Family of missing Ballarat mum Samantha Murphy break their silence on what they think happened to her – and the ‘clue’ that baffles them the most – 12 days after she vanished

EXCLUSIVE

The heartbroken family of missing mother-of-three Samantha Murphy fear she was abducted by a deranged stalker who struck while she was out running.

Ms Murphy, 51, left her home on Eureka Street in East Ballarat, northwest of Melbourne, to go for a run in Woowookarung Regional Park just after 7am on February 4 and has not been seen since.

On Thursday, her aunt and uncle, Allan and Janice Robson, told Daily Mail Australia they suspected their beloved niece had been involved in foul play.

‘It’s like she disappeared off the face of the earth. There’s nothing there,” Ms Robson said.

“I’d say someone would have looked at her. I can’t imagine it being anything else.’

On Wednesday, Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton confirmed that detectives now believe Ms Murphy’s disappearance is suspicious.

However, the police do not yet want to reveal what they consider suspicious, apart from the fact that it has now been twelve days since she disappeared without a trace.

Ms Robson said police had not provided any information about the investigation other than what was already known to the general public.

“If there is information that the police have, they will act on it. They don’t want to scare anyone,” Robson said.

Mr Robson said he asked his brother – Ms Murphy’s father John Robson – if he knew of a reason why his daughter might have disappeared, but he had no answers.

Mr Robson said his niece was financially secure and wondered if someone might have hurt her in a botched robbery.

“Mick had so many cars he couldn’t fit them in his garage,” he said.

“I don’t think he’s an opportunist,” Ms Robson said.

‘I think it’s someone stalking her. Someone she didn’t even know was stalking her.’

Mrs Robson suggested anyone who knew her niece knew she was a creature of habit when it came to exercise.

“She would routinely go for a run in the morning,” she said.

“She normally does 20km,” Mr Robson said.

“But she had to meet someone in Ballarat at 10am, so she only did 10 kilometres.”

Both are baffled by the mystery of her phone and say she wouldn’t have ventured so far from her home, where police believe her cell phone last contacted a tower.

State emergency services volunteers and police last week searched the bush in an area between the Canadian Plantation and Yankee Flat Road – about 15 kilometers from Ms Murphy’s home – where they believe her phone was switched off.

“She would never turn that phone off… that phone was always plugged in,” Mr Robson said.

The elderly couple said Mrs Murphy was a smart and careful person who had the ability to defend herself if someone wanted to harm her.

“She would have put up a damn good fight,” Allan said.

“And I think if she suspected anything, she wouldn’t stick around. She was a runner. She would have left that area,” Ms Robson said.

The couple said Mrs Murphy was familiar with the terrain and would have known if anyone unusual was lurking along the routes she walked in the days before she disappeared.

“She’s there so much she would have come across something,” Ms Robson said.

With police having effectively called off the search for Ms Murphy less than a week after it began, the pair fear they may think she is already dead.

‘You would think that the (search) dogs could have picked up her scent. That’s what they do. They should have been able to pick up where she ran into those woods,” Ms Robson said.

On Thursday, a woman who identified herself as Ms Murphy’s sister refused to allow Daily Mail Australia to speak to her parents, who live in Gordon, about 14 miles from their daughter’s home.

No new information emerged Thursday about the investigation, which is being led by Victoria Police’s Missing Persons Unit.

Last week, Detective Acting Chief Inspector Mark Hatt said detectives would be investigating Ms Murphy’s movements and interactions with others in the days before she disappeared.

‘Absolutely, that will be a big part of our investigation. “We are digging into the background, investigating Samantha’s movements in the days leading up to her disappearance as well as the people who knew her,” he said.

Part of the investigation – now called Operation Primus – will see detectives scour Ms Murphy’s computers and devices in the hope of finding clues.

Anyone with information about Ms Murphy’s disappearance is urged to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.