remain silent to avoid potentially incriminating himself.
In his final findings, Mr Cavanagh wrote that the cause of death was "not able to be determined", and that he was not "permitted to include a finding or comment that a person may be guilty of an offence".
A spokesperson for the DPP confirmed the referral and said there would be no further comments.
