Larrimah: Missing man Paddy Moriarty’s neighbour Fran Hodgetts prepares to sell slice of true crime history

A woman at the centre of a high-profile murder mystery is selling her “unique” Outback property — with its slice of true crime history and unusual chattels — after being “cleared” of involvement in the disappearance of her closest neighbour.

The most famous living resident of the tiny Northern Territory town of Larrimah, Frances Hodgetts, is reluctantly preparing to offload the home she has lived in for more than five decades.

“I want $350,000 and no less because the teahouse is ready to go,” the star of Netflix documentary Last Stop Larrimah said.

“I’m not asking a million dollars, right?

“What I want to do is just get enough to buy a house in Katherine and have $10,000 in the bank for my super because I haven’t had any super.

“It’s worth a lot more due to its position on the highway but I don’t want to make it so high that I can’t sell it.”

Ms Hodgetts, 81, told The Nightly she needs to sell her 6800sqm property — including her famous tea house and pie shop — so she can move about 160km up the Stuart Highway to Katherine.

“The reason I’m selling it is not because I don’t like living here,” she said.

“I’ve got to travel to Katherine for the doctor and for groceries and everything. I have to be practical.”

The deal

Included in the chattels is her “renovated” hospitality business with new appliances, highway signage, a hand-written recipe book and her “phenomenal” good name.

Ms Hodgetts said the teahouse comes fully equipped with white goods and appliances including a coffee machine, waffle maker and cake mixer.

“The shop is all passed by the health department and is ready to go,” she said.

“My reputation goes with it and I’m willing to give my recipe book out which nobody has ever had. They’ve never had my recipes for my pies.”

The handwritten book also includes her formulas for cold drinks including her old-fashioned lemon squash.

“In other words, it’s lemon cordial, soda water and crushed ice,” she said.

“It’s what you used to have when you went to the pub.

“You know the old-fashioned lemon squash? That’s the one I make here and I put that recipe in.”

The recipe book also includes her apple, lemon and ginger slices.

“Then I’ve got my strudel which is the same as that, only you put dried Christmas fruit in it,” she said.

“The point is, my reputation is known all over the world; not just in the Territory or Australia.

“Visitors from all over the world still come here looking for me and asking ‘Where’s my pies?’”

Ms Hodgetts said 18 solar panels and four satellite dishes had been installed on top of her three-bedroom house.

It also comes with sheds, a “proper” septic pump, rainwater tanks, a ride-on mower, an aromatherapy spa, tools and gazebos.

“I was the first one ever to put homemade pies, pasties and sausage rolls in the Territory. My reputation is phenomenal,” she said.

“I’m willing to give my reputation and my signs.

“If they can keep my name on it, they’re going to get more people in and if they do a good job they’re going to come back.

“They can use my name as long as nothing falls back on me.”

Ms Hodgetts said her property — which was once the Larrimah police station, officers’ accommodation and trackers’ quarters — comes with “the lot”.

Her giant rainwater tank has been unblocked of leaves for the wet season and the dwellings have been free of white ants since she had them rebuilt with steel.

The grandmother of about “a dozen or so” children said the 1.71-acre block of land was “big enough to have three houses on it” or be turned into a small caravan park.

“Plus, it’s on the highway. As you come into Larrimah my place is the first one on the right-hand side,” she said.

“There’s a bit of work to be done on it but if they get the shop working, that pays for the house, which is what I did.”

There is also a furnished bungalow where her former gardener Owen Laurie had lived from early September 2017 until roughly early 2019.

Larrimah resident of fifty-five years

Ms Hodgetts has lived at Larrimah for the last fifty-five years except for a recent stint in Melbourne while battling cancer.

Since returning to Larrimah, the pie cook — who now relies on an electric scooter to get around — has been unable to operate her teahouse due to her worsening osteoarthritis.

The hospitality business has not been valued but “has been advertised all over the world”.

“The land valuer said he can’t value the tea house,” she said.

“He said to me ‘Fran, your place is so hard to value because it’s so unique. I’ve never ever seen anything like it’.”

“Even though it needs a bit of plumbing work done to it around the windows and floors they could make something out of it.”

The property sits right on the Stuart Highway, the Territory’s main artery, about five hours south of Darwin.

It’s across the road from where her nearest neighbour and mortal enemy, Patrick ‘Paddy’ Moriarty, had lived before he vanished almost seven years ago.

Paddy Moriarty

Moriarty was last seen at dusk on December 16, 2017 leaving the Larrimah Hotel on his quad bike with his red kelpie, Kellie.

Despite many searches and investigations, there has been no trace of the 70-year-old or his dog since.

In 2022, then-Northern Territory coroner Greg Cavanagh determined Moriarty — an Irish immigrant — was killed in the “context of, and likely due, to the ongoing feud he had with his nearest neighbours”.

Mr Cavanagh was referring to Ms Hodgetts and Mr Laurie.

Ms Hodgetts had been feuding with Moriarty for years.

During the missing man’s coronial inquest, Mr Laurie was allegedly heard on eight covert recordings singing songs to himself about how he had “killerated” and “basherated” Moriarty “with me claw hammer”.

Mr Laurie told the inquest that he did not make the comments.

Police maintain Moriarty was murdered and are offering a reward of $250,000 for information leading to the location of his body and the conviction of the person or people responsible for his death.

Ms Hodgetts denies any involvement.

“The police cleared me,” she said this week.

“They came here and shook my hand and said they knew I had nothing to do with it.

“But I believe in karma and all the time he was doing wrong to me, I was thinking ‘something’s gonna happen to him, he can’t do this to people all of the time’.”

Ms Hodgetts insists she has not seen or spoken to Mr Laurie for years.

“He never did anything to me and when he was here, he was marvellous and he loved it here,” she said.

“But he didn’t like the way Paddy treated me and what he did to me.

“I don’t know if Owen did it but — to be honest — if he did, he did me a favour cos I’ve never been so happy here as I am now.

“It’s never been so quiet in Larrimah … It’s beautiful.”

In June the NT Director of Public Prosecutions announced it would not lay any charges related to Moriarty’s disappearance due to “insufficient evidence”.

Moriarty’s case, and Larrimah itself, has been the focus of intense police scrutiny and media attention ever since he disappeared.

Earlier this year Moriarty’s vacant home — a one-bed and one-bath property — sold for $32,000 at auction but Ms Hodgetts was unfazed by the low price his place had fetched.

“Paddy’s house is a real dump,” she said.

How to buy Fran Hodgetts’ home

Ms Hodgetts said anyone who is interested in purchasing her property should contact her via The Nightly.

“You can ring me and tell me if they’re interested and would like to come and see it,” she said. “And I can do a quick vacuum.”