Specialist dogs called in to hunt for Samantha Murphy’s phone, watch

Specialist technology detection dogs have been called in to help with a small, targeted search for missing Ballarat woman Samantha Murphy’s phone and smartwatch.

Victoria Police said detectives from the missing persons squad had been based in Ballarat for more than a month and regularly undertook a range of inquiries and small-scale searches as part of the investigation.

Thursday’s operation would not be a full-scale targeted search, as was undertaken with a range of specialist resources on Wednesday, police said.

Chief Commissioner Shane Patton said the Australian Federal Police dogs would resume searching in a different location to the larger hunt for Murphy’s body conducted near Buninyong on Wednesday.

“We are up around there again today,” Patton told ABC radio on Thursday.

“We’ll be going to a different location, but we will also use assistance from the Australian Federal Police today in technical detection dogs.

“We still haven’t recovered her phone and her watch. We’ll use all those specialist skills.”

Police ended a six-hour search around Buninyong Bushland Reserve just before 3pm on Wednesday.

Patton said they would continue to throw significant resources at finding Murphy’s remains, using intelligence gathered from their investigation.

“We are doing everything we can to try to find Samantha Murphy’s body,” he said.

“I would again like to reiterate ... if any member of the public has any little bit of information they think that may have something to do with this, to ring Crimestoppers, because we need all of the information we can get.”

The same specialist AFP dogs were used in the case of alleged mushroom lunch killer Erin Patterson, to search her Leongatha home in November last year.

Samantha Murphy was last seen leaving her home on Eureka Street in Ballarat East to go for a run about 7am on Sunday, February 4.

The dogs are trained to sniff out phones, laptops, SIM cards and USB sticks.

AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw told a Senate estimates hearing in February that the dogs had uncovered five iPads, two secure digital cards, a smartwatch and trail camera during the Patterson search.

Murphy has not been seen since she left her home about 7am on February 4 to go for a run in Woowookarung Regional Park, locally known as Canadian Forest – an expanse of dense scrub bordering her property on Ballarat’s eastern fringe.

Patrick Stephenson, 22, was earlier this month charged with murdering Murphy.

At the start of Wednesday’s search, Detective Acting Superintendent Mark Hatt said police remained committed to doing everything they could to locate Murphy and return her to her family.

Bushland behind the Buninyong Golf Club was one of the first search zones as the mother of three’s phone was thought to have last pinged there.

Hopes of finding Murphy alive were almost extinguished on February 23, when police said they suspected “one or more parties” were involved in her disappearance and they were doubtful she was still alive.

Phone data analysis then helped to direct the search to Mount Clear, further north of Buninyong and closer to Murphy’s home, but police did not announce any breakthroughs.

Early on March 6, officers arrested Stephenson, the son of ex-AFL player Orren Stephenson, at a home in Scotsburn – a farming community just east of Buninyong.

Stephenson has been remanded in custody to face court again in August.