Strange Disappearances in the Australian Outback

Has a serial killer been roaming the Stuart Highway for over 30 years? For over thirty years people have been disappearing from the Stuart Highway. Over fifty people that we are aware of. The hunting's began sometimes a year or so apart, and now they are only months apart. If you are travelling this route, you are strongly advised to NEVER EVER stop for anybody. Even authoritarian vehicles, I would be heading for first town before pulling off the road. Do not stop for anybody, no matter the circumstances because this killer is still out there, possibly in big part due to the governments continual cover-up of all the persons murdered and missing.

Stuart Highway is one of Australia's major highways. It runs from Darwin, Northern Territory, in the north, via Tennant Creek and Alice Springs, to Port Augusta, South Australia, in the south – a distance of 2,834 km (1,761 mi). Its northern and southern extremities are segments of Australia's Highway 1. The principal north-south route through the central interior of mainland Australia, the highway is often referred to simply as "The Track". The Stuart Highway is known for strange disappearances and missing persons.

2017 Paddy Moriarty - a 70-year-old smiley moustachioed Irish fellow, disappeared from the red dusty no-horse town of Larrimah in the Northern Territory on 16 December 2017. That day he’d been drinking at the Pink Panther hotel before heading home with his dog at the end of the day and vanished leaving behind everything untouched including his hat and uneaten dinner, his dog vanished with him. His home had a chicken in the microwave and the table was set ready for his evening meal. His hat, keys and vehicle were all at home. The fan was going. The lights were on. But Paddy disappeared, along with his beloved dog Kelly who was always by his side.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/oct/02/tall-outback-tales-how-one-mans-disappearance-haunts-the-landscape-at-larrimah

The police are still investigating the disappearance of Paddy Moriarty, and a reward of $250,000 for information leading to a conviction has been offered

Larrimah, by Caroline Graham and Kylie Stevenson, published by Allen & Unwin, is available in stores now.

PODCAST : Lost in Larrimah, 6 episodes

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/podcasts/lost-in-larrimah/news-story/b1903af0830eaca37ed6173a5e6763da

2017 - Rebecca Hayward, 34, flew from Perth to Alice Springs in the Northern Territory to visit family on New Year's Day and was spotted three times walking along the Stuart Highway several kilometres north of the town on January 2 after leaving her aunty’s house the evening before. It was her first visit to Alice Springs.Her family says she is a compulsive walker. She walks long distances and it's not uncommon for her to be walking 10 or 15 kilometres.

March 2015 - Dane Kowalski. Searchers found the body of Mr Kowalski, 27, in harsh scrubland about 95km south of Coober Pedy on Friday a few hundred metres from his bogged utility and about 4km off the main highway. He was last seen on December 13 when he told friends he was heading to Darwin for a fishing trip.

Sept 2015 - Shaun Jones. Shaun was last sighted on 26 September walking southbound along the edge of the Stuart Hwy approximately 30km south of Tennant Creek, near the Linfox Depot.

2007 - Brenton Simon Stoddart, 34, whose vehicle has been located abandoned on the Stuart Highway, 20 kilometres south of Adelaide River. Mr Stoddart was reported missing to Canningvale Police in Western Australia on 27 December last year by his parents. He had not been seen since 22 December and is known to have been driving a 2005 light blue XR6 Falcon utility with WA registration. The vehicle was observed on 27 December parked approximately 200 metres from where it was seen again on 28 December. It was still at this location yesterday and had slight front end damage. At this stage it’s believed the vehicle ran out of fuel and was abandoned.

January 2007 - Oswald Orman, 37, from Queensland, set off hitching from the Barkly Homestead, on the Barkly Highway, 200km east of Tennant Creek. Orman arrived at the Barkly Homestead on Tuesday, January 16, in a white Datsun ute. He parked in an area reserved for coaches and began dismantling his car. Asked to move, he declared he was starving and was given $50 by the roadhouse manager. Orman, a sufferer from schizophrenia and known to Queensland institutions, stayed where he was, pulling apart the motor and arranging the parts neatly - fanatically so - on a table. He pulled off the doors. Someone wondered, ruefully but not cruelly, whether he was looking for the CIA listening device. Then Orman took off, heading east on foot towards the Queensland border. Orman's backpack was then found at a rest stop 50km east of the roadhouse. But no Orman.

Mid January, 2006 - Aloysious Hayes, 41, goes missing from William Well, an outstation about 20km south-east of Alice Springs.

January 24, 2006 Ricky Megee, 35, was found by farm workers sheltering in a "humpy", a crude shelter made out of branches and twigs, on a remote cattle property in the Northern Territory, on the edge of the vast Tanami Desert. He said he was flagged down by three men who said they'd run out of petrol. Megee allowed one in the car and shared his drink with him as they drove towards the nearest Aborigine camp. Having finished his drink, Megee's companion reached into the back and took another for Megee. "He slipped something in it," Megee says. "I had a few mouthfuls and started to pass out, so he grabbed the steering wheel." They careered off the road, Megee fighting for the wheel but unable to stay conscious. He came round at dusk, sitting in the passenger seat of his car. "I could hear voices nearby. I jumped in the driver's side, sort of half conscious, and tried to pull off. Then someone jumped on the back of the car." There began a Spider-Man-like drive, with Megee trying to shake off the man clinging to his car but failing to do so before the man smashed in the back window and started throwing punches. The car went down a ravine and became stuck. Megee passed out again, drifting in and out of consciousness throughout the night. He remembers four figures surrounding him and going through his car. "I woke and was thirsty so said to one of them, 'Take my car. I don't care, just give me some water'. I've since done some checking," he says. "There are people who live out in that area who pay people to rob cars, passports, money, everything. People don't realise what a passport is worth nowadays, you can take somebody's whole identity. "That's what they were doing," he says. "I woke up the next day, no shoes, no socks, nothing. I wasn't supposed to walk out of there, I wasn't supposed to live." But the plan failed. Megee woke the next day in a shallow grave. He was under a tarpaulin, wearing a T-shirt and shorts, with car keys, $14.50 (Dh36) and a mobile phone with no battery power. Megee was lucky to be alive, but - unbeknown to him then - he still faced 10 weeks in the area, an arid wasteland the size of France, Italy and Spain combined. Ricky later wrote a book about his experience LEFT FOR DEAD.

April 24, 2006 - Patrick Doolan wanders away from the Amoonguna community just out of Alice Springs. No trace has been found of the elderly Aboriginal man.

April 22, 2006 - Brett McGillivray goes missing near Attack Creek, about 80km north of Alice Springs. A passing truck driver noticed the missing man's abandoned car in a parking bay with the keys left in the ignition.

March 4, 2006 - Sybil Malbunka, 48, is last seen at the boundary of the restricted area near Santa Teresa community, about 70 kilometres south-west of Alice Springs. She had been drinking with family and slept overnight in the area, but was gone when they woke the next morning. Ms Malbunka is also known as Sybil McMillan.

Nov 30, 2006 - Jamie Herdman was last seen hitchhiking at Daly Waters, about 600km south of Darwin, on November 30. The dreadlocked traveller's Kombi van - containing his mobile phone, clothes, toothbrush, cards and some cash - was found abandoned near a Stuart Highway roadhouse. The car, which was prone to overheating, was unlocked and the keys were not in the ignition. But the fact he left beer, money and a phone behind in an unlocked car, windows wound down, was troubling. His family have no idea where the happy young man was headed. Jamie, a trained chef, had spent the previous 18 months working for a furniture removal company at Broome in Western Australia before deciding to go on his road trip. Despite an exhaustive air and ground search, police have found no trace of the missing traveller, who comes from Whakatane in New Zealand. Jamie had no history of mental illness. But he had departed Broome on November 24, where he had been working as a removalist, in an upset state. And in a real hurry. On the day he left, his boss, the last person to see him in Broome, told Steve that Jamie "was in a very distressed state". He was unable to pry from Jamie what the problem was.

January 4, 2005 - Lubos Gencur, 41, arrived in Australia on the 15 December 2004. He flew from Sydney to Alice Springs on the 18th December, and was last seen in the Curtin Springs area about 9.00am on the 19th December 2004. At the time of the sighting Lubos was on foot and was wearing shorts, t-shirt, shoes and a cap and carrying a black "GEMMA" brand backpack and water bottle. He had a history of trying to kill himself and it seems the bush finally accommodated him.

Sept 24, 2005 - Stanislav Dobias, 60, abandoned campsite, disappears after walking down a track. Dobias was suffering from Alzheimer's. He was a caretaker at the Attack Creek gravel pits and had gone to lock a gate and has not been seen since. It is widely accepted that he became confused, wandered, and perished.

April, 2004 - Jennifer Lane, 52, disappears from the YHA hostel in Parsons Street at Alice Springs. She failed to check out and her luggage was uncollected.

June 1994 - Andrew Robert Johnson resigned from his job in Adelaide and drove North, intending to work his way around Australia. In early June, he contacted his parents and told them he was in Darwin. On 13th November 1994, his car was found abandoned in the scrub, 100 metres off the Stuart Highway near Elliot.

April 10, 1983 - Ivica Sinozic, On 10 April 1983, a white Datsun 120Y station sedan was located about 400 km east of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. Both registration plates and the vehicle compliance plate had been removed. Subsequent enquiries revealed that the vehicle belonged to SINOZIC. In June of 1982, SINOZIC had left his parents’ home in Victoria seeking employment in the mining industry outside Victoria. His parents have not heard from him since that time. He appears to have travelled through New South Wales and Queensland, and arrived in Alice Springs in July 1982. To date, all enquiries have failed to locate any trace of SINOZIC. Grave fears are held for his safety

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