Key Points
- Victoria Police has resumed the search for the body of 51-year-old Samantha Murphy.
- The Ballarat woman went missing while out on a run on 4 February.
- Police arrested 22-year-old Patrick Orren Stephenson and charged him with murder.
The search for missing Ballarat mother Samantha Murphy will continue into a second day after crews failed to locate her body following fresh intelligence.
A significant search at Enfield State Park started on Thursday morning in a bid to find her body, Victoria Police said.
The 51-year-old was last seen leaving her home on Eureka Street to go for a run in Canadian State Forest on the morning of 4 February.
Officers focused on “an area highlighted by intelligence derived from a number of sources”, with crews investigating a site 10km south of the previous unsuccessful search at Buninyong Bushland Reserve in March.
The public has been asked not to join the search, about 20km south of the Murphy family home.
Crews scouring the area include those who specialise in missing persons, search and rescue, the public order response team, the mounted branch and cadaver dogs.
About 50 searchers combed the state park for signs of Murphy’s body with one dog dashing around and inspecting small pits in the ground believed to be mine shafts.
The off-the-track area is covered by dense forest with foliage casting shade over the ground filled with damp leaves, smaller trees and fallen tree trunks.
It can be difficult terrain, with the area that once housed tents and diggers now dotted with abandoned mine shafts reclaimed by wildlife.
A diptych of two supplied images of missing Victorian woman Samantha Murphy. Source: AAP / Victoria Police
Crews continued their search into the afternoon with a handful of officers in hi-vis scouring a dense ravine and wading through thick shrubbery.
The operation on Thursday was wound down at 4pm.
A smaller contingent of officers will resume the search in the state park area on Friday.
Police in March charged 22-year-old tradesman Patrick Orren Stephenson with the murder of Murphy at Mount Clear on the day she went missing.
He will return to court in August.
Stephenson is the son of Orren Stephenson, who played 15 AFL games for Geelong and Richmond between 2012 and 2014.
Samantha Murphy was last seen leaving her home to go for a run on 4 February. Source: AAP / Joe Armao
Detective Acting Superintendent Mark Hatt described Thursday’s effort as an extensive, large-scale search that built on targeted operations in other areas.
“I want to assure those in the Ballarat community that police remain focused on doing everything we can to return Samantha to her family,” he said.
The regional western Victorian city has been rocked by a series of tragedies this year including Murphy’s disappearance, a mine collapse that claimed the life of worker Kurt Hourigan, the death of mother-of-five Rebecca Young and bushfires in surrounding areas.
On 5 April, 23-year-old Hannah McGuire was found dead in a burnt-out car at Scarsdale.
Ballarat locals will stage a rally in the centre of the city on Friday evening as an act of solidarity in the fight to end violence against women.
A description of the event on social media said women did not feel safe in Ballarat.
Tyler Mitchell