EXCLUSIVE
Samantha Murphy’s body will have been abandoned in the Victorian bush for three months on Saturday with no trace of her having been found.
The beloved mother of three was last seen leaving her home in Eureka Street, Ballarat East, to go for a run in the Canadian State Forest on the morning of February 4.
Despite numerous searches, Victoria Police detectives appear no closer to finding her body despite having her alleged killer in custody.
Hope fades in search for Samantha Murphy’s body
Police used a cadaver dog during the search for Samantha Murphy’s body at Enfield State Park in Ballarat on April 11.
A Victoria Police spokesperson told WhatsNew2Day Australia the investigation remained “very active and ongoing.”
“We continue to do everything possible to locate her,” the spokesperson said.
In March, detectives ccharged shopkeeper Patrick Orren Stephenson, 22, with the murder of the 51-year-old man.
It is understood that he has continued to maintain his right to remain silent as he awaits his next court appearance in September.
Detectives from Victoria Police’s Missing Persons Unit have been in a race against time to find Ms Murphy’s body.
In the three months since her disappearance, the area around Ballarat has suffered heatwaves, bushfires and heavy rain as search teams tried to retrace her steps.
Wild animals, including foxes, are also known to have large populations in the dense thickets of forests surrounding Ballarat.
If left uncovered in the harsh jungle, experts believe a body can quickly decompose, destroying important DNA evidence.
“The time it takes for a body to decompose depends on climatic conditions, such as temperature and humidity, as well as accessibility to insects,” the Australian Museum said.
“In summer, a human body in an exposed place can be reduced to bones in just nine days.”
Experts believe that if Ms Murphy’s body has been buried or dumped in one of Ballarat’s many mine shafts, detectives could still extract important evidence.
“A body buried 1.2 meters underground retains most of its tissue for a year,” the museum stated.
The search for Samantha Murphy’s body
Police search for clues in Buninyong during another search in March
Police have been forced to navigate rugged terrain in search of Ms Murphy’s body.
While insects can decimate a buried or discovered body, wild animals are also a real threat in the area where Ms. Murphy disappeared.
Last month, police bSpecialist cadaver dogs from New South Wales were used to scour the Victorian bush in multiple locations in dense bushland spanning a vast expanse of countryside.
Teams of officers focused their search on Enfield State Park, 30 kilometers south of Ballarat, but another search team was also working 25 kilometers away, in thick bushland in the Durham Lead Nature Conservation Reserve.
The nature reserve is just south of Buninyong, where Ms Murphy’s phone was last detected by mobile phone towers at 5pm on the day she disappeared.
The Ballarat region is famous for the foxes and wild dogs that roam the bush.
A reward for foxes and wild dogs has been offered in Victoria since 2011, with large numbers of foxes being recorded outside the area in past years.
Wild dogs have long posed a problem for police searching for missing people in rugged terrain.
David Prideaux was 50 when the experienced hunter went on a trip with his brother-in-law to Victoria’s rugged Alpine National Park on Mount Stirling and simply disappeared in June 2011.
His body was never found, and experts said at the time that they believed wild dogs had scattered his remains for several kilometers during the spring thaw of 2011.
Patrick Orren Stephenson has not helped police find Ms Murphy’s body
Mick Murphy speaks during a demonstration against male violence on April 12
The head of Barwon Prison, David Prideaux, disappeared without a trace into the thick undergrowth. His body has never been found.
Just a few weeks ago, Ms Murphy’s long-suffering husband, Mick Murphy, told Channel 9 that he had not stopped looking for her.
“On that particular day, I was outside and I thought she was coming down the road pretty soon,” he said.
—Then he didn’t do it.
Mr. Murphy said thatThey search for each other daily, whether driving through the city or walking two hours through a pine plantation.
‘Sometimes I go for a drive and it may not be anywhere specific, or I go for a two-hour walk. It varies every day,’ she said.
“It’s very good for my mind and if I stayed home I wouldn’t be doing myself any favors.”
Missing Persons Unit Acting Superintendent Mark Hatt has previously stated that police would never stop searching for Ms Murphy.
“I want to reassure members of the Ballarat community that police remain focused on doing everything possible to return Samantha to her family,” he said last month.
Anyone with any information regarding Ms. Murphy’s disappearance is You are urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
