Sudden break in Samantha Murphy case as Ballarat mayor calls for end to ‘hurtful’ gossip

The arrest in the Samantha Murphy case has come as a major surprise to a Ballarat community awash with gossip and speculation since she vanished on a morning jog.

There is every indication something has changed quickly in the Samantha Murphy case in recent days.

Wednesday’s arrest was a major surprise in what looked increasingly like being a slow-burn inquiry with no breakthrough within sight.

Detectives in such major cases always hold back information from the public because its release can assist a suspect.

But as late as last week, it seemed investigators still had no strong single lead in a case which has transfixed the public.

That changed quickly at 6am Wednesday when a 22-year-old Scotsburn man and son of a former AFL player was arrested by detectives from the missing persons squad.

Even then police did not tell the media of the development for 26 hours, presumably while they quietly tied up some loose ends in the background. By Thursday afternoon he was charged with murder.

As one seasoned detective said, the course of such an investigation can alter in a hurry.

Ms Murphy’s husband, Mick Murphy, after the arrest of 22-year-old man. Picture: Jason Edwards

Mr Murphy arrives home after news of the arrest broke. Picture: Jason Edwards

Camera crews set up outside the Ballarat Police Station, where the man is being held. Picture: Jason Edwards

“There’s a lot of fishing lines in the water with something like this. You can get a bite and you’re off and running,” he said

It may be that the arrest eases some of the fevered speculation which has dogged Ballarat in the past month.

The talk prompted Ballarat mayor Des Hudson to call for respect for the Murphy family and end the hurtful and baseless gossip.

Cr Des Hudson, a former police officer, said locals needed to be better than adding to and helping spread the speculation.

Rumour has engulfed the city in the 30 days since the mother-of-three vanished after heading off for a jog from her family home in Eureka St.

Locals say some of the unfounded finger-pointing has caused division within the community of 117,000 people.

Cr Hudson urged citizens to be “better than that”.

“The different stories that have been swirling around, people adding to and people speculating, it would just be really hurtful for the family to hear some of those (rumours) at a time when they are obviously highly stressed, highly sensitive, highly emotional,” Cr Hudson said.

Part of the issue is a complete dearth of information about what happened to Ms Murphy after she set off for a run at 7am on February 4.

Mr Murphy and daughter Jess Murphy, speak to media outside Ballarat West Police Station. Picture: Nicki Connolly

There has been a complete dearth of information about what happened to Ms Murphy after she set off for a run on February 4.

No witnesses saw her after that point, leaving an information vacuum which has been filled by wild theories.

Cr Hudson said the kind of investigation confronting missing persons squad detectives would take time.

He said he wanted to protect the Murphy’s family’s privacy and could only imagine how the salacious gossip would affect them.

“I would just like to implore people to put themselves in that position and think about what they would expect from our local community,” Cr Hudson said.

Much of the unsubstantiated and damaging talk has been generated on social media, some of it on sites set up since the Murphy disappearance.

Cr Hudson said it was easy for people to fire off “negativity” from behind a computer screen but they needed to consider the impact of their words.

Mr Murphy said while there has been too much unwelcome speculation, the number of volunteers who helped in the search has been significant. Picture: Ian Wilson

The missing person case has both shocked and gripped Ballarat and Victoria. Picture: Brendan Beckett

“We are talking about a family that is not able to switch off, they are searching for answers and those answers aren’t yet there,” he said.

One long-time resident said she had never known gossip on such a level in Ballarat.

“Everyone has got an opinion. It has divided the community,” she said.

But another local, Dylan Ross, hoped the arrest would ease some of the speculation that has plagued the city.

“Any of the speculation and theories that people come up with, they can run wild very quickly, especially in a smaller area like Ballarat where everyone seems to know everyone,” he said.

“I’m glad some of that speculation can start to disappear, which will be good.”

On the positive, Cr Hudson said there had been generosity from many motivated by a desire to help.

“Our local community has been, in terms of volunteering and going out on to the search ground, amazing,” he said

Investigators are trying to sift through 770 information reports and 20,000 hours of CCTV in a hunt for a breakthrough lead.

The task is so large and labour-intensive that more detectives from a range of specialist crime squads in Melbourne were last month brought in to help.

The Herald Sun revealed this week that police would look at examining data from nearby phone towers in an attempt to work out who else was in the area in the hours after Ms Murphy went running.

They have been able to establish that her phone was in an area of Mount Clear, about 6km from her home, but a recent search of that zone turned up nothing.