The key Samantha Murphy question that still hasn’t been answered after she vanished without a trace three months ago

It’s been three months since beloved mother-of-three Samantha Murphy went missing and her family still doesn’t know the whereabouts of her body.

The 51-year-old left her home in Ballarat East, northwest of Melbourne, on February 4 for her usual morning run but never returned.

Her disappearance made headlines across the country, sparked numerous searches by police and the community and left her husband Mick and their three children devastated.

In early March, Patrick Orren Stephenson, 22, was charged with her alleged murder.

Police allege Ms Murphy was murdered the day she went missing in the Canadian State Forest, but no trace of her has been found since her disappearance.

Stephenson has not entered a plea and it is understood he has not cooperated with police and questions still remain about where her body might be.

Criminal psychologist Tim Watson-Munro said it was unlikely that more information about what happened to Ms Murphy would be made public in the near future.

“The suspect has reserved his plea and in that context he is entitled to the presumption of innocence, so it is unlikely that any further information will be forthcoming about her,” he told Daily Mail Australia.

“I assume he has respected his right to remain silent.”

Speaking generally about those convicted of murder, Mr Watson-Munro said there may be reasons why they remain silent

“They would rather go to their graves maintaining a position of innocence than an admission of guilt.”

He said another reason was because they feared the reaction of their loved ones.

Victoria introduced a ‘no body, no parole’ law in 2017, meaning convicted murderers can be denied parole if they do not reveal where their victims were.

The law was introduced in NSW in 2022 and is also used in Queensland and South Australia.

A Victoria Police spokesperson confirmed to Daily Mail Australia that there are currently no active searches for Ms Murphy.

“The community has been incredibly affected by Ms Murphy’s disappearance,” Mr Watson-Munro added.

“You would hope that the body can be found, for the sake of the family.”

Victoria Police added that investigations were ongoing and they continued to make “every effort to locate her.”

Detectives from the Missing Persons Unit are in a race against time to find Mrs. 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.

Last month, police bWe brought in specialist cadaver dogs from New South Wales to search the Victorian bush in multiple locations in dense undergrowth.

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.

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 he 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.

It comes as Ms Murphy’s accused killer was hit with new charges last year in connection with an alleged drug and alcohol-fuelled bender.

Stephenson has been hit with a drink-driving charge after allegedly crashing a motorbike into a tree on the night of October 1 after the AFL grand final.

He is also charged with reckless driving.

Daily Mail Australia is not suggesting Stephenson has been involved in any wrongdoing, only that charges have been laid.

He has not yet entered a plea to the new charges.

Stephenson is due back in court on August 8 on driving and murder charges.

Anyone with any information about Mrs. Murphy’s disappearance is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.