EXCLUSIVE
Samantha Murphy’s body will have been left in the Victorian bush for three months next Saturday without any trace of her ever found.
The beloved mother of three was last seen leaving her home in Eureka Street, Ballarat East, to go for a run in the Canadian State Forest on the morning of February 4.
Despite numerous searches, Victoria Police detectives appear to be no closer to finding her body despite taking her alleged killer into custody.
Hope fades during the hunt for Samantha Murphy’s body
Police used a cadaver dog during the search for the body of Samantha Murphy at Enfield State Park in Ballarat on April 11
A Victoria Police spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia the investigation remained “very active and ongoing”.
“We are doing everything we can to locate her,” the spokesperson said.
In March, detectives caccused 22-year-old trader Patrick Orren Stephenson of the 51-year-old’s murder.
It is understood he has continued to maintain his right to remain silent pending his next court appearance in September.
Detectives from Victoria Police’s Missing Persons Unit are in a race against time to find Ms Murphy’s body.
In the three months since her disappearance, the Ballarat area has experienced heatwaves, bushfires and heavy rain as search teams tried to retrace her steps.
Wildlife, including foxes, are also known to have large populations in the dense bushland in the forests surrounding Ballarat.
If the body is left uncovered in the rugged wilderness, experts believe a body can decompose quickly, destroying important DNA evidence.
“The time it takes for a body to decompose depends on climatic conditions, such as temperature and moisture, and on its accessibility to insects,” the Australian Museum said.
“In summer, a human body can be reduced to bones alone in just nine days in an exposed area.”
Experts believe if Ms Murphy’s body is buried or dumped down one of Ballarat’s many mine shafts, detectives could still collect important evidence.
“A body buried 4 feet (1.2 meters) underground retains most of its tissue for a year,” the museum said.
The hunt for Samantha Murphy’s body
Police search for clues in Buninyong during another search in March
Police have been forced to scour rugged terrain in search of Ms Murphy’s body
While insects can decimate a body, whether buried or uncovered, wildlife also poses a real threat in the area where Ms. Murphy went missing.
Last month, police bSpecialist cadaver dogs from New South Wales have searched the Victorian bush in multiple locations in dense undergrowth stretching across a vast area 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.
The Ballarat region is infamous for the foxes and wild dogs that roam the bush.
A fox and wild dog bounty has been in place in Victoria since 2011, with large numbers of foxes being recorded from the area in recent years.
Wild dogs have long been a problem for police searching for missing people in rugged terrain.
David Prideaux was 50 when the experienced hunter went on a trip with his brother-in-law into Victoria’s rugged Alpine National Park on Mount Stirling and simply disappeared in June 2011.
His body was never found, while experts at the time claimed that wild dogs may have scattered his remains over several kilometers during the 2011 spring thaw.
Patrick Orren Stephenson did not help police find Ms Murphy’s body
Mick Murphy speaks during a rally against male violence on April 12
Barwon prison boss David Prideaux disappeared without a trace into the dense undergrowth. His body was never found
Just weeks ago, Mrs Murphy’s long-suffering husband Mick Murphy told Channel 9 that he had not stopped looking for her.
“That particular day I was outside and thought she was going to come out into the street soon,” he said.
“Then she didn’t.”
Mr Murphy said sfound daily, either by driving through the city or by walking for two hours through a pine plantation.
‘Sometimes I go for a drive and it might not be that special of a place, or I go for a two-hour walk. It varies every day,” he said.
‘It’s very good for my mind and if I were sitting at home I wouldn’t be doing myself any favors with it.’
Missing Persons Unit Detective Mark Hatt has previously stated that police would never give up searching for Ms Murphy.
“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 last month.
Anyone with any information about Mrs. Murphy’s disappearance is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.