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

[Sillybilly]

ADMIN NOTE:

Please do not discuss the social media drama about the recently removed Help Find page.

The drama over there in cyberspace is in no way productive in determining what has happened to Samantha and has no bearing on this discussion at Websleuths.

 

[charliethecat]

The Bandidos are actually not like this at all. I think you are thinking of the HOGs or Harley Owners Groups who are rather benign, but not incels. HOGs are usually middle class middle aged men. Bandidos will have had members from a very young age. They are a bad bad gang with worldwide links to organised crime. They are known as part of the 1%ers and classed as an outlaw gang by authorities.
A run is an outing and upwards of 100 bikes can be involved and in such numbers they can often present a theatening appearance to regular road users. They may travel at high speeds, weaving in and out of traffic, running red lights etc. Some times they are now accompanied by police to stop traffic rules being broken. When the 'runs' of old used to happen these gangs caused mayhem at the destination with drinking, anti-social behaviour, ill treatment of any women etc.
i had friends involved with the HOGs and they had runs that were less scary, for instance they had 'toy runs' before Christmas where members would bring toys to place under a tree somewhere for less priviledged children or Poker runs
'The run will consist of five predetermined stops. At each stop, every participant draws a playing card and has it noted on a scorecard. The player who’s able to build the highest hand by the end of the run collects the prize pool that everyone paid into to enter the poker run'.

There is a Bandidos clubrooms in Ballarat. People have been shot by members, drugs like Meth have been found, guns, precursor drugs.....
Bandidos MC criminal allegations and incidents in Australia - Wikipedia

Bandidos Motorcycle Club - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Black-Cat]

I love the word “svelte” lol

Also some people lose their wedding rings. I worked with a few people that have. Also had a friend who worked in the food industry and lost his wedding ring while making filo pastries.

Yes, and I know someone who lost heir finger because they wore their wedding ring at work! And another who lost her precious diamond at work, never to be found!! So many reason people don't wear their wedding rings ect.

 

[BGirl88]

Just starting reading through the thread as the disappearance has intrigued me - I’m a little younger than SM but also live in Australia and go on walks and hikes by myself fairly often. Here are my thoughts thus far:

I am also finding the husband very distanced, the language he uses doesn’t show any emotional connection to his wife. I get that men are out of touch with their feelings and don’t want to appear soft however not showing any emotion whatsoever I find extreme when the partner is missing

However my POV on a few of other things that have come up:

- Wedding rings - lots of people don’t wear theirs anymore for multiple reasons as some have stated. Isolated ok, but in connection with the absolute lack of emotions, this likely does point to marital issues IMO

- Outfit worn by hubby during interview - this is standard attire for many Aussie men, shirt was ironed and clean, don’t see anything wrong with it

- Husband not knowing when to expect SM back home, that she would shower before brunch etc- my husband honestly has no idea of my schedule sometimes. Even if I tell him I’m going out for food with friends, he often forgets etc. I don’t think it’s unusual for the husband to not be fully aware of SM’s schedule

- Theory that SM has run away - find that extremely unlikely. In this day and age people seperate all the time, it’s somewhat accepted in society. I very much doubt that SM would ever leave her children behind, especially seeing the daughter make an appeal showed that mum and daughter are close IMO

- Timing of contacting police - I went through the same scenario in my head as to what my husband would do if I didn’t come home from a walk / run or if my friends told him I didn’t come to an agreed brunch after he knew I went for a walk. He would try to call me several times, see if he can use the “find my iphone” feature and then he would probably contact my parents and go to the track where he would expect me to be to see if they can find me anywhere. Only after exhausting all these avenues would he call the police. The husband seems super chilled so it’s somewhat strange that he didn’t take these steps first and already alerted the police at 11 JMO

Your last point is interesting and something I hadn’t thought about… the fact he alerted the police without going looking for her first, or calling around. Maybe though her parents are no longer alive, or don’t live nearby. Ita an interesting thought to call the cops straight away. I don’t think my husband would be so quick to call the cops, but who knows.

 

[BGirl88]

yes, husband reported her missing but my impression of it seems it was only because her friends seemed in a panic? just wonderingn why the panic?

I wonder if she had messaged or called any of her friends saying something like “there’s a creepy person following me…” or “geez I just had another barney with Mick…” Maybe they have other information which has caused them to be more concerned than usual.

 

[Black-Cat]

Do you think the police / investigators could be saying “nothing suspicious” as a way to see how others react? Perhaps saying “nothing suspicious / nothing sinister” has been shown to let peoples guards down…

That's what they do, bug the house, tap the phones, wait, listen, watch ..... until they have enough evidence, or someone cracks.

 

[mamamama9873]

Your last point is interesting and something I hadn’t thought about… the fact he alerted the police without going looking for her first, or calling around. Maybe though her parents are no longer alive, or don’t live nearby. Ita an interesting thought to call the cops straight away. I don’t think my husband would be so quick to call the cops, but who knows.

Didn’t necessarily mean to refer to her parents (just tried to picture the scenario in my case), any adult relative, one of the husband’s or SM’s siblings or very close friends.

My husband would not be so quick to alert police and neither would I.

I also believed police only consider an adult missing once they haven’t been seen/ haven’t made contact in 24 hours so seems unusual that the official search started on the afternoon she disappeared

 

[margarita25]

Hi, new to Samantha’s case and plan to catch up..quick question, is there a case map? TIA.

 

[BoysTown]

police did a massive search for william tyrrell based on the assumption he had wandered or been abducted without any witnesses to either

Yes but there was no CCVT in that case.

 

[Black-Cat]

Yes , I do believe VICPOL would do exactly that, no stone unturned, no theory dismissed, no rumour ignored, no whisper too soft. VICPOL can, and do huge searchers that go on for months. Overland, Air Wing, Heli squad, they are a bit like the Mounties, they never give up. They get their man , or woman, as the case may be.

And add to that all the locals who came out to help voluntarily

 

[Oona]

Your last point is interesting and something I hadn’t thought about… the fact he alerted the police without going looking for her first, or calling around. Maybe though her parents are no longer alive, or don’t live nearby. Ita an interesting thought to call the cops straight away. I don’t think my husband would be so quick to call the cops, but who knows.

We don’t know for sure that family and friends didn’t begin searching before calling the police.
If Sam was the kind of person that didn’t normally turn off their phone, the family may have been very concerned if her phone was off when trying to call her.
It seems that the family were concerned because her failure to return and lack of contact were completely out of character.

 

[BoysTown]

Did he go looking for her? Before he called police?

I haven’t seen it reported anywhere…only that he chose not to join search parties.

I initially thought that was odd but if they have primary aged children then I can understand him wanting to stay at the family home.

 

[Awakening]

I assume through their business they would have access to a number of different vehicles?

 

[Sillybilly]

Hey everyone,

Other than the knowledge that the Murphys own a car repair business, there is nothing that supports the speculative theory or insinuation that the business is involved in criminal activity or has an affiliation with outlaw motorcycle gangs.

Move past that please.

 

[Oona]

I also believed police only consider an adult missing once they haven’t been seen/ haven’t made contact in 24 hours so seems unusual that the official search started on the afternoon she disappeared

I think the 24 hour thing is a common misconception,
when people are missing in bushland searches are usually started swiftly.

 

[lampshade1]

I was looking at the history of the website on the Wayback Machine in the past couple of days and I'm sure it went back further than it does today. Now it starts from February 2017. I thought it went back to about 2013 . . . when the site was more basic, and the personnel were different.

I can still see it (including the Our Team page) back in 2013. I don't see much of interest though.

Our Team

 

[Noorie]

Silly, I know...Sam is giving Wendy Byrd (Ozarks) vibes. I think this case will be more complex than I originally thought.

 

[JLZ]

I can still see it (including the Our Team page) back in 2013. I don't see much of interest though.

Our Team

I was looking when Sam was first named (was she a co-owner at that point?) and when the lead co-worker left. Just being nosy but sometimes it pays off later.

 

[Trooper]

I believe the weather tomorrow, Tuesday, will be a game changer.

 

[BGirl88]

That's what they do, bug the house, tap the phones, wait, listen, watch ..... until they have enough evidence, or someone cracks.

Yes I remember that with Baden Clay - didn’t they put listening devices in the flowers on her casket?