Netflix’s “wild” new true-crime documentary about an unsolved murder in the Australian outback has garnered rave reviews from viewers, even drawing comparisons to Tiger King.
First released on HBO in the US, Last Stop Larrimah arrived on Netflix in the UK last week, where it currently sits at No 7 position in the streamer’s Top 10 for TV shows.
The documentary takes place in Larrimah, a town “in the middle of nowhere” in Australia’s Northern Territory with just 11 residents. Back in 2017, Paddy Moriarty, 70, who retired in Larrimah in 2008, went missing with his dog. According to police, there was “no sign of any disturbance”.
He had been last seen in the Pink Panther Pub on 16 December 2018, with the authorities carrying out searches on land and in the air for him in the following weeks.
All 10 of his neighbours, each over the age of 70, were questioned by the police. But the lead suspect was Fran Hodgetts, a wild buffalo pie-maker. Hodgetts had long had feuded Moriarty, who she accused of poisoning her plants and even once throwing a dead kangaroo into her bedroom.
Following the documentary’s arrival on Netflix, viewers were quick to praise the “intriguing” story and the cast of larger-than-life characters presented, who theorise that Moriarty could have been baked into a pie or fed to the town’s crocodile.
“The characters were just as outrageous as the story,” one viewer wrote. “One of the best Netflix shows in recent times and that ending, just when you think it’s all over, brilliant. Highly recommend.”
Paddy Moriarty when missing in 2017— (HBO)
“One of the best true crime documentaries I’ve seen in a long time!! Very entertaining and compelling!” one tweet read, while another viewer called Last Stop Larrimah “frightening, fascinating, and terrifying”
“An absolute MUST watch documentary – brilliantly told and edited – riveting to the end!” one commenter wrote.
Many viewers particularly pointed out the “bonkers” cast of the documentary. “That Last Stop Larrimah is absolutely insane, there’s no way everyone there doesn’t know what happened to him,” one viewer tweeted.
Another branded the documentary the “most gonzo tale since Tiger King”, in reference to Netflix’s hugely popular docuseries about former zookeeper Joe Exotic, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison for 17 counts of animal abuse and two counts of attempted murder for attempting to kill his rival Carole Baskin.
The news of Moriarty’s appearance prompted an investigation into what had happened to him. Due to the town’s small size, all of the residents were considered potential suspects; particularly as former rodeo rider Moriarty had rowed with many of them over the years.
Moriarty had previously told other residents that even his dog wouldn’t eat her pies. So when he went missing, people began to liken her to Sweeney Todd on posters around town, with visitors asking if they could buy “Paddy pies” and implying that she had killed him and baked him into the pastry.
Hodgetts is one of the main voices in the documentary, in which she explains the source of their rivalry. While she says that Larrimah is “a better place without him”, she insists that she had nothing to do with his disappearance.
The pub barman Richard Simpson and Hodgetts’ live-in gardener Owen Laurie are also discussed as potentially playing a part in the crime. In 2022, police found recordings which appeared to show Laurie admitting to the murder.
However, Laurie denied that the recordings were of him, and the case against him was dropped. Unlike Hodgetts, he refused to be interviewed for the documentary and his lawyer declined to comment.
Moriarty’s death remains an open case, as his body was never found and never found and no arrest was made. Coroner Greg Cavanagh theorised that he was most likely killed by his neighbours due to an “ongoing feud”.
Last Stop Larrimah is on Netflix now.
