Volunteers continue search for missing Ballarat mum Samantha Murphy
Volunteers are not giving up hope of finding Ballarat woman Samantha Murphy, even as the official search for the missing mother scaled down over the weekend.
Volunteers are not giving up hope of finding Ballarat woman Samantha Murphy, even as the official search for the missing mother scaled down at the weekend.
Anita Williams from nearby Sebastopol is among members of the public continuing to look for Ms Murphy, who vanished a week ago after setting off for a run.
“We have to hope, we have to believe we can still find her,” Ms Williams said. “When you see what her family is going through, it’s heartbreaking. Nobody should go through that.”
Ms Williams was scouring the Woowookarung Regional Forest with her husband, Tan, on Sunday. The couple admitted that despite holding out hope, they were becoming increasingly pessimistic that Ms Murphy would be found.
The mother of three vanished after leaving her home shortly after 7am on February 4.
Volunteers from the Ballarat region and as far away as Melbourne represented the last remaining boots on the ground in the hunt for Ms Murphy after Victoria Police announced it was “scaling back” the search.
A dedicated “Find Samantha Murphy” Facebook group has amassed nearly 20,000 members, many of whom braved hot weather on Sunday to keep looking for the missing woman, using the nearby Buninyong police station as a morning meeting point before heading out to scour the bush.
Heather Jane Graham, from Melbourne, said she would be heading to Ballarat early on Monday to help with the search.
“If this was your family, would you want people to stop? No, you wouldn’t,” Ms Graham said. “I’m coming from Melbourne; early morning, I’ll be there.”
Detectives from the Missing Persons Unit took over the investigation on Friday and are thought to be exploring other lines of inquiry, including using metadata from Ms Murphy’s smartwatch and mobile phone to locate her.
“The current phase of the active search for Samantha was scaled back over the weekend,” a police statement read. “Despite extensive searches in the area over the past six days, no sign of Samantha has been located.”
Infrastructure Minister and federal Ballarat MP Catherine King said she was delighted with the strong sense of community on display among volunteer searchers. “Can I say the Ballarat community has been extraordinary as they always are, from SES to VicPol to CFA to just ordinary members of the community, we are all desperate for a positive outcome here,” Ms King said.
Anthony Albanese offered his sympathies to the Murphy family after he attended the Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial 20th Anniversary Service on Sunday. “Here in Ballarat, my thoughts are with the family and friends of Samantha Murphy,” the Prime Minister said.
“It has been, I’m sure, such a difficult time and I thank all those people … involved in the search.”
Ballarat mayor Des Hudson said the community was still hopeful Ms Murphy would be returned home to her family.
“The community response has been extraordinary … there is certainly great empathy for Samantha’s family,” he told Sky News on Sunday. “(We) could not be prouder of our community that have come in to assist Victoria Police, SES and CFA members.”
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