Son of ex-AFL player faces court charged with murdering Ballarat mother Samantha Murphy

Police will focus efforts on recovering the body of missing Ballarat mother Samantha Murphy after a breakthrough resulted in the son of a former AFL player being charged with murder over her disappearance.

Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton said investigators allege a 22-year-old man deliberately attacked Murphy, 51, at Mount Clear, on Ballarat’s southern fringe, on February 4 – the day she vanished on a morning run in the area known as Canadian Forest.

Murphy and her family did not know the accused, Patton said.

The man, from Mount Clear, appeared in Ballarat Magistrates’ Court on Thursday afternoon after his arrest early on Wednesday morning at a home in Scotsburn – a farming community just past Buninyong.

The accused 22-year-old cannot be publicly named after a magistrate issued a suppression order that media outlets will fight at Ballarat Magistrates’ Court on Friday morning.

Magistrate Michelle Mykytowycz issued an interim suppression order preventing the publication of the accused man’s name and address after media outlets opposed an application by defence lawyers. The man’s father played football and was a mature-aged draftee to the AFL.

Samantha Murphy was last seen outside her Ballarat East home on the morning of February 4.

Outside the family home on Thursday, Samantha’s husband, Mick Murphy, told reporters Thursday’s breakthrough was “like someone let a pressure valve off”.

“God, the adrenaline with everything that’s been going on, it’s just trying to be brave for everybody,” he said.

“It’s something that we wouldn’t want anyone to experience.

“It hasn’t been good for a while, nearly five weeks, but we’re doing as good as we can, it’s a brave face.”

Samantha Murphy’s husband, Mick, outside his home on Thursday.Credit: Jason South

In court, defence lawyer David Tamanika said it was his client’s first time in custody, and he was at risk of self-harm. But, the lawyer earlier said the accused had no drug and alcohol or mental health concerns.

Mykytowycz noted there was strong community interest in the “high-profile matter”, but said the accused was entitled to a fair trial. He was remanded in custody to reappear in court on August 8.

Patton asked the community to help find Murphy’s remains.

“Some cases, some disappearances … bring out outpourings of grief – and we’ve seen that here,” he told reporters, noting “the feeling of emotion” expressed across Australia and internationally.

“That is our primary role now, to try and get Samantha back for her family.”

Several homes near Scotsburn were searched after the man’s arrest about 6am on Wednesday. Patton refused to provide further details about the police case.

“In Victoria, when someone’s charged – irrespective [of] what people’s views may be – the details of that evidence are tested in court, not press conferences.”

Patton said his thoughts were with Murphy’s family, adding they had been “under intense scrutiny” throughout the investigation. They were told about the arrest on Wednesday night and about the murder charge on Thursday afternoon, he said.

“They have provided everything we needed, and they have had no involvement whatsoever in this matter,” Patton said.

The chief commissioner would not say if a particular public tip, mobile data, doorknock or ground search led to the 22-year-old man’s arrest.

“I’m not going to identify what has specifically led us to this man other than to say it came about from painstaking detective work with great assistance from the public,” he said.

He said the ongoing search for Murphy’s body was of vital importance to her family.

The last known image of Samantha Murphy.

“That’s why the focus from our investigators will not be stepping back at all,” Patton said. “In fact, will be going even harder to try and recover her body.”

Murphy’s family reported her disappearance to police when the mother of three failed to attend a Sunday brunch after leaving for a lengthy trail run about 7am on February 4. She was last seen on CCTV outside her home.

Police began searching for her in an area behind the Buninyong Golf Club, about eight kilometres from where they arrested the man on Wednesday morning.

After a week with no breakthroughs, missing persons investigators took control from local police. Specialist detectives and counter-terrorism officers were also called in.

Samantha Murphy’s uncle, Allan Robson, said his niece’s parents had been through hell over the past month.

Speaking from his home in Maryborough, about 58 kilometres north of Ballarat, on Thursday, Robson said it was a relief that the investigation was moving forward.

“As long as they haven’t forgotten about her,” he said.

Murphy’s disappearance had vexed investigators, who had been scouring the community and local bushland looking for evidence.

Detectives leave the Murphy house in Ballarat on Thursday.Credit: Jason South

Last week investigators said they believed that Murphy was not alive as they probed the possibility that her body may have been moved from the area where she went missing.

Earlier this month, dozens of officers carefully sifted through bush at Mount Clear, about six kilometres from where Murphy was last seen, after mobile phone data pointed detectives to the area. Hundreds of concerned residents also conducted their own search.

Detective Acting Superintendent Mark Hatt earlier this month said investigators had established Murphy left her house for a run and made it to the Woowookarung Regional Park, formerly known as Canadian State Forest.

He said the search of the Mount Clear area was pinpointed by “intelligence derived from phone data”.

Detectives combed the area, which had been searched in the past, looking for smaller objects that could reveal clues about Murphy’s movements.

Investigators reviewed about 12,000 hours of CCTV footage and followed up more than 500 pieces of information.

Police can track a phone through “pings”, signals sent from a phone to a cell tower to establish a connection. By analysing the signals sent and received by a phone, police can determine its location. However, this method is not as precise as GPS tracking and may only give an approximate location of a phone.