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A large group of volunteers have joined the bushland search for missing mum Samantha Murphy, as more disturbing details about her sudden disappearance begin to emerge.
The volunteers, marked with high-visibility jackets and long pants, backpacks and hats, gathered at Ballarat’s Eureka Stockade Memorial Park in the morning in preparation for the day’s search.
Police have concentrated the search on areas around Mount Clear, south of the Victorian regional town, based on intelligence obtained from telephone data.
In one photo, a man carries a metal detector with him.
In another, a black sniffer dog mixes with searchers.
A group of volunteers in high visibility went out to search for Samantha Murphy on Saturday.
The official police search has been reduced, but community-led searches remain intense.
Sniffer dogs were seen in the group as participants prepared for a long day of searching.
The 51-year-old mother-of-three went missing three weeks ago after going for a run at Woowookarung Regional Park in East Ballarat at 7am on February 4 and police are now very concerned for her welfare and suspect she may have been the victim of foul play.
“We have serious concerns and have strong doubts that she is still alive,” police said Friday.
“We believe that another party has been involved (in his disappearance), whether it be one person or several people.”
It has also been revealed that police have spoken to a convicted sex offender with a “long history” as part of their investigations.
It is understood the man provided an alibi for the day Ms Murphy disappeared and there is nothing to suggest he had anything to do with her disappearance.
Police said they would only expand their search based on specific information.
Police have not found Ms Murphy saying they have serious concerns for her welfare.
Extensive searches around Ballarat, including the Canadian State Forest, have turned up no clues about what happened to Ms Murphy.
A Victoria Police spokesperson told news.com.au they were not providing details about their investigation.
Acting Superintendent Mark Hatt told reporters Friday that Murphy’s husband, Mick Murphy, and “everyone” in her personal life were now a “person of interest,” although he stressed that Murphy was not a suspect in her disappearance.
No arrests or charges have been filed.
‘Everyone associated with Samantha is a person of interest in our investigation. “We’re talking to everyone who was in her life… That would include family, friends and co-workers,” Superintendent Hatt said.
‘We have a number of people we are speaking to and I can say the family have been absolutely fantastic in cooperating with the police.
‘In this point [Mr Murphy] it’s not [a suspect]. Everyone in relation to Samantha is a person of interest. In our investigation we are talking to everyone who was in her life.’
The search being carried out by Mount Clear area police is not new and has already been extensively searched, but this time they will be looking for smaller items that could reveal what happened to Ms Murphy.
Police ruled out a medical episode and said they had not received any information to suggest “she left the area of her own volition.”