Samantha Murphy: Fresh update in four month search for missing Ballarat mum

Police have completed a new search for missing mother-of-three Samantha Murphy in the Ballarat area.

Ms Murphy disappeared without a trace after leaving her Ballarat East home on February 4 to go for a morning run.

Patrick Orren Stephenson was charged with Mrs Murphy’s murder a month later. He has yet to enter a plea and police allege he acted alone.

Investigators are still looking for the missing mother’s body.

Victoria Police confirmed a targeted search took place in the Ballarat area on Tuesday and Wednesday as part of the investigation into Ms Murphy’s disappearance.

“Detectives from the Missing Persons Squad and a range of specialist resources from across Victoria Police were involved in the search,” the statement said.

‘Since February, the police have been regularly conducting investigations and small-scale searches as part of the ongoing investigation.

“Samantha’s family has also been informed of the search.”

The search was stopped around 5 p.m. on Wednesday.

Police added that the search would not resume on Thursday.

A number of items found during a house search in Buninyong on May 29 are still being forensically examined.

These items included Ms Murphy’s phone, which was found near a dam about 9 miles away from her home.

Speaking to Sunrise last week, criminologist Xanthé Mallett from Newcastle University said the discovery of a phone, if it was Ms Murphy’s, could be a breakthrough.

“Unfortunately, it may have been damaged,” Dr Mallett said.

Victoria Police said they would not resume their search after officers conducted a targeted search in the Ballarat area of ​​western Victoria on Tuesday and Wednesday (photo police found Ms Murphy’s phone near a dam two weeks ago)

Searchers, including specialist divers (pictured), also found several other items during their search in Buninyong, western Victoria on May 29.

Ms Murphy was last seen leaving her Eureka St home in Ballarat about 7am to go for a 14km run through the nearby Woowookarung Regional Park.

Police believed she had reached the Mount Clear area, adjacent to the park, about an hour after she left home, but she had not been seen or heard from since she left.

Subsequent searches by police and volunteers failed to find any trace of the missing mother.

In February, a huge group of volunteers combed through bushland after gathering at Ballarat’s Eureka Stockade Memorial Park. Some brought metal detectors and even a sniffer dog.

Later that month, police launched a targeted search in the Buninyong Bushland Reserve, involving a range of specialist units including mounted officers, dog squads and motorcyclists.

The search area was highlighted by “intelligence derived from a number of sources”, a police spokesman said at the time.