THIS BLOG IS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER – UPDATES ARE AT THE BOTTOM.
Samantha Murphy is a 51 year old mother who has been missing from Ballarat in Victoria, Australia since Sunday February 4.
Samantha was last seen after she told her family she was going for a run at 7am on that day.
Samantha is married to Michael Murphy and the couple have three children together. Samantha worked as the head of administration at the Inland Motor Body Works, a car repair shop run by the couple in the southwest Ballarat suburb of Delacombe.
We will run through the case to date chronologically.
Samantha got ready for her run on February 4. This is a photo of her from the day she vanished:
It is believed she was headed to the Woowookarung Regional Park for her run. She was an avid runner and had plans to run 20kms/12 miles that day.
Samantha was due to attend a brunch at around 11am and she was reported missing when she failed to meet that date.
Most of the media reports started the following day. There was CCTV that was said to be Samantha, captured at 7.16am
She apparently could be seen running, wearing a brown singlet and black half-length leggings.
Victoria Police launched a public appeal to find Samantha on Monday, February 5. They established a search area just outside the suburb of Buninyong, about 14km from where Samantha was last seen, as well as near her home. Police said at the time that her phone had pinged in that area.
Police told media they did not suspect anything suspicious had happened at that point but they were worried due to the super hot temperatures in the area – the high on that day was almost 37 Celsius or 100f.
Police said that her disappearance was out of character for Samantha.
On Tuesday February 6, Samantha’s husband Mick told the media that he wasn’t ‘too bad under the circumstances’.
More than 100 specialised police officers, SES crews and teams from Forest Fire Management Australia and Parks Victoria joined the search.
Police expanded the search area on this day. They added in parts of Black Hill, Brown Hill and Nerrina as a focus area.
The new search area included three bushland reserves — Black Hill Reserve, Chisholm Street Reserve, Monte Christo Bushland Reserve — and the Wallaby Track.
Police said they had been using mobile phone data and Ms Murphy’s usual running routes to determine the search area.
On Wednesday February 7, a search party found possible evidence near a walking trail in Woowookarung Regional Park. This was sealed off and declared a crime scene so we all thought something must have been found.
Mick arrived on the scene at 1.45pm. He was said to appear ‘visibly stunned’ and was turned away by officers. Police would later say that whatever was found was not related to Samantha’s case.
Mick spoke to the media that day. He had been under scrutiny for staying quiet in the case. “I’ve been speaking with the police and I’ve been advised not to say anything,” he told the Herald Sun on Wednesday.
He said he was aware of malicious comments being shared online but was more concerned with the urgency of finding his wife. There are rumors of divorce and marital/financial issues.
The CCTV of Samantha was also made public this day.
Residents in the area told the media that they believed Samantha may have fallen into a mine shaft while running. One local said mine shafts in the Canadian State Forest were a ‘major concern’. ‘The mine shafts out there aren’t very noticeable in some areas,’ the resident told A Current Affair.
Acting Inspector Lisa MacDougall said police were conducting ‘inquiries are ongoing as to whether (Samantha’s phone) is still on’.
‘Phones can run out of battery, but that forms part of the investigation,’ she said.
The following day, Thursday February 8, another runner came forward to reveal they are the person seen in the CCTV footage, ruling out a key line of inquiry.
“A member of the community has come forward and identified themselves as the person depicted running,” Victoria Police said in a statement on Thursday afternoon.
“For that reason, the footage will no longer be relevant to the search for Samantha.
Samantha’s daughter Jess spoke to the media on Thursday. “Mum’s a really strong woman and she’s far too determined to give up this fight,” she said.
“I know she’s out there somewhere, so if you could please continue to search for her and give us something to work with we’d really appreciate it,” she said.
“Mum we love you so much and we miss you … please come home soon.”
On Friday February 9, Victoria Police ramped up efforts with the arrival of officers from the missing persons unit. A press conference was held on that day and they confirmed that no homicide investigators were involved in the case yet.
Detective Acting Superintendent Mark Hatt spoke to the media. .
“I want to be clear that at this time, we have nothing immediate to indicate there is anything sinister behind Samantha’s disappearance,” he said.
“We still have a number of avenues of inquiry to pursue and the search to try and locate her is ongoing.
“I also think it’s important that people avoid unnecessary and unhelpful speculation.
“However, it is especially concerning that we have now gone six days without any contact from her or any potential sightings.”
On Saturday February 10, Investigators scaled back the search and say that a full scale search will only resume if fresh information emerges.
A woman who saw Samantha out for a run on the day before she disappeared came forward on this day.
Rebecca Agheli and her partner, Michael, rented a caravan for a long weekend trip to Ballarat on a goldhunting excursion near Woowookarung Regional Park, arriving on February 1.
When they arrived on February 1, about 15 minutes from the state forest, Ms Agheli got ready for their gold hunt while her partner scoped out the area.
He quickly returned to their car after seeing a strange man.
‘He’s a big guy, he’s not usually scared of anything, but he told me he’d seen a strange, dishevelled man pop out of the bush talking to himself with the crotch on his pants ripped,’ she told Daily Mail Australia.
The couple decided to pack up and go to another area, which Ms Agheli guesses was about a seven-minute drive away.
She said her partner had warned her of mine shafts in the area and suggested they go elsewhere, but Ms Agheli wanted to have a quick look and wandered a short distance away from the car.
‘Then I saw the same guy again even after we’d just driven about seven minutes,’ she said.
‘His whole face lit up when he saw a woman on his own.
‘I was thinking, “how did this guy get here so fast, he must know a shortcut”. He had both of his hands behind his back and started walking towards me really fast.’
On February 14, 2023, police declared the case was now being treated as suspicious.
This info is from 7 News:
Throughout their investigation police have maintained they do not believe anything sinister happened to the 51-year-old, however on Wednesday Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton said while there were no developments, the case was “suspicious”.
“It’s certainly unusual when we haven’t been able to locate any trace of her or any other evidence within that period of time,” he said during a press conference.
“It’s suspicious, whether that means there’s foul play involved, or not, I don’t know, but obviously detectives are investigating a matter where a woman’s been missing for a significant period of time.”
On March 7, it was announced that a man had been arrested in relation to Samantha’s case.
THIS IS A DEVELOPING STORY AND THIS BLOG WILL BE UPDATED AS INFORMATION IS RELEASED.
SOURCE LIST
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009169417033 – her fb
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100011115763852&mibextid=LQQJ4d – Mick’s fb
Mick said she was planning to do a 10k run, not 20. 20k was her usual but bc she had a brunch at 11 she was going to do only 10.
People say there is cctv footage of Mick at home from 7-9am, is that true and if so where was it reported?
I think it’s strange that no one saw her, no cameras captured her, and the dogs can’t get any scent of her trail. Wonder if she really left on her own?