Samantha Murphy: Cops investigate ‘movements to and from’ her family home on the day she vanished – as detectives question local sex offender

Police are investigating several movements of people to and from Samantha Murphy’s home on the day the mother-of-three disappeared.

Ms Murphy, 51, left her home in Ballarat East, Victoria, about 7am on February 4 to go for a run at nearby Woowookarung Regional Park.

Despite extensive search efforts, no trace of the missing woman has been found.

Anyone close to Ms Murphy is now considered a person of interest, with police revealing they believe the 51-year-old is likely dead.

Police have said there were a “number of movements” to and from the Murphy home on February 4, which they are investigating. A current issue reported.

Known violent criminals from the area are also approached, including a male sex offender.

That man was reportedly interviewed by detectives for hours and provided an alibi for the day of Ms. Murphy’s disappearance.

Additional investigators, including staff from Melbourne’s sex crimes, counter-terrorism, fraud and armed robbery units, have been called in to assist with the case.

There is no indication that the sex offender is in any way involved in Ms. Murphy’s disappearance.

Attention has also focused on the repair company Inland Motor Body Works, which Mrs Murphy and her husband Mick own.

The police took a number of ‘important items’ from the repair shop.

Victoria Police Crime Command Detective Acting Chief Inspector Mark Hatt previously said police would speak to her family, friends and colleagues as part of their “open-ended” investigation.

Police said Mick Murphy (pictured leaving a police station on February 9) was not an official suspect but was a ‘person of interest’ in the investigation

Police released this photo of Ms Murphy from the morning she disappeared. Detectives now believe that ‘one or more parties’ are behind her mysterious disappearance

Forensics searched the Mount Clear woodland area for Ms Murphy on Friday

Acting Chief Inspector Mark Hatt said Mr Murphy was not a suspect but he and “everyone in Ms Murphy’s personal life was a person of interest”.

When Daily Mail Australia asked Chief Inspector Hatt if Mr Murphy was a person of interest, he said he was not an official suspect but that he and “everyone” in Ms Murphy’s close personal life was a person of interest.

“We have a number of people we are talking to and I can say that the family has been absolutely fantastic in cooperating with the police,” he said.

‘At this stage he is not a (suspect). Everyone in relation to Samantha is a person of interest. In our research we speak to everyone who was in her life.’

In a comment that appeared to suggest Ms Murphy may have been targeted, Chief Inspector Hatt said: ‘We have no information or evidence to suggest there is any risk to anyone else.’

“We are definitely looking for her phone, we haven’t found it yet. We are looking for a body. “Once again, that area was searched for Samantha herself and we did not find her in that area,” he said.

The chief inspector said the possibility that Ms Murphy had suffered a medical episode had been ruled out and said he ‘doubted’ whether she was still alive.

“Given the extensive and detailed search that has already been undertaken and the fact that no trace of Samantha or her personal belongings has been found, we have ruled out any kind of medical incident,” he told reporters.

‘Unfortunately, given that we have found no trace of her, we are very concerned and doubt that she is still alive.’

Samantha Murphy left her Ballarat home at 7am on February 4 to go for a run in the nearby state forest and did not return home. Police have now launched a major on-the-ground search after phone records led them to a specific area in bushland, 6km from where she was last seen.

Forensics launched a search on Friday in a new piece of bushland in the national forest

Chief Inspector Hatt said police believe Ms Murphy’s body may have been removed from the Mount Clear area they are searching after foul play was alleged.

“That is certainly a scenario we are looking at. Based on our elimination process, we believe there is another party involved – whether it is one person or a number of people.”

Chief Inspector Hatt said detectives had searched Ms Murphy’s home ‘to some extent’ as part of the investigation.

“I will not comment further on our investigation,” he said.

Officers are currently tracking more than 500 individual pieces of evidence and sifting through 12,000 hours of CCTV footage.

Chief Inspector Hatt said questions about the movements of those within the family home during the period Mrs Murphy was on the run were difficult to answer.

“There’s a lot of movement to and from the house during the day and we’re confident that we’ve tracked all that movement and that we’re following up on everything,” he said.