EXCLUSIVE
The heartbroken family of missing mother-of-three Samantha Murphy fear she has been kidnapped by a deranged stalker who pounced on her while she was out on a morning run.
Murphy, 51, left her home on Eureka Street in East Ballarat, northwest of Melbourne, to go jogging at Woowookarung Regional Park shortly after 7am on February 4 and has not been seen since.
On Thursday, her uncle and aunt, Allan and Janice Robson, told Daily Mail Australia they suspected their beloved niece of committing a crime.
It’s like he’s disappeared from the face of the Earth. There’s nothing,” Mrs Robson said.
‘I’d say someone would have been watching her. I can’t think of it as anything else.
They are both baffled by the mystery of his phone and say he would not have ventured so far from his home, where police believe his cell phone made its last communication with a tower.
Samantha Murphy disappeared without a trace on February 4
Last week, State Emergency Services volunteers and police searched the bush in an area between Canadian Plantation and Yankee Flat Road, about 15 kilometers from Ms. Murphy’s home, where they believe her phone was turned off. .
“She never turned that phone off… that phone was always on,” Mr Robson said.
On Wednesday, Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton confirmed detectives now believe Ms Murphy’s disappearance is suspicious.
However, the police have not yet revealed what they consider suspicious, apart from the fact that it has already been 12 days since he disappeared without a trace.
Ms Robson said the police had not provided any information about the investigation other than what was already known to the general public.
‘Any information they (the police) have will stay with them. “They don’t want to scare anyone,” Robson said.
Robson said she asked her brother, Murphy’s father, John Robson, if he knew of any reason his daughter might have disappeared, but he had no answers.
Samantha Murphy’s husband, Mick Murphy, addressed the media last week.
Robson said his niece was financially secure and wondered if someone could have hurt her in a robbery gone wrong.
“Mick had so many cars he couldn’t fit them in his garage,” he said.
“I don’t think he’s an opportunist,” Mrs. Robson said.
‘I think it was someone who has been harassing her. Someone she didn’t even know was harassing her.
Mrs Robson suggested that anyone who knew her niece knew she was a creature of habit when it came to exercise.
“She used to go running in the morning,” he said.
The search for Ms. Murphy has been virtually abandoned.
“It normally goes 20 kilometers,” Robson said.
“But he had to meet someone in Ballarat at 10am, so he only did 10 kilometres.”
The elderly couple said Murphy was an intelligent and caring person who had the ability to defend himself if someone tried to harm him.
“She would have put up a very good fight,” Allan said.
And I think if she suspected something, I don’t think she would stop there. She was a runner. “She would have left that area,” Mrs Robson said.
The couple said Murphy was familiar with the terrain and would have known if anyone unusual had been lurking on the routes he ran on in the days before his disappearance.
“She’s there so often she would have bumped into something,” Mrs Robson said.
Police released this image of Ms Murphy from the morning she disappeared.
With police effectively abandoning the search for Ms Murphy less than a week after it began, the couple are afraid to believe she is already dead.
‘You would think the (search) dogs would have been able to detect his scent. That’s what they do. “They should have been able to tell where she was in those woods,” Mrs Robson said.
On Thursday, a woman who identified herself as Murphy’s sister refused to allow Daily Mail Australia to speak to her parents, who reside in Gordon, about 22 kilometers from their daughter’s home.
No new information emerged on Thursday about the investigation, which is being led by Victoria Police’s Missing Persons Unit.
Last week, Acting Detective Superintendent Mark Hatt said detectives would investigate Ms Murphy’s movements and her interactions with other people in the days before she disappeared.
‘Of course, that will be a big part of our investigation. Going deeper into the background, investigating Samantha’s movements in the days leading up to her disappearance and also investigating the people who know her,” she said.
Part of the investigation, now called Operation Primus, will see detectives trawl through Ms Murphy’s computers and devices in the hope of finding clues.
Anyone with information about Ms Murphy’s disappearance is asked to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.