Australia Samantha Murphy, 51, last seen leaving her property to go for a run in the Canadian State Forest, Ballarat 100km NW of Melbourne, 4 Feb 2024 #7

[epictreasure]

T

How often do "pings" usually happen?

From what I recall, Samantha's phone last pinged at 5pm off the Buninyong tower.

The last ping prior to that was at 7am (10 hours earlier, according to this article.)

I wonder if the accused went somewhere so remote there was no phone reception, then returned at 5pm still with her phone.

this is the most accurate reason I have seen. I’d be seeking cctv for the perimeter around that ping and not the forest

 

[Angeline]

Its quite possible that Samantha's body is over 50km from Ballarat with almost no chance of being identified...possibly never being found.....

SBM.

I personally think her body is in a remote area near Mount Clear - in an area with no phone reception.

I keep feeling like the phone is crucial to this case. Someone pointed out something very interesting a few pages back - most phones have security settings. It may not have been possible to turn her phone off. I know my phone wants a code if I've not touched it for a minute or so.

I feel that if the body had been taken far away, her phone would have been pinging at different locations along the way, even if was switched off.

But it didn't ping between 7am and 5pm.

Whatever happened to her phone, it still pinged at 5pm, meaning it was never switched off (AFAIK you need a code after switching a phone back on.) Either that, or it was a phone capable of pinging while switched off.

Also, I think Samantha's family would have been frantically calling her and those calls would have gone to voicemail and shown up on her phone bill, along with the location where her phone was last at.

I think the only way the phone could have been switched off was to smash it or remove the battery - but it pinged at 5pm at Buninyong tower, so that makes me think the body was taken to a remote area only accessible by roads that had no reception, then the vehicle with phone inside returned to the Buninyong tower pinging area.

 

[Bats]

Dbm

 

[Warshawski]

It’s been reported he gave a ‘no comment’ interview when arrested.

Channel Seven court reporter Cassie Zervos speaks from Ballarat court - Drive with Jacqui Felgate

Channel Seven crime reporter Cassie Zervos was at Ballarat Magistrate Court this afternoon and revealed when the former footballer son's next court appearance will be.

omny.fm

Seems he’s followed the recommended advice, as given here by 2 legal firms:

Police Interviews

It is our advice that you access your rights when they are offered. Your rights are there for your protection.

www.armstronglegal.com.au

Police Interview

Attending a police interview can be stressful. It is incredibly important that you understand what you need to do and what your rights are.

www.criminal-lawyers.com.au

 

[Warshawski]

Adding to it all PS’ demeanour in court is interesting.
“He appeared interested in the court proceedings going on around him and kept his composure, occasionally gazing at journalists and the magistrate and lawyers.”

Alleged Samantha Murphy killer's close female friend breaks cover

A woman believed to a close friend of Patrick Orren Stephenson's was seen training and tending to a horse at the rear of a Scotsburn property not far from where he was arrested.

www.dailymail.co.uk

I had heard that BBM comment previously Rocket333, and I was quite stunned by the comparison with what I’d heard reported by the Ch 7 journalist at court:

Channel Seven court reporter Cassie Zervos speaks from Ballarat court - Drive with Jacqui Felgate

Channel Seven crime reporter Cassie Zervos was at Ballarat Magistrate Court this afternoon and revealed when the former footballer son's next court appearance will be.

omny.fm

 

[Warshawski]

Adding to it all PS’ demeanour in court is interesting.
“He appeared interested in the court proceedings going on around him and kept his composure, occasionally gazing at journalists and the magistrate and lawyers.”

Alleged Samantha Murphy killer's close female friend breaks cover

A woman believed to a close friend of Patrick Orren Stephenson's was seen training and tending to a horse at the rear of a Scotsburn property not far from where he was arrested.

www.dailymail.co.uk

I had heard that BBM comment previously Rocket333, and I was quite stunned by the comparison with what I’d heard reported by the Ch 7 journalist at court:

Channel Seven court reporter Cassie Zervos speaks from Ballarat court - Drive with Jacqui Felgate

Channel Seven crime reporter Cassie Zervos was at Ballarat Magistrate Court this afternoon and revealed when the former footballer son's next court appearance will be.

omny.fm

 

[Warshawski]

SBM.

I personally think her body is in a remote area near Mount Clear - in an area with no phone reception.

I keep feeling like the phone is crucial to this case. Someone pointed out something very interesting a few pages back - most phones have security settings. It may not have been possible to turn her phone off. I know my phone wants a code if I've not touched it for a minute or so.

I feel that if the body had been taken far away, her phone would have been pinging at different locations along the way, even if was switched off.

But it didn't ping between 7am and 5pm.

Whatever happened to her phone, it still pinged at 5pm, meaning it was never switched off (AFAIK you need a code after switching a phone back on.) Either that, or it was a phone capable of pinging while switched off.

Also, I think Samantha's family would have been frantically calling her and those calls would have gone to voicemail and shown up on her phone bill, along with the location where her phone was last at.

I think the only way the phone could have been switched off was to smash it or remove the battery - but it pinged at 5pm at Buninyong tower, so that makes me think the body was taken to a remote area only accessible by roads that had no reception, then the vehicle with phone inside returned to the Buninyong tower pinging area.

I need some help from some savvy phone techno people

By way of disclosure, I don’t have an iPhone, nor a Smartwatch. ..tbh, I don’t even twig to someone wearing a Smartwatch, but I’m sure a 22 yr old wouldn’t miss that, surely.

Anyway, I wonder was it her Phone that pinged, or the Smartwatch ?

Am thinking that her Smartwatch was not cellular, otherwise why would she also take her phone with her ?

But if she lost her Phone / it was destroyed etc, would her Smartwatch connect automatically to someone else’s phone in the vicinity ?

Is it a complex connection, eg if she had a minute, could she quickly connect to a random phone ?

Thank you.

 

[Warshawski]

i wonder why some cases are treated more urgently and get more help and media publicity than others?

I personally was a little bit upset thinking, 'Oh my goodness, they've gotten all these resources and why didn't we get that and why didn't they believe me like that?'

The search for Samantha Murphy has transfixed the nation. Amelia wants to know why her mum's disappearance didn't

Amelia Grozdanovski has been waiting more than a decade for answers about her mother Lorrin's disappearance. She says the high-profile case of Ballarat woman Samantha Murphy leaves her wondering why police still haven't found her mum.

www.abc.net.au

I’m so very sad for those people, and all the others in similar shoes.

I understand how much they need answers, and the attention to missing persons cases should be 100% committed, no matter who or where. I can’t imagine their desperation.

Having said that, I guess if police gather evidence that suggests a person has vanished voluntarily and doesn’t want to be found, then they honour that, despite the dreadfully painful journey of acceptance for loved ones.

 

[Warshawski]

Russell Hill and Carol Clay were burned. They were still identified. The alleged killer returned to where he dumped them, and burned them ... twice.

I don't think it is as easy as it sounds.


Investigators say he returned to the scene twice in a nine-month period, setting fire to the remains.

How detectives zeroed in on the alleged killer of Victorian campers

New details have been revealed in documents provided a committal hearing about why police allege Greg Lynn killed campers Carol Clay and Russell Hill in the Victorian High Country.

www.abc.net.au

Apologies in advance…

The degree of destruction of human bodies in relation to the duration of the fire - PubMed

The changes occurring during cremation were watched and documented in 15 undissected bodies to be cremated. It was found that at temperatures between 670 and 810 degrees C the body showed the "pugilistic attitude" after about 10 minutes. After 20 minutes the calvaria was free from any soft...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[Curiousobserver]

I believe (MOO) there is no reason he should cooperate if he is in fact guilty. The evidence they have against him might be quite circumstantial without forensics evidence from a body. His silence is the best approach until he sees what they have. Helping them find a body is a de-facto admission of guilt and limits any defense he might make later.

Obviously this is not the moral thing to do but it is the pragmatic thing to do.

 

[MrsAddick]

Yes, I'm sure it's been extremely painful for her. The last post I saw from her was after PS was arrested and she posted that she's now seen enough to link the two events.

Did I read somewhere that Sissi was also attacked at the halfway point in her run where she usually turned around?
That seems significant to me.
Just reflecting on when I go on long runs…I typically have a rest to do some stretches at my halfway point. When I’m running, I have my head up looking around. Particularly in the Aussie bush because I’m a bit paranoid about snakes. But when I stretch, I bend over to stretch my hamstrings/calf muscles etc. With headphones in that makes you pretty vulnerable to being watched and someone sneaking up.

 

[Hestia's Fire]

Did I read somewhere that Sissi was also attacked at the halfway point in her run where she usually turned around?
That seems significant to me.
Just reflecting on when I go on long runs…I typically have a rest to do some stretches at my halfway point. When I’m running, I have my head up looking around. Particularly in the Aussie bush because I’m a bit paranoid about snakes. But when I stretch, I bend over to stretch my hamstrings/calf muscles etc. With headphones in that makes you pretty vulnerable to being watched and someone sneaking up.

Very close to that point, yes. She mentions it in this article: https://www.news.com.au/national/vi...e/news-story/54c8f292e6ab39e7cb383f874e5cbb41

“I was almost at the four kilometre turnaround point when I was attacked. All I remember is seeing a male for a very quick moment and the rock tied to a stick coming for me. I woke up on the forest floor, I have no idea how long I was on the ground for."

 

[Cedars]

I believe (MOO) there is no reason he should cooperate if he is in fact guilty. The evidence they have against him might be quite circumstantial without forensics evidence from a body. His silence is the best approach until he sees what they have. Helping them find a body is a de-facto admission of guilt and limits any defense he might make later.

Obviously this is not the moral thing to do but it is the pragmatic thing to do.

I agree. I'm a bit surprised they made an arrest relatively quickly, often LE will wait a long time watching the suspect, hoping he will return to the remains.

I hope it wasn't the intolerable level of speculation about the husband ...but I can see police deciding it was better to risk never finding her remains, than to allow that speculation to continue when they had their suspect.

JMO

 

[jjleroche]

SBM.

I personally think her body is in a remote area near Mount Clear - in an area with no phone reception.

I keep feeling like the phone is crucial to this case. Someone pointed out something very interesting a few pages back - most phones have security settings. It may not have been possible to turn her phone off. I know my phone wants a code if I've not touched it for a minute or so.

I feel that if the body had been taken far away, her phone would have been pinging at different locations along the way, even if was switched off.

But it didn't ping between 7am and 5pm.

Whatever happened to her phone, it still pinged at 5pm, meaning it was never switched off (AFAIK you need a code after switching a phone back on.) Either that, or it was a phone capable of pinging while switched off.

Also, I think Samantha's family would have been frantically calling her and those calls would have gone to voicemail and shown up on her phone bill, along with the location where her phone was last at.

I think the only way the phone could have been switched off was to smash it or remove the battery - but it pinged at 5pm at Buninyong tower, so that makes me think the body was taken to a remote area only accessible by roads that had no reception, then the vehicle with phone inside returned to the Buninyong tower pinging area.

Just wondering - would a phone ping if under water, or buried?

 

[BreakingNews]

Awful. I must say, 20 litres is a lot less than most would assume would be required. And simply purchased from Bunnings and carried out in a roadside rubbish bin.

I could see this scenario fitting the way everything stands at the moment. From police having gathered enough evidence to go with murder and the accused remaining silent.

Then he emptied the wheelie bin into a nearby storm water drain.

 

[Trooper]

At the time Mrs Murphy was murdered, PS was operating without the knowledge of Mrs'Murphy's schedule.. He probably knows it now, but that Sunday morning he knew nothing about who she was, her plans for the day, who was expecting her and when, who was waiting for her, possibly, or even how far into her run she was. He could have no knowledge of how much time he actually had to complete the task he had set before himself. He did not know when the alarm bells would go off, and the forest would erupt with searchers , dogs, cops, SES, firemen, medics, Scouts, Guides, etc.

SO whatever he did, he had, as far as he knew, a brief time span. Not a leisurely stroll around , looking for places to hide a body, a large and unwieldy artifact that is difficult when alive, and 10 times more so when not alive, It stands to reason that all that had been sorted out before. He must have registered in his mind, that the frenzy of searching that ensued would, and could begin within a very short time frame, this would have driven all his actions then.

If that ( as informant ) court hearing from Highway Patrol was from a pickup before the murder, then he knew he was on the radar of police, a speeding matter, or a registration matter, in regard, perhaps to his ( highly recognisable ) ute...

 

[Toowong(s)]

A guy in Cairns murdered his wife and dissolved her in acid …

Cairns man who dissolved wife's body in acid found guilty of murder

A 70-year-old Cairns man has been sentenced to life in jail for the murder of his wife, whose body he disposed of with acid. The jury rejected Klaus Andres's claims that he had accidentally killed his 42-year-old wife Li Ping Cao in self defence. In handing down the life sentence, Justice Jim...

www.abc.net.au

But Police were able to prove it …..

The accused was seen at Bunnings buying 20 litres of hydrochloric acid using Ms Cao’s credit card. He used that acid to dispose of her body.

Ms Cao had been killed, and her body put in a wheelie bin full of acid. All that police could find of her were 10 porcelain teeth in a drain outside the couple’s suburban Cairns home.


Paywalled for some ..

The Cairns Post

The Cairns Post

www.cairnspost.com.au

All that police could find of her were 10 porcelain teeth in a drain

So but for 10 porcelain (ie implants/fake?) teeth getting caught in the drain, there would be no trace IMO. Does this mean the real human teeth dissolved in the acid, leaving just the porcelain ones? Most people (depending what football team they support) have more than 10 teeth. I wonder did SM have any teeth implants, or a full suite of healthy human teeth?

Edit to add, I really hope SM is found intact and SM and family and the Ballarat community availed a decent respectful burial. It’s the only thing positive left to hope for here (other than a life sentence without parole, if found guilty).

 

[Whatson]

Does this mean the real human teeth dissolved in the acid, leaving just the porcelain ones?

Apparently so...

 

[Voluspa]

SBM. She might have been advised to by the police, so that it doesn't affect the trial.

I think this is possible. I recall her post around the time was incredibly vague suggesting a link between the two events. People were asking her for clarification however she never addressed it.

 

[Toowong(s)]

Early on in SMs disappearance pre arrest some (including me) speculated whether SM might have encountered a nefarious character hiding or retrieving a drug stash in the forest, and has been “silenced”. I for one had pictured in my minds eye a bikie type character, given the unrelated bikie murder suicide in Ballarat at the same time and speculation relating to that, at the time. And this scenario hasn’t got much air time since the arrest of a non-bikie type character.

Going back over my theories looking for something to ponder, I’ve concluded this theory (among others) should still be in play. Drug dealers come from a diverse demographic IMO. We’ve seen reports the accused was engaged in the drug taking bender scene. Perhaps he was the source for Ballarat, carried a large supply on his person on the night, doing deals, taking cash, and at 7-8am was returning all this to his cache in the forest, when SM came innocently jogging past… IMO

Just another random thread to tug on…