Samantha Murphy’s disappearance now treated as ‘suspicious’

Police have revealed a change of direction in their investigation into how mother-of-three Samantha Murphy vanished 10 days ago.

Victoria’s police chief has admitted there are suspicious circumstances surrounding the disappearance of Ballarat mum Samantha Murphy, 10 days after she vanished.

Police had not commented publicly on the case since Saturday, when the force announced it was scaling back its search of bushland Ms Murphy was known to run in.

Chief Commissioner Shane Patton said at a press conference on Wednesday there were still no new leads in the investigation headed by the Missing Persons Squad.

“It’s certainly unusual when we haven’t been able to locate any trace of her or any other evidence within that period of time,” he said.

“It’s suspicious, whether that means there’s foul play involved or not, I don’t know, but obviously detectives are investigating a matter where a woman’s been missing for a significant period of time.

“Call it unusual, call it suspicious. But it certainly is of significant concern to us.”

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Samantha Murphy was last seen leaving her home for a run in Canadian State Forest. Picture: Supplied

It was reported on Wednesday that detectives went to the Murphy family home in the morning and spent more than an hour inside.

There have been no breakthroughs in the search for the mother-of-three despite a multi-agency operation and huge community efforts.

Ms Murphy, 51, is believed to have left her Eureka St home for a run about 7am on February 4 but never returned.

Commissioner Patton wanted to dispel “veiled criticism” of the police response, saying the Missing Persons Squad – which took control of the search on February 9 – had been involved “since the start”.

“We knew this had the potential to be a significant and prolonged investigation when we couldn’t find any trace of Samantha early on,” he said.

“This has been really thoroughly investigated from the start and still is.”

Chief Commissioner Shane Patton defended the police response to Samantha Murphy’s disappearance. Picture: NCA Newswire / Nicki Connolly

In a statement, Victoria Police said officers had uncovered nothing to suggest “anything sinister” was behind Ms Murphy’s disappearance.

“However the fact she has been gone for 10 days now and we haven’t located any trace of her despite a significant investigation remains suspicious in itself and is certainly highly concerning for police,” it said.

“Detectives are currently following up hundreds of pieces of information in relation to the matter, including the review of CCTV.

“Police are also continuing to conduct targeted searches of the local area.”

The force said its investigation was “active and ongoing”, and urged anyone who had seen Ms Murphy or had footage of the area to come forward.

Samantha Murphy was known to exercise in bushland near her home. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Ian Wilson

Ms Murphy was described as being both physically and mentally healthy and a much-loved family woman.

On Thursday, Ms Murphy’s daughter Jess urged the Ballarat community to not lose hope in the search for her mum.

“Mum’s a really strong woman and she’s far too determined to give up this fight,” she said.

“I know she’s out there somewhere, so if you could please continue to search for her and give us something to work with we’d really appreciate it.”

The call was echoed by her father and Ms Murphy’s husband Mick: “People just don’t vanish into thin air. Someone’s got to know something.”

Samantha Murphy with her husband Michael.

The search for he was scaled back last weekend. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Crosling

Mystery breeds theories

The mystery surrounding her fate had sparked intense speculation in the local community and nationally, with experts weighing in to share their theories.

Retired homicide detective Charlie Bezzina said he thought the decision to wind down search operations led him to believe police had information they had not shared to the public.

Mr Bezzina said there were some “unnerving circumstances” surrounding how a woman from a respected family could go missing.

Local church minister Mark Scherring told Sunrise on Tuesday he had witnessed the town go through a whirlwind of emotions since Ms Murphy went missing.

“Anything from disbelief that this has happened (to) someone in our local community,” he said.

“People hopeful at various stages, disheartened at other stages.

“But also determined to be supportive and helpful of the family in whatever way they can.”

Widespread searches yielded no results last week.

Community split

Online sleuths on social media pages also began to turn on each other amid a vacuum of concrete information, with the Find Samantha Murphy page shutting down after gathering more than 20,000 members.

On Monday, creator Cindy Hobbs posted to say the group had “served its purpose” and she had been “given the go ahead to delete” it.

“This is a huge mission on its own as I have to remove every member, if you would like to help Sam’s group, the best thing you can do for her is to help speed the process up by deleting yourself,” she wrote.

“Thanks for all the amazing support, I hope to get on with my life now with my beautiful family that I will never take for granted again.”

Investigators most recently called for residents to provide any CCTV or dashcam footage covering the Ballarat East, Mount Helen and Buninyong areas last Sunday.