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

[Poirot's niece]

So it's possible that she went for a run at 7:30 AM and arrived home through the back entrance. Was her husband home alone that morning?

Yes, I wondered about this, hence my post about alternate entry/exit. She may have gone out the front, ran a bit, felt too hot or unwell and come back home via other streets to the back way. Maybe she forgot her phone and came back in to grab it?
Either way, as her friends say she valued her physical presentation and likely planned on returning home for a quick shower and change. Could someone have called her during her run & asked her to meet them somewhere urgently?

 

[Trooper]

To add to the troubles, Victoria is now directing warnings of fire ratings for tomorrow. ... Catastrophic, Extreme, and High, to the west and north west of Ballarat, but winds would push that towards the Ballarat area. High hot winds tomorrow, this is deadly ,death dealing weather,.no one goes out in it voluntarily. Not the kind of weather to be lost outside........

 

[Trooper]

could it possibly be to listen to local gossip or hoping someone anonymously posts some info?

certainly. so why close it down?.. people put anything on facebook, whatever they feel like, from wherever they may be, they could be from Reykjavik, , but there could be gems, that's a good analyst's job, so why close it down?

 

[PolyDot]

if the police have given up searching the forest where she jogged , are they searching anywhere ? are they interviewing persons ?

 

[Buzzo]

Yes, I wondered about this, hence my post about alternate entry/exit. She may have gone out the front, ran a bit, felt too hot or unwell and come back home via other streets to the back way. Maybe she forgot her phone and came back in to grab it?
Either way, as her friends say she valued her physical presentation and likely planned on returning home for a quick shower and change. Could someone have called her during her run & asked her to meet them somewhere urgently?

She would have to pass the front entrance to go to the back as there is no (mapped) back street to get access to the rear entrance. My interest would be someone leaving the house and returning without being captured on CCTV. I wonder if there were any long periods of phones staying in the house with no activity (no checking texts, social media, calls etc). This could also be investigated by dash cams.

 

[Poirot's niece]

The lack of sightings really bothers me

Same. I live in a very rural area in Vic. Even if its Sunday to sleep in or take it easy, if its forecast to be a stinking hot day there will be loads of people out early getting whatever needs to be done before the heat hits. Most people I know here will get up extra early, be out and about, task oriented then be home before the sun is overhead. People in the country are forever waving, nodding, hello etc even if you don't know them. That no-one on a hot morning saw her at all is plain odd.

 

[mondayschild]

Same. I live in a very rural area in Vic. Even if its Sunday to sleep in or take it easy, if its forecast to be a stinking hot day there will be loads of people out early getting whatever needs to be done before the heat hits. Most people I know here will get up extra early, be out and about, task oriented then be home before the sun is overhead. People in the country are forever waving, nodding, hello etc even if you don't know them. That no-one on a hot morning saw her at all is plain odd.

This is why I think that - if no-one did see her & police are combing through hours of dashcam - that she either didn't leave or left in vehicle

 

[JLZ]

She would have to pass the front entrance to go to the back as there is no (mapped) back street to get access to the rear entrance. My interest would be someone leaving the house and returning without being captured on CCTV. I wonder if there were any long periods of phones staying in the house with no activity (no checking texts, social media, calls etc). This could also be investigated by dash cams.

I don't know if there's barbed wire along the fence, but if not I'd be tempted to skip the driveway side if heading the opposite way.

 

[Eloise]

The FB group closing has made mainstream news

 

[Buzzo]

I don't know if there's barbed wire along the fence, but if not I'd be tempted to skip the driveway side if heading the opposite way.

There is a yellow tag saying it is electrified.

 

[SouthAussie]

The FB group closing has made mainstream news

Lots of nasty stuff happens on FB. When reading that article, I can understand why she shut it down.

imo

 

[bearbear]

odd theres no early dog walkers and runners coming forward with sightings, the neighbour said she usually waves hello and a woman attending her horse said she didnt see her that day as she usually does, hopefully police have had the dogs search her vast property? would they need a search warrant to search though, even though theres no poi?

 

[TootsieFootsie]

Get ready for an influx of some of those FB group members joining us here.

 

[ZombieKittie]

The FB group closing has made mainstream news

I'm not surprised they have nothing else new to report about the case.

Some of the things being posted in that group were unhinged and there was a lot of people attacking the husband

 

[Greysp]

The DM says they were camping at the Woowookarung Park lookout, which is basically a pull-off on Boundary Road/Bakers Road, when they saw Sam on the Saturday morning.

After they saw the creepy man .......

The couple then drove 15 minutes away to the lookout in the Woowookarung Regional Park where they camped overnight on Thursday and Friday last week.
Both Ms Agheli and her boyfriend said they heard strange sounds overnight on Friday, prompting Michael to even sleep with a cheese knife under his pillow.

'On Saturday morning Michael said ''I don't feel comfortable here, we should go, I kept hearing things last night, let's pack up and go'',' she said.
Before the couple left the state forest they saw Ms Murphy run past, with the mother-of-three wishing them a good morning.
I was one of the last people to see missing mum when she ran past my campsite on her morning jog

Lookout
View attachment 482631

Eureka Street to lookout
View attachment 482632
Google Maps

Honestly, this sighting may as well be a psychic. They didn't feel uncomfortable. Guy was creepy. So? What did he actually do? She should report and move on. All a but flappy really

 

[SouthAussie]

odd theres no early dog walkers and runner coming forward with sightings, the neighbour said she usually waves hello and a woman attending her horse said she didnt see her that day as she usually does, hopefully police have had the dogs search her vast property? would they need a search warrant to search though, even though theres no poi?

If the owner gives them permission to search, I don't think any warrant is required. I haven't heard or read any mention of warrants, and I posted a link further back about the police intent to review Samantha's online searches and activity. Presumably this means that the police have the household computers, and maybe Sam's work computer too.

imo

 

[Greysp]

it just sounds peculiar. It is grammatically correct, but intellectually vacant, since no one knows what purpose has been served, and now no one knows what purpose it was created for. If it was just to collect names, then say so. Since she has not been found, what was the point?

People got bored and frustrated and started bickering. As seen on current groups. We have nothing as the public. I'm starting to think the police have nothing too

 

[Greysp]

If she DID go for a run - and went down Cathie Street - then YES, THEY WOULD HAVE CROSSED PATHS.
There is more to the home address than people realise. I can't say much else without doxing.

In terms of terrain or ownership?

 

[MrJ]

Happy to have been corrected. The only real search update I have seen today is that:

"Victoria Police said its teams would continue searching for Ms Murphy on Monday with reduced resources compared to last week, after initially announcing the search operation would be scaled back on Saturday." (School children left 'nervous' by disappearance of Ballarat mother Samantha Murphy)

So it seems that, at this stage, no authority has any idea where Samantha is after all this time. Not great news at all.

 

[Greysp]

Like others have previously stated, I find it really weird the Facebook group has been deactivated. Maybe it's related to harassment of individual members; I can understand that a bit. But saying it's served its purpose when it's just over a week since she disappeared is rather sinister seeming to me. All JMO, but it doesn't sound particularly good.

Search is called off. I think that was the purpose. I think Cin had enough. It's hard to handover something like that to people you don't know. Better to delete. Wasn't very useful at this point