The desperate hunt for Samantha Murphy’s body takes a dramatic twist as search teams reveal explosive new details

Dozens of police officers will converge on a wooded area this morning where they believe the body of missing mother-of-three Samantha Murphy is hidden, after they revealed new details about a secret search for her over the past six weeks.

The 51-year-old was last seen leaving her Eureka Street home in Ballarat, Victoria, on the morning of February 4 to go for a run in the Canadian state forest.

On Wednesday morning, Detective Inspector Dave Dunstan of Victoria Police’s Missing Persons Unit told a news conference that search teams expected to enter the dangerous bush area at Grenville, south of Ballarat, as soon as weather permitted.

The region has been experiencing heavy rainfall, but it is expected to be dry again before noon.

The search is believed to be taking place in mountainous terrain west of Enfield Plantation, a location that has been searched before in the seven months since Murphy went missing.

A large police presence has gathered at the Grenville Recreation Reserve, with officers preparing to leave with the help of horses, dogs and motorbikes.

Detectives from the Missing Persons Unit were joined on Tuesday by specialist officers from the New South Wales Police and their Australian federal counterparts in the latest large-scale search.

Inspector Dunstan said police had in fact been searching the area on and off for the past month and a half.

“There are a number of areas where we are actually looking in different ways,” he told reporters gathered at the meeting site.

Police with sniffer dogs gathered at Grenville Recreation Reserve, expected to enter the bush on Wednesday

Inspector Dunstan said search teams faced dangerous conditions, made worse by the bad weather.

“The danger is that there are also a lot of mines here and that is one of the reasons why we have deployed a search and rescue service,” he said.

“There are a lot of unknown mines, so it’s super dangerous.”

Police are reportedly searching several areas within a radius of up to three kilometers in rough terrain.

Forty-five officers are expected to participate in the search, and a select number of media representatives will also be sent into the area on Wednesday.

It is not yet known how long police will remain in the area, but detectives hope the latest search will lead to the discovery of Ms Murphy’s body.

Detective Inspector Dave Dunstan of Victoria Police’s Missing Persons Unit is leading the search

Police gathered at Grenville Recreation Reserve on Wednesday

Police have launched multiple searches in the wooded area since February as part of their extensive investigation into Ms Murphy’s disappearance.

In June, detectives found her mobile phone at a dam in Buninyong, 10 minutes from her home.

The phone was undamaged and in near perfect condition.

The new Grenville quest is less than 15km from Buninyonng.

Mrs. Murphy’s body was never found.

She was last seen leaving her Eureka Street home on the morning of February 4 to go for a run in the Canadian National Forest.

A month later, police charged 22-year-old trader Patrick Orren Stephenson with the murder of Mrs Murphy in Mount Clear on the day she disappeared.

Mrs. Murphy’s husband, Mick, and their three children are desperate for answers

Police have charged 22-year-old trader Patrick Orren Stephenson with the murder of Mrs Murphy

At the last hearing last month, prosecutors asked the court to adjourn the hearing for 12 weeks so they could go through a document of evidence that included “extensive” CCTV footage.

Stephenson remains in custody and is expected to appear in court again on November 14.

He is the son of Orren Stephenson, who played 15 AFL games for Geelong and Richmond between 2012 and 2014.