The husband of missing mother of three Samantha Murphy was seen speaking to police officers on Friday morning.
Murphy, 51, left his home on Eureka Street in East Ballarat, northwest of Melbourne, to go for a run at Woowookarung Regional Park shortly after 7am on Sunday.
No trace of the mother-of-three has since been found, and it is understood homicide detectives have been called in to assist in the search which enters its sixth day.
Murray appeared jovial after meeting detectives at Buninyong police station.
He spent only an hour inside the complex before leaving with an officer, who walked him to his car.
Murray appeared casual as a waiting media group bombarded him with photographs.
The station is being used by emergency services units as a base camp for the continued search for Ms Murphy.
A major challenge police face in the search is that there are no security cameras in the large wooded area from which he disappeared.
Victoria Police Inspector Bob Heaney said detectives were relying on information from the public to help locate Murphy’s whereabouts.
Samantha Murphy, 51, left her home on Eureka Street in East Ballarat, northwest of Melbourne, to go for a run in Woowookarung Regional Park shortly after 7am on Sunday.
“You know, one of the challenges we have is the area where he normally runs, it’s a pretty remote area,” he told Sunrise on Friday morning.
“It is inside a forest and a lot of bushes and there is no CCTV coverage.” “That has been one of the challenges we have had to face.”
A line of inquiry was officially ruled out on Thursday after police confirmed that a woman pictured on CCTV was not Ms Murphy, as previously stated.
Victoria Police had released CCTV footage on Wednesday showing a person heading northeast towards Yankee Flat Road, near the Warrenheip Road intersection.
The woman was believed to be Ms Murphy who was out for a 20km run in the state forest.
Police and SES are seen canvassing Woowookarang National Park.
However, another runner came forward and revealed that she was the person in the photo.
Inspector Heaney said the discovery had “eliminated” a possible route Ms Murphy may have taken after leaving home.
He added that police were still treating her disappearance as non-suspicious, even though homicide detectives from the missing persons squad reportedly joined the search on Friday.
“Other than covering a lot of ground, a lot of area that we’ve physically searched for Samantha, we don’t know much else,” he said.
“A lot of the information has come in (from the public) and we need to filter it, allowing us to review it and focus on where we should look next.”
The search for Ms Murphy has entered its sixth day.
Security cameras of a woman believed to be Ms Murphy were later discovered to be another resident of the area.
Inspector Heaney confirmed Ms Murphy was wearing an Apple watch and had her phone with her at the time of her disappearance, but said the area police could trace from her devices was “limited”.
His mobile phone rang in the nearby suburb of Buninyong and investigations are underway to see if the phone is still on.
In another setback Wednesday, officers were alerted to “items” possibly related to Ms. Murphy’s disappearance, however it was later determined that they did not belong to the missing mother.
Locals in the area have also expressed concern that the mother fell into an abandoned mine shaft, which can be difficult to see on the forest floor.
Earlier on Thursday, Murphy’s eldest daughter, Jessica, and her husband, Michael, made a desperate plea for their loved one to come home.
Through tears, Jessica urged the public to continue searching for her mother.
“Mom, we love you so much, we miss you and we need you home with us, please come home soon, I can’t wait to see you,” Jessica told reporters.
“Mom is a very strong woman and she is too determined to give up this fight.”
Jessica’s father thanked the community for their support in recent days while asking for answers.
“People don’t just disappear into thin air,” Murphy said.
‘Someone has to know something… whether it’s any little thing you might think is relevant, just call the police and tell them.
“It will give us some peace of mind if we have some hope.”
Earlier on Thursday, Murphy’s eldest daughter, Jessica, and her husband, Michael, made a desperate plea for their loved one to come home.
