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In a Town of 11 People, Mysterious Disappearance Turns Neighbor Against Neighbor
- danso 8y agoGoogle Maps of Larrimah, fwiw: https://goo.gl/maps/h4xiyGcRAeA2 https://goo.gl/maps/h4xiyGcRAeA2 (the Street View car apparently decided to skip going into town)
- lucb1e 8y agoLooks like local openstreetmappers also decided to skip it: https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=17/-15.57428/133.21534 https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=17/-15.57428/133.21534
- King-Aaron 8y agoThat's because Katherine is just around the corner, and has a better pub
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- yreg 8y agoI like the `Rubbish Dump` street.
- TheKnack 8y agoHere's a link without a paywall: https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/in-australia-town-of-11-people-mysterious-disappearance-turns-neighbor-against-neighbor/ https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/in-australia-town-...
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- xrd 8y agoWas he fed to a crocodile? Is he in a meat pie? Will the reviews for the meat pies improve if a man with failing livers is added to the mix? So many mysteries. I love this article.
- HumanDrivenDev 8y agoYou love this article about the possible murder of a 70 year old alcoholic labourer who lived by himself with no family in the whole country? I think it's sad.
- garmaine 8y agoYou can comment on the qualities of the writing without passing judgement on the content.
- xrd 8y agoI agree with your thoughts too. If the article speculated on the awful experience if any of those things happened, or if I had just taken that logical step on my own, I should be ashamed or at least contrite. It left those things up to me and I took the bait and just enjoyed the characters in the story that remained. It happens that I'm reading Sapiens right at this moment and it pulls you into a different perspective on the importance of a single human life as compared to the massive extinctions occurring and the incredible sad reality that we humans create for domesticated livestock. It is sad, this man who probably died, indeed.
- moltar 8y agoI’m more amazed that a town of 11 people has a bar and a hotel. But also that so much drama exists in such small community.
- ggm 8y agoAn Australian outback community needs three things to sustain and survive: a doctor (GP) a bank and a pub. Well.. in the final analysis, a pub will do. BTW, colloquially a "hotel" is a pub. Its not impossible town has two watering holes... not one. This is not that dissimilar to a situation I've seen in small Italian rural communities: one drinking hole which the left wing sit at, and one the right wing sit at. (or greece, or half a dozen other rural economies)
- flukus 8y ago> An Australian outback community needs three things to sustain and survive: a doctor (GP) a bank and a pub. Well.. in the final analysis, a pub will do. Last time I drove through it was more like a pub, a service/gas station and a crystal/woo shop.
- pandapower2 8y ago>Last time I drove through it was more like a pub, a service/gas station and a crystal/woo shop. I'm not sure why that combination is present in so many Australian towns.
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- ggm 8y agoThis obviously made news here in Australia as well, and it has qualities which I think anyone who has read 'hillbilly elegy' can relate to: in small communities, sometimes there is a cone of silence which is really strong, and quite at odds with what we think of as "the law" Obviously, people know things. But, as a small community, there is a 'hang together, or hang separately' quality here. They are very isolated, and they have strong mutual dependencies even if they don't want to acknowledge it. So.. sometimes the "best" outcome they work out for themselves is just not to talk to outsiders.
- craftyguy 8y ago> sometimes there is a cone of silence which is really strong, and quite at odds with what we think of as "the law" Reminds me of the plot of the movie Hot Fuzz.
- kirubakaran 8y agoYeah I decided idyllic English villages aren't for me, after watching Hot Fuzz and Midsomer Murders.
- atomical 8y agoI watched a few episodes of Midsomer Murders today. It's a classic.
- mygo 8y agorecommend any other such films? I'm all over that small town lawless stuff
- kirubakaran 8y agoI liked "U Turn" https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0120399/ https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0120399/ (set in small town Arizona) I've heard good things about Shetland and Broadchurch, but I'm yet to watch them.
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- booleandilemma 8y agoWhat if they’re all in on it?
- reaperducer 8y agoThen they'll have to get Hercule Poirot to investigate. (For those of you who don't read classic mysteries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_on_the_Orient_Express https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_on_the_Orient_Express)
- rhblake 8y agoMakes me think of this case from the early 80s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_McElroy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_McElroy ("Over the course of his life, McElroy was accused of dozens of felonies, including assault, child molestation, statutory rape, arson, hog and cattle rustling, and burglary." ... "McElroy was shot to death in broad daylight as he sat with his wife Trena in his pickup truck on Skidmore's main street. He was struck by bullets from at least two different firearms, in front of a crowd of people estimated as between 30 and 46. To date, no one has been charged in connection with McElroy's death.")
- vijayr02 8y agoGiven the victim's name, Sherlock would be more appropriate
- partiallypro 8y agoI had the same thought, thinking immediately of "Murder on the Orient Express"
- projektir 8y agoI'm glad I'm not the only one reading these. :)
- jurassic 8y agoThis phenomenon of trust shattered in a tightly knit community reminds me of Truman Capote's description of Holcomb, Kansas, in his book "In Cold Blood".
- WilliamEdward 8y agoThis was a Twilight Zone episode.
- paradite 8y agoSlightly off topic but this reminds me of the movie Identity. Maybe this can be a great material for a documentary style movie (after the case is resolved).
- Joakal 8y agoAdding to this offtopic chain, there's a game based on a group of people in town and one or more evil doers. http://www.blankmediagames.com http://www.blankmediagames.com
- duxup 8y agoA public inquiry where people actually point fingers seems pretty wild / dramatic.
- duxup 8y ago>A three-day search by foot, on four-wheel-drives and from the air ruled out death by misadventure. To date, the police have found no trace of Mr. Moriarty or his dog. I'm kinda surprised that this ruled out something. Particularly in a rural area. I grew up in rural areas and there are often stories of massive searches, and the body didn't turn up until it was stumbled upon surprisingly close to civilization.
- rossdavidh 8y agoI suppose it depends on the terrain, but I'd agree. Another possibility is that something in the behavior of the townsfolk during questioning does not suggest, to the police, actual ignorance of what happened. Which wouldn't mean the police are necessarily correct, of course.
- duxup 8y agoYeah looking at what photos there are the terrain there is pretty open and you'd think you'd find someone, but "rules out" just sorta doesn't sit well with me there.
- dmurray 8y agoIt's "impenetrable head high thick scrub" according to the article, which makes it sound like the kind of place a body could be hidden trivially. But that might just be nonsense - I don't believe the Australian desert can support impenetrable anything.
- emmelaich 8y agoThat stood out for me too. There is no such thing as impenetrable in an area that dry. Confirmed by the pictures.
- duxup 8y agoYeah that got me too, but looking at pics it just looks arid and fairly clear land. Maybe they meant impenetrable.....as in walking too far off the road won't get you anywhere..... otherwise it seems pretty hikeabke.
- js2 8y agoReminds me a bit of the Bobby Dunbar story: > In 1912 a four-year-old boy named Bobby Dunbar went missing in a swamp in Louisiana. Eight months later, he was found in the hands of a wandering handyman in Mississippi. In 2004, Bobby Dunbar's granddaughter discovered a secret beneath the legend of her grandfather's kidnapping, a secret whose revelation would divide her own family, bring redemption to another, and become the answer to a third family's century-old prayer. https://www.thisamericanlife.org/352/the-ghost-of-bobby-dunbar https://www.thisamericanlife.org/352/the-ghost-of-bobby-dunb... > In March 2008, Public Radio International's This American Life featured The Ghost of Bobby Dunbar, a radio documentary about the investigation of the case by Margaret Dunbar Cutright. She expressed her own opinion that the real Bobby Dunbar most likely fell into Swayze Lake during the fishing trip and was eaten by an alligator. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Bobby_Dunbar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Bobby_Dunbar
- kumarharsh 8y agoWhat a story that was. Thanks!
- dawidw 8y agoHow was that possible that 4 year old boy didn't recognise his own mother?
- Chris2048 8y ago> While one (almost certainly fictional) account indicated that the boy immediately shouted "Mother" upon seeing her and the two then embraced Fake news..
- Chris2048 8y agoseems like a lot of people down-vote certain keywords without first figuring out context..
- eric_h 8y agoI personally think that particular term has been subverted to the point of being absolutely devoid of any meaning or humor and should really just not be used anymore. [Edit: I was not a down voter, but perhaps the down voters shared my perspective]
- mythz 8y agoSeems the only time my home state makes international news is because of some weird death or disappearance: - Murder of Peter Falconio [1] - Rod Ansell, inspiration for Crocodile Dundee dies in a police shoot out [2] - Croc river murders of Darwin sex workers [3] - Death of Azaria Chamberlain (Dingo ate my baby) [4] - German backpacker who escaped the Bali bomb blast killed by a crocodile in Kakadu [5] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Peter_Falconio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Peter_Falconio [2] https://www.tvovermind.com/entertainment-news/tragic-story-rod-ansell-real-crocodile-dundee https://www.tvovermind.com/entertainment-news/tragic-story-r... [3] https://www.theage.com.au/national/teens-sentenced-to-life-for-croc-river-murders-20050321-gdztii.html https://www.theage.com.au/national/teens-sentenced-to-life-f... [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Azaria_Chamberlain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Azaria_Chamberlain [5] https://www.smh.com.au/national/crocodile-victim-survived-bali-blast-20021026-gdfrhr.html https://www.smh.com.au/national/crocodile-victim-survived-ba...
- samplatt 8y ago* home territory (I get corrected on that all the time.)
- cyberferret 8y agoSeems that way doesn't it? Just last week I was talking to an old friend of mine who used to work in the TRG (Tactical Response Group) in the NT Police. We were talking about the case of the German tourist sniper who was murdering people randomly around the NT and northern WA area some decades ago [0]. My friend was part of the special forces group sent out to hunt this guy down. [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Schwab https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Schwab
- carapace 8y agoI once knew a fellow who had grown up on a small island in Alaska. He told me there was one man in particular who lived there who was a real piece of work, just a miserable SOB. One day someone shot him and killed him in his home. The guy gave me to understand that everybody on the island knew it was his son but didn't feel that a prosecution would serve any useful purpose. The boy had enough problems. Can you imagine? The whole fucking island swallowed a fratricide. Who's fit to judge such things?
- elygre 8y ago> Who’s fit to judge such things? One answer would be “a jury of his peers”, and perhaps the islanders decided that would be them? (Also, I don’t think it was the right solution)
- scarejunba 8y agoReminds me of that famous story: ...the Eskimos have a word, kunlangeta, which means "his mind knows what to do but he does not do it." This is an abstract term for the breaking of many rules when awareness of the rules is not in question. It might be applied to a man who, for example, repeatedly lies and cheats and steals things and does not go hunting and, when the other men are out of the village, takes sexual advantage of many women-someone who does not pay attention to reprimands and who is always being brought to the elders for punishment. One Eskimo among the 499 was called kunlangeta. When asked what would have happened to such a person traditionally, an Eskimo said that probably "somebody would have pushed him off the ice when nobody else was looking." ... It is of considerable interest that kunlan- geta and arankan are not behaviors that the shamans and healers are believed to be able to cure or change.
- dsfyu404ed 8y agoI'm pretty sure the concept of a hunting "accident" is pretty universal across cultures.
- jakobegger 8y agoIs that a typo? frater = brother, I assume you meant patricide?
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- vackosar 8y agoI just can't read NY Times after Jeong debacle.
- close04 8y agoSlightly off topic: Does an 11 people settlement fit the definition of a "town"?
- jbverschoor 8y agoReal life werewolfs
- vfc1 8y agothese statements are suspicious: “Imagine me carrying a dog and a body, I mean come on,” Ms. Hodgetts said. An inocent person typically just says “i didnt do it”, but this attempt at providing justification is suspicious. She could have an accomplice that helped her carry the body and know a lot about it. “I’ve had me septic done, me incinerators searched, me house done four times” Incineration would be a way to make the bodies dissapear in the middle of the countryside, but its the woods they could be buried anywhere. Again she is providing way too much detail and justifications, its like she knows something. “Nobody found anything” - suggesting that there was something to be found.
- Pica_soO 8y agoYou have very wrong assumptions about a innocent person. Some people are just naturally awkward. Some even try to play detective and pretend to compare themselves to the killer.
- vortico 8y agoThose statements are picked for journalism effect. Alone they sound suspicious. If surrounded by 20 minutes of conversation on the subject, they wouldn't seem out of place at all.
- vfc1 8y agoInnocent people typically dont talk like this. It does not mean that she did it, but it could indicate deception, like she knows more of what she is letting on. I couldn’t find other similar suspicious declarations from others, that is why i thought it was worth pointing out. The fact that the journalist chose to include these statements might indicate that the journalist thinks the same, that there is something wrong with this lady story.
- dsfyu404ed 8y ago>Innocent people typically dont talk like this. Over the course of a conversation innocent people say all sorts of things that can be used to implicate them when taken out of context. That's one of the reasons anyone with more brain cells than you can count on one hand doesn't talk to cops in an even remotely adversarial context.
- hex20 8y agoThis reminds me of the Alan Addis case, where a Royal Marine went missing in the Falklands. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Royal_Marine_Alan_Addis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Royal_Marine_...
- yazan94 8y agoDoes this strike anyone else as a real-life version of Clue playing out? > Mr. Laurie killed Mr. Moriarty with (gardening tools?) at the Tea House
- ftcHn 8y agoLost in Larrimah Podcast https://www.theaustralian.com.au/podcasts/lost-in-larrimah/news-story/b1903af0830eaca37ed6173a5e6763da https://www.theaustralian.com.au/podcasts/lost-in-larrimah/n...