The heartbroken husband of missing mother-of-three Samantha Murphy has spoken out two weeks after his wife disappeared.
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 Monday, her husband Mick Murphy sent a message to Australia.
“We want Sam home please,” he told 7News.
Mr Murphy told the newspaper that his family was “doing the best we can under the circumstances.”
Samantha Murphy disappeared without a trace on February 4
Samantha Murphy’s husband Mick Murphy
He had previously told people to speak up if they knew anything about the missing mother of three.
‘People don’t just disappear into thin air. Someone has to know something,” he told reporters on Thursday.
Last week, Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton said the search for Ms Murphy had reached a new stage.
“It is certainly unusual that we have not been able to find any trace of hair or other evidence within that period,” he said.
‘It’s suspicious. Whether that means there is foul play, I don’t know, but detectives are clearly investigating a case where a woman has been missing for quite some time.”
Detectives from the Victoria Police Missing Persons Unit attended Murphy’s property on Wednesday morning.
The detectives stayed inside for over an hour before leaving.
The East Ballarat property is at the center of the investigation. It is where Ms Murphy was last seen on February 4, when she started her morning jog.
Part of the investigation – now called Operation Primus – will see detectives scour Ms Murphy’s computers and devices in the hope of finding clues.
Ms Murphy’s husband Mick, who is still supported by family members, is said to be working with the specialist unit, which is attached to Victoria Police’s homicide unit.
Daily Mail Australia is not suggesting Murphy had anything to do with his wife’s disappearance.
The search on the ground for Ms. Murphy has all but ceased
Police released this photo of Ms Murphy from the morning she disappeared
Last 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.’
Both are baffled by the mystery of her phone and say she wouldn’t have ventured as far from her home as the spot where police believe her cell phone made its final ‘ping’ with 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.
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 10km.”
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 effectively calling 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.