The remains of an Australian pub landlord who disappeared while out fishing with friends have been found inside the stomachs of two large crocodiles.
Kevin Darmody, 65, was last seen on the banks of a river in a national park in Queensland – specifically, Kennedy’s Bend, a well-known saltwater crocodile habitat.
After a two-day scearch of the area, police euthanised the crocodiles and cut them open, revealing human body parts.
Authorities lamented Mr Darmody’s “tragic ending” and said a formal identification process would be carried out.
Mr Darmody was an experienced fisherman and ran a pub in the small town of Laura.
The two crocodiles, which measured 4.1m and 2.8m in length, were shot dead last Monday around 1.5km from where he was last seen.
Michael Joyce, from Queensland’s wildlife management team, said they were shot from a distance upstream “within 10 seconds” one one another.
The fishermen who had been with Mr Darmody did not see the attack, but reported hearing a yell and a loud splash.
“I raced down… but there was no sign of him, just his thongs [flip-flops] on the bank and nothing else,” his friend John Peiti told Cape York Weekly.
Meanwhile, Bart Harrison, a resident from nearby Cooktown, said he and a friend had rushed to the scene after hearing what happened.
“A lad came up on the road shouting ‘he’s gone, he’s gone’ and my mate ran down the bank and said the water was all stirred up and dirty, you could see something bad happened,” Mr Harrison told the Cairns Post.
“He was standing right there fishing a few minutes earlier, then he was gone, his thongs were left on the bank,” he added.
“He had lived up here since I was a kid, been at the pub a long time, went fishing a lot. He knew the river pretty well, it really is sad.”
Though crocodiles are common in Queensland, attacks are rare. Mr Darmody’s death is just the 13th fatal attack in the region since record-keeping began in 1985.
“This is the second time this has occurred, the last one was during the Hinchinbrook fatality, and it is certainly something we’re learning,” Mr Joyce told ABC News.
“It’s obviously something that does occur in crocodile populations.”
One local told The Telegraph that Steve Irwin, the television personality known as The Crocodile Hunter, who was killed by a stingray in 2006, used to release troublesome crocodiles in the area.
Cameron McDougall, a recreational fisherman, said: “There’s one that we know pretty well. Over the years I’ve said, ‘This crocodile is going to eat someone one day’ because he’ll follow you up and sit right at the bank.”
