It’s been 131 days since beloved mother-of-three Samantha Murphy went missing and her family are no closer to knowing where her body may be.
The 51-year-old left her home in Ballarat East, northwest of Melbourne, on February 4, for her usual morning run, but never returned.
Her disappearance made headlines across the country, sparked countless police and community searches and left her husband Mick and three children devastated.
In early March, Patrick Orren Stephenson, 22, was charged with her alleged murder.
Stephenson is the son of former Richmond and Geelong AFL player Orren Stephenson and is not known to the Murphy family.
The mysterious disappearance of Samantha Murphy (pictured) has touched the hearts of Australians and leaves many questions unanswered.
Criminologist Dr Xanthé Mallett (pictured) believes Murphy’s disappearance has resonated so much because it could have been one of us.
Stephenson has reportedly hired Melbourne-based lawyer Paul Galbally of Galbally & O’Bryan, one of Australia’s top criminal lawyers, to lead his defense case.
In a significant development, Ms Murphy’s phone and “items of interest” were found on May 29 in a private dam near Slaughterhouse Road, south of Buninyong.
The dam is about 15 kilometers from Ballarat East, where Ms Murphy took off on her last race.
Then on Wednesday, police concluded a two-day targeted search into Ms. Murphy’s disappearance,
Dr Xanthé Mallett, a forensic criminologist at Newcastle University, said the case has resonated with many Australians for one simple reason.
“The first thing I thought when I saw that Samantha was missing was that any of us could do very normal things, go on with our lives, and yet she has supposedly been the victim of a violent crime,” he said.
“A lot of women could imagine being her, they could sympathize.”
She provided valuable insight to Daily Mail Australia into the unanswered questions surrounding Ms Murphy’s alleged murder.
Why hasn’t Mrs. Murphy’s body been found?
Dr Mallett said it will always be a challenge to recover Murphy’s body due to the landscape of the area where she was last seen.
“It’s very open, there is no CCTV or other forms of surveillance that could have helped the police,” he said.
“There aren’t many people around, so it was always going to be a challenge when there are such large areas that could be of forensic interest to police.”
He added that it would be a different case in an urban area: “It is difficult to disappear in a city, given that you have many witnesses, you have CCTV on buildings, you have dash cameras, you have all this different technological information, as well as eyewitnesses to help build that image. But none of that was available in this case.’
The search for clues in the Samantha Murphy case continues
Samantha Murphy is still to be found, despite a massive search effort involving police, SES and countless volunteers (pictured)
Why don’t some defendants share information they may have?
Dr Mallett said that, as in any case, “people have the right to remain silent and not provide the police with information that they believe may incriminate them, or they may not really know anything.”
“You can allege that someone has committed a crime, but until they have gone through the courts and been found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, there is always the possibility that they cannot actually reveal the information that the police are searching”. ,’ she said.
Dr. Mallett explained in the Samantha Murphy case: “We are still a long way from having concluded a judicial process.”
In a major development, Ms Murphy’s phone and “items of interest” were found on May 29 in a private dam near Slaughterhouse Road, south of Buninyong.
Police have been forced to navigate rugged terrain in search of Ms Murphy’s body.
Patrick Orren Stephenson, 22 (above), has been charged with murder over the disappearance of Ballarat mother Samantha Murphy.
What would Ms. Murphy’s family be going through?
Dr. Mallett said she has worked on many missing persons cases and others where the victim is believed to be deceased and the body has not been found.
‘I have worked with many families over the years and the worst thing they always say is not knowing.
“It’s what we would classify as an ambiguous loss, and essentially there’s always the hope that because no remains have been found, one day that person will walk through the door.”
Dr Mallett added that it was “impossible to give up that hope for most people, until there is a final, albeit devastating, conclusion and remains are found.”
Her disappearance made headlines across the country, sparked countless police and community searches and left her husband Mick (pictured) and three children devastated.
He said that in this case Ms. Murphy is believed to be deceased, “but ultimately the family won’t give up hope until they find out.”
“My heart goes out to them, because until they have answers, they will have no way to begin to move forward and process what has happened.”
In her experience dealing with families of missing people, victims of violent crimes or murders, Dr. Mallett said they never use the word closure.
‘Closure is not something families will ever suffer.
‘They can get answers, they can start moving forward. They may begin to accept the new reality that the person is not coming home, but they will never talk about closure.
“They know that they will never be able to close the situation, that the pain will continue.”
He said he can only remember one case in which a relative of a missing person said, “Stop looking, he’s dead.”
“That seemed very unusual to me,” Dr. Mallett said.
What information could Ms. Murphy’s phone reveal?
When it emerged that Ms Murphy’s phone was recovered, Dr Mallett said she initially believed police would not be able to recover any information as it was supposed to have been underwater in the mud for four months.
“Then it turned out that the phone was in almost perfect working order, which was a total surprise to me, so I would say the geolocation data would be the first thing the police would look for.”
He said tracking the phone’s movements doesn’t necessarily indicate it was with Ms. Murphy, but it does give police more geolocation points to help at least understand where the phone was.
Dr Mallett said that in similar cases police also investigate all contacts who had been calling or texting and the websites that had been visited, to create a picture.
‘Obviously, there may be some limitations… Was the phone on at the time? Did it have battery life? These things will limit what the police can get from that phone.
How would the police build their case?
Dr Mallett said this was a very detailed investigation and police were obviously looking for Ms Murphy’s body.
‘Not only for the benefit of the family, although they desperately need to know where she is, they need to return to them, but Samantha’s body will also be a major source of information for them, so they will need it very much for the investigation.’
He said cases can proceed without a body, so police would be watching every movement of the accused and people they have spoken to.
He also noted that the recovery of the phone could have prompted new witnesses to come forward.
‘So they’ll build that full picture from the time Samantha disappeared to obviously the arrest, and they’ll look at all the details around that to determine who did what, when, who was in contact with who, and who shared what information.’
Dr Mallett said the police will certainly make sure everything is done correctly because this is a very high profile case.
“Everyone is going to be watching this case, because I think it resonates, because she was a very normal woman.
‘We have seen a lot of violence against women lately. And this is just another occasion where a woman can’t do her normal activity safely, and that’s something we desperately need to address, not just safety at home, but safety in public.”
The investigation into Ms Murphy’s disappearance continues.
Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
