The latest search for the body of missing mother-of-three Samantha Murphy could finally solve the mystery of what happened to her, an expert says.
The 51-year-old woman was last seen leaving her home on Eureka Street in Ballarat, Victoria, to go for a run in the Canadian State Forest on the morning of February 4.
A month later, Patrick Orren Stephenson, 23, was charged with her murder in Mount Clear on the day she disappeared.
He won’t talk to detectives and they have yet to piece together the chain of events following his alleged murder and what happened to his body.
“Ms Murphy has been missing for seven months, which seems like a long time but it really isn’t, considering all the factors, and detectives aren’t publicly disclosing much of what they’re doing,” criminal psychologist Tim Watson-Munro told Daily Mail Australia.
‘If this happened in central Melbourne, for example, there would be a lot more people around – potential witnesses – and fewer places to dispose of evidence.
“We’re talking about a very large rural area, with dense forests and farmland. It’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack.”
But Dr Watson-Munro said the fact an arrest was made fairly quickly, coupled with the discovery of Ms Murphy’s phone in almost perfect working order on the bank of a dam in May, showed police had information to act on.
“That phone was found near a muddy dam and had no degradation and the suspect has been in custody, so it raises the question of whether someone, a third party, put that phone there,” he said.
Samantha Murphy (pictured) went missing while on a morning run near her home in Ballarat.
Dozens of police officers gathered near Grenville, south of Ms Murphy’s home, on Wednesday for a fresh search to locate her body.
Police using sniffer dogs, horses and motorbikes set out from Grenville Recreation Reserve to search the bush as heavy rain eased.
Dozens of police officers gathered on Wednesday morning at an area of bushland where they believe Ms Murphy’s body could be, as part of a new targeted search.
Missing Persons Squad detectives were joined by specialist officers from New South Wales Police and their Australian federal counterparts.
Detective Inspector Dave Dunstan of Victoria Police’s Missing Persons Unit said up to 45 officers with horses, dogs and motorcycles would scour the area near Grenville, south of Ballarat, as soon as heavy rain eased.
The search areas are in rugged terrain west of Enfield Plantation, which has been searched previously.
“The danger is that there are also a lot of mines here and that is one of the reasons why we have launched the search and rescue team,” he said.
“There are a lot of unidentified mines… so it’s super dangerous.”
Police are believed to be searching several areas spanning a radius of up to three kilometres.
Dr Watson-Munro said the new search, especially in an area that had already been searched, showed police could be on the right track to what happened to Ms Murphy.
‘Just because they haven’t located Ms Murphy yet doesn’t mean they’re not making progress on the case, they could be working on undercover intelligence etc.
‘This is demonstrated by the fact that they found his phone long after the incident.
‘Of all the dams in the area, the police focused on this one.
“Phone batteries die within hours; if that was the last ping on that phone, the police would have probably found it weeks earlier.”
The area near Enfield State Park has been searched before and one expert said police likely have information they are acting on.
Earlier this year, police charged shopkeeper Patrick Orren Stephenson, 22, with Ms Murphy’s murder.
He also said it was not unusual for a suspect not to talk to police.
‘Without going into details about the suspect, who should be presumed innocent until proven guilty, those arrested generally have the right to remain silent.
‘Most suspects act on legal advice. Some do not speak out because they do not want to say something that could lead to their conviction or, in some exceptional cases in my experience, people do not speak out because they are innocent and have nothing to say.
‘Most of the time, the suspect will uphold his right to remain silent.’
He added that the fact that the Australian Federal Police joined the effort to locate Ms Murphy showed that police were determined to find out what happened to her.
“The AFP intervention clearly shows that there is a strong motivation to find her and resolve this problem,” he said.
“In terms of the experience they bring, they would have a broader resource base, but it could also be as simple as a fresh perspective on the case.”
Ms Murphy’s husband Mick and their three children are desperate for answers about what happened to her.
Police gathered at Grenville Recreation Reserve on Wednesday as part of the search for Ms Murphy
The search includes officers from New South Wales Police, the AFP and Search and Rescue.
Grenville is about a 10-minute drive from Buninyong, where Ms Murphy’s phone was found buried in mud at the edge of a farm dam.
Dozens of officers set out Wednesday in wet conditions to search the area, which includes brush, farmland, several timber plantations and the Yarrowee River.
“Since February, police have periodically conducted a number of small-scale investigations and searches as part of the ongoing investigation,” Victoria Police said in a statement.
‘We are not in a position to provide further specific details of today’s operational activity at this time.’
Ms Murphy’s disappearance sparked an outpouring of grief across the Ballarat community and the nation, leading to an influx of volunteers joining previous searches.
Police have asked the public not to cooperate on this occasion.
In March, police charged Stephenson with Ms Murphy’s murder.
He is due to appear in court in November after prosecutors asked for an extension to review a lengthy evidence brief that included reams of security camera footage.
Stephenson is the son of Orren Stephenson, who played 15 AFL games for Geelong and Richmond between 2012 and 2014.
Ms Murphy’s family has been informed of the new search.
