Just a pair of flip flops left behind after man ‘killed in crocodile attack’

A pair of flip flops belonging to a man thought to have died in a crocodile attack were all that remained after screams were heard.

Kevin Darmody, 65, had been fishing on the banks of Kennedy River in far north Queensland in Australia on Saturday when campers heard screaming and splashing.

When a friend ran to check on Mr Darmody he was nowhere to be seen, and all that remained were his flip flops.

The river water also looked like it had just been ‘stirred up’.

Emergency service suspect he was taken by a large crocodile and are searching for his remains.

Mr Darmond was the publican of the Peninsular Hotel in the rural own of Laura, around 75km from where he disappeared in Rinyirru (Lakefield) National Park.

He was also a keen angler and sometimes documented his fishing trips on social media, posting various photos of himself with fish.

He posted a series of pictures in 2015 showing a crocodile mauling, reports the Daily Mail.

Those who knew Mr Darmody, also known as ‘Stumpy’, said he had a deep knowledge of fishing in dangerous waters and was aware of the risks. 

‘He wasn’t a tourist or a visitor to Cape York, he is or was a local he knew the dangers, just bloody bad luck – in a split second you can be taken by a croc,’ one person wrote on social media.

Two of Mr Darmody’s friends were nearby when the suspected attack happened, Bart Harrison and John Peiti.

Mr Harrison, from Cooktown, spoke to The Cairns Post.

He said: ‘A lad came up on the road shouting ‘he’s gone, he’s gone’ and my mate [Mr Peiti] ran down the bank, and said the water was all stirred up and dirty, you could see something bad happened.

‘He was standing right there fishing a few minutes earlier, then he was gone, his thongs [Australian word for flip flops] were left on the bank.

‘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.’

Mr Harrison said it was common to see large crocodiles in the area at this time of year they’re breeding and become very territorial.

Speaking to Cape York Weekly, meanwhile, Mr Peiti said he doesn’t believe a crocodile came out of the water to snatch Mr Darmody.

Instead he believes his friend might have been trying to scare off a goanna – a large lizard – when he lost his balance, fell into the water and then got taken by a crocodile.

Mr Peiti said he’d heard Mr Darmody ‘roar’ a few times before he went missing, and when he raced down to check on him spotted a goanna near where his friend had been fishing.

‘I think Kev might have been roaring at this goanna and maybe he’s lost his balance and gone in,’ he said.

‘I don’t think a croc has come out of the water and grabbed him because there was no water on the bank. The reports of a croc slide are not true.’

One of Mr Darmody’s brothers Dave also told the publication the family grew up on the outskirts of Canberra, and said Mr Darmody fell in love with northern Australia while working as a hunter and tour guide.

He was also a former bull rider, well-known on the rodeo circuit.

Paying tribute, friends described Mr Darmody as having a ‘good heart’ and being very ‘loyal’ to his mates.

A rescue helicopter and water police spent the weekend searching for Mr Darmody, Queensland’s Department for Environment and Sciences said in a statement.

The department said Rinyirru National Park is ‘known croc country and known to contain large crocodiles’.

Earlier this year, also in Australia, a man wrestled a massive five-metre long crocodile with a machete after it mauled his mate.

Rowan ‘Rowdy’ Sutton saved his friend Lachlan McDougall Monk, 29, after the crocodile latched onto Lachlan’s right leg, dragged him away and death-rolled him at least twice.

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