Woman who saw Frankston teen Jodus Murphy alive say police did not properly process her report

A woman who saw a missing Frankston teenager later found dead near a river at Seymour says she is concerned police did not properly act on her report to them.

Jodus Murphy, 18, was found dead near the Goulburn River in June. Picture: Supplied

A Frankston teenager who was found dead after disappearing around his 18th birthday could have been saved if police better co-ordinated efforts to find him, a witness says.

Jodus Murphy’s body was discovered next to the Goulburn River in Seymour on June 14, more than a month after he went missing on May 12.

He is believed to have been given methamphetamines and Xanax at a house belonging to a woman and her teenage son on the night of May 14.

It is understood investigators are probing several varying statements provided by witnesses who encountered Jodus in town and had access to his bank cards.

He went missing for more than a month. Picture: Supplied

A funeral was held for Jodus Murphy on June 30. Picture: Facebook

Witnesses who saw Jodus in the weeks leading up to his unexplained death claim they reported sightings of the missing boy to police just days after they appealed to the public to help locate him.

One Seymour woman, who asked not to be named, told the Herald Sun the teen walked up to her on Kennedy Court on May 15, asking to use the Maps app to search for a friend’s house nearby.

Speaking through tears, the woman said she was “gutted” by Jodus’ death after seeing missing person posters of him circulating more than two weeks following her report to police.

“I feel like the poor kid might still be alive if someone had gone out and looked for him that day,” she said.

“I just got the impression that they didn’t fully know who I was talking about or were across the Frankston police’s search for him … I was told they (investigators) would have to get information about him from them (Frankston) after he was found dead.”

The last known image taken of Jodus. Picture: Supplied

The location where Jodus’s body was found. Picture: Supplied

The woman spotted Jodus a second time on May 15 near a thoroughfare at the end of the court as he searched through the backpack before she decided to report the teen to police out of fear he had nowhere to stay and was lost.

“He said he’d lost his phone on the way to Seymour and he didn’t have it anymore,” she said.

“He was a really sweet kid.

“It’s just tragic.”

Jodus is believed to have approached another woman in Seymour township that same day, asking to use the Maps app on her phone, who also reported him to local police.

The circumstances surrounding the “very intelligent” teen’s death remain a mystery, with his loved ones “dumbfounded” that he would travel to the regional area.

“He was such a good kid, so for him to just go out there to a place he’s never been before and stay at someone’s house that he’s not even met before, do drugs he’s never done before, it’s just so out of character,” his sister-in-law Maddison Maloney said in July.

Jodus was found among shrubbery next to the riverbed in his underwear and wearing jewellery he was wearing when he left his mother’s house in Frankston.

He was last seen alive wearing black tracksuits, a dark black and blue hoodie and carrying two bags.

Jodus’ death is not being treated as suspicious.

Police declined to comment on the investigation into his death as a report is being prepared for the Coroner.