Two weeks after Sam Murphy’s disappearance while out for a jog, police ramp up investigations
How does a fit woman, a mother to three children, who regularly jogs 15km, who knows the rugged bushland terrain along her regular tracks and who had a smart watch strapped to her wrist, just disappear?
The Montague Street bridge is too low. Or, as some argue, the bus and truck drivers who routinely plough their vehicles into the overpass are poor judges of height.
Ballarat man Jack Aston, with 14 passengers on board his coach, is one of those drivers who slammed into the South Melbourne black spot. As he braced to be sentenced after being found guilty of six charges of negligently causing serious injury in the 2016 crash, Aston reached out to a close mate and his wife from the Victorian goldfields city.
Michael “Mick” Murphy stepped up, offering a glowing reference to his smash repair colleague, describing him as a “mentor” and diligent about “personal safety”.
“As a mentor, Jack was patient and generous with his time and knowledge. Jack helped to instil in me the value of quality and pride in my work and the importance of safety in the workplace for both myself and others,” Murphy wrote in a reference to the County Court.
Samantha “Sam” Murphy was happy to join her husband in supporting Aston. In an interview with Ballarat newspaper The Courier as the couple campaigned for his freedom, she said: “He said to me … he is scared he is going to be lazy, he is going to come out lazy because there isn’t enough to do. He is someone who is always doing something.”
This is the kind of loyalty that self-made successful business couple Mick and Sam Murphy were known for in Ballarat.
But now the nation is getting to know the couple as they’ve been thrust into the spotlight after Sam Murphy, 51, vanished two weeks ago during a Sunday morning jog in bushland after leaving their Eureka St house.
Fragments of their lives traceable on the internet paint a picture of a couple who share more than just living under the same roof as they raise their children.
They both are not afraid to stand up for friends, even when they’re convicted of serious crimes. (Mick Murphy’s reference didn’t save Aston from a long stretch and the judge sentenced him to more than five years’ jail. After a year in jail he was freed.)
The Murphys are not just partners in a marriage. They’re also business partners. They’ve worked closely together to build Inland Motor Body Works.
While Mick Murphy leads a “dynamic team” of panel beaters committed to perfection, Sam Murphy runs the back end of the smash repair outlet based in the warehouse district along Heinz Road, Delacombe.
The company website describes her as the “head of administration and the backbone of the office”, and offers a cheeky insight into their relationship. “Her roles include: book keeping, finance, keeping Mick in line as co-owner, plus many more.”
Thousands of people go missing across Australia every year, but most of the cases go largely unnoticed. On occasion, one case captivates the nation. The case of Sam Murphy is one of those.
How does a fit woman, a mother to three children, who regularly jogs 15km, who knows the rugged bushland terrain along her regular tracks and who had a smart watch strapped to her wrist, just disappear?
“People just don’t vanish into thin air,” Mick Murphy said during an emotional press conference with the couple’s eldest daughter, Jess, five days after she was last seen.
Wiping away tears, Jess touched the nation’s heart in an emotion-charged plea for answers and described her mother as a “strong” and “determined” woman.
“Mummy … we miss you and we need you at home with us,” she said. “Please come home soon. I can’t wait to see you, and to give you the biggest hug.”
When Sam Murphy, wearing black half-length leggings and a maroon/brown coloured singlet, walked out of the front door of her luxury property on the outskirts of Ballarat about 7am on February 4, she faced a short dirt road called Blairs Lane and the constant question on a runner’s mind: Where to today?
The Murphys’ house is about a 10-minute drive from Ballarat’s Sovereign Hill goldmining attraction and is surrounded by scores of different running options, in fairly well-preserved native bush, pine plantations, hills, dirt roads, footpaths, a golf course or uneven, off-piste tracks carved out by kangaroos.
There are plenty of different paths Sam Murphy could have taken on a run that would last for 15km to 20km, depending on her enthusiasm, weather and time constraints. It was early, but a hot day reaching into the mid-30s was beginning. One possibility is that she was heading to the nearby Canadian State Forest. Police, with assistance from other agencies, including the State Emergency Service, and members of the public, have searched the Canadian Forest area, part of the Woowookarung Regional Park.
A few days later, the search moved to the Mount Helen area to the east of Geelong Rd following information about different running routes she might have taken. Then the search focused on the Buninyong area.
Police are worried she could be lying – presumably now dead – somewhere in the bush, a victim of athletic mishap or a medical incident. The notion that she fell down an old goldmine – they are ubiquitous in and around parts of Ballarat – assumes that she has absolutely no outdoor IQ or local knowledge that also would point to the risk of snake bite on a warm day if she were to wander off trail for some impromptu bush bashing.
If her house is any measure, the family lives by a strict code of organisation. The home, like their work, is panel-beaten into perfection. The 2.5ha modern, four-bedroom property, overlooking bush and Eureka St, was bought in 2021 for a touch under $2.1m. It is surrounded by a pool, dam, horse facilities and an extensive grassed area that has been cut short for fire safety and aesthetics.
The sale price, possibly held down by Covid, is on the high end for a regional city of about 120,000 residents, 110km west of Melbourne. Real estate photos from the time suggest country serenity on the edge of one of Victoria’s big three regional cities, a spa and white stone perfection that would be very hard to run away from.
Police, to that end, are keeping an open mind on what has happened to Murphy, who outwardly had everything to live for.
Long-time friend and Ballarat local Virginia O’Loughlin describes her as a sensible and family-oriented person. “Sam is extremely fit, Sam is the most strong woman I know and I’m not just talking about mind,” O’Loughlin told the Seven Network’s Sunrise.
“I’m also talking about body as well. Sam is a fierce woman (who) will be doing whatever she can at the moment to make sure she’s reunited with her family.”
As part of any normal investigation, detectives will have examined every key person close to her, but so far with no obvious or public cause for concern.
One theory is that because the bush she runs through is so close to the city that she may have been confronted by someone on her run. A couple told The Weekend Australian of two disturbing encounters with a dishevelled man in bushland in Ballarat, where police have been searching for the missing woman.
Rebecca Agheli and her boyfriend, Michael Churchill, say they were visiting Ballarat to go gold prospecting when the man, wearing pants torn in the crotch area, exposing his underwear, and muttering to himself, twice “came out of nowhere” last Thursday. Agheli reported the incident to police but shared her story on social media in desperation after becoming worried police weren’t taking their report seriously.
Sissy Evans, a former Greens Senate candidate from Ballarat East, was beaten in February last year on a running track through forest just 20km from where Murphy was last seen. Her assailant has never been found.
Police have refused to comment on whether they have investigated any potential link between the disappearance and the attack on Evans. There is no hard evidence either of the above reports is relevant.
But they have fed an emerging perception that the police investigation may not have been as thorough as it could have been. There was the CCTV bungle where detectives released video of a jogger they said was Murphy, only to withdraw it the next day when another woman identified herself as the person running in the vision.
Murphy’s phone last “pinged” on February 4 from a tower at Buninyong. Police have not said if they have managed to track her Apple Watch but said they were working with telecommunications technicians.
While the public may be impatient for updates, the level of commentary by police doesn’t define how much solid detective work is necessarily going on behind the scenes.
But it’s important the public – especially Ballarat locals – remain engaged in this story and more updates will drive that engagement.
Police initially said the case wasn’t suspicious. A crime command detective said homicide detectives were not involved in the investigation.
“I can also confirm that we have not identified any suspicious or sinister circumstances,” the officer said, before adding: “However, we do hold significant concerns for Samantha’s welfare at this stage, and that is growing as the days progress.”
Major searches were scaled back. It wasn’t until Wednesday this week – 10 days after Murphy vanished – that Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton described the case as “suspicious”.
Hours later, Victoria Police issued a statement suggesting the investigation, which is being led by the missing persons squad, was being ramped up with “specialist resources” from crime command being deployed.
Police did not explain exactly what “specialist resources” were now being used in the hunt for answers. They said “targeted” searches were being launched but did not disclose where.
Certainly, the task for police has been made even more difficult by a dearth of CCTV footage, principally because their home is in a semi-rural environment with large blocks of land surrounded by bush.
Mick Murphy declined to comment when asked this week to talk to Inquirer. Inside the house were family and a policeman from the missing persons unit.
The bright shining light of the media can be an awful challenge for victims of crime.
Assuming, of course, that a crime has been committed.
