Fresh heartbreak for Samantha Murphy’s family as detectives make grim decision in the hunt for her body
Search crews have called off their latest search for the body of Ballarat mother Samantha Murphy without finding any trace of the missing mother of three.
On Friday, police returned to bush tracks near where the mother-of-three went missing on February 4 in western Victoria.
But by 1.30pm the mission had been called off, as the last of the Victoria Police dirt bike team had loaded their bikes into a trailer.
Samantha Murphy was reportedly murdered while out for a Sunday morning jog
Police picked up their dirt bikes on Friday after another failed search
An officer prepares to withdraw from the area after another failed search on Friday
“If we had found something you would all have heard about it,” an officer told Daily Mail Australia.
The police will not return to the bush tomorrow.
The failed search will be a further blow to Ms Murphy’s long-suffering family, who are expected to take part in a rally against men violence in Ballarat on Friday evening.
Among them is the family of Hannah McGuire, who was allegedly murdered a week ago by her ex-partner Lachlan Young.
The McGuire family is expected to attend the event and hand out t-shirts featuring Hannah’s face.
“Tomorrow we will march and stand in solidarity with Hannah McGuire and all the other women who have lost their lives to violence,” said a post on the family pub’s Facebook page.
“We had T-shirts made for Hannah and would be honored if you wore one.”
Rather, a A police spokesperson said Daily Mail Australia crews were undertaking ‘a targeted search’ in the Ballarat area on Friday morning.
“Detectives from the Missing Persons Squad and a range of specialist resources from across Victoria Police are involved in the search,” she said.
The alleged murder of Hannah McGuire has compounded the misery of the Ballarat community
Police have re-entered dense brush in an area about 16 miles from where Samantha Murphy disappeared on February 4
Search crews have peered into mine shafts and navigated treacherous conditions in search of clues
Specialized dogs that can find bodies have been deployed to assist the search
Unlike a massive search police conducted Thursday, the media was left in the dark about what crews were looking at Friday.
“Over the past two months, the police have also carried out regular investigations and small-scale searches as part of the ongoing investigation,” the spokesperson said.
“We are not in a position at this time to provide further specific details on current operational activities.”
The search had yielded new hope. Search teams were close to locating the 51-year-old’s body.
On Thursday, Victoria Police brought in specialist cadaver dogs from New South Wales to search the Victorian bush at multiple locations in dense undergrowth stretching across a vast swath of countryside.
Teams of officers concentrated their search at Enfield State Park, 30 kilometers south of Ballarat, but another search team was also working 25 kilometers away in dense bush in the Durham Lead Nature Conservation Reserve.
The nature reserve is just south of Buninyong, where Ms Murphy’s phone was last detected by mobile phone masts at 5pm on the day she disappeared.
Ms Murphy, 51, was last seen leaving her home on Eureka Street, Ballarat East, to go for a run in the Canadian State Forest on the morning of February 4.
Police are said to have searched the bush about 20km south of the Murphy family home.
Mrs Murphy’s husband Mick Murphy was informed of this week’s search. He had previously remained in the dark about similar search efforts
A helicopter was seen hovering over the dense forest just before 2pm on Thursday as search crews made their way deeper into the dense undergrowth.
The search for the day was called off at 4 p.m.
Thursday marked the first time since the investigation began that search crews used the highly trained cadaver dogs led by NSW Police.
They are specially trained to detect human remains and corpses even under extreme conditions.
Police on trail bikes have also been deployed to cover the wide area in the increasingly desperate hunt for Ms Murphy’s remains, more than eight weeks after she disappeared.
Officers had previously made unsuccessful search attempts in the Buninyong Bushland Reserve in March.
It remains unclear what new information gave rise to the new search locations for the police on Thursday.
In March, detectives charged 22-year-old trader Patrick Orren Stephenson with Ms Murphy’s murder.
Samantha Murphy in the last terrifying photo of her captured before she left on February 4
Patrick Orren Stephenson is reportedly refusing to tell police where they claim he hid Ms Murphy’s body
They claim he killed her at Mount Clear the day she went missing.
Stephenson is the son of Orren Stephenson, who played 15 AFL games for Geelong and Richmond between 2012 and 2014.
It is understood Stephenson has refused to co-operate with police and reveal what they claim to know about the location of Ms Murphy’s body.
Detective Acting Chief Inspector Mark Hatt described Thursday’s efforts as an “extensive” large-scale search that built on targeted searches in other areas.
“I want to reassure people in the Ballarat community that police remain focused on doing everything we can to return Samantha to her family,” he said.
Anyone with information about Ms Murphy’s disappearance is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
Mick Murphy and daughter Jess desperately begged Samantha Murphy to come home. They didn’t know then that she was already dead