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

[OptimusLime]

Bung Sirboon disappeared without trace on a weekday in a busy suburb during peak morning activity. Very little sightings of her and this was suburbia so Sunday morning and then the bush, it’s not surprising there’s so few people coming forward.

If it’s random, I’m extremely concerned. Jetstar pilot’s downfall was the cctv at the gate so without that, I doubt he would’ve been caught. And Charlie Bezzina’s words on the ABC report regarding the timing of the missing persons unit were concerning. I hope the police have some good information they’re withholding.

Bung's disappearance still haunts me today, I bumped her thread last week.
The random makes it hard, very hard.
Got a frog in my throat, think I'll break for the evening.

 

[mamamama9873]

The house is easy to find. I didn’t realise how big their land is (I live in suburbia and pictured it more like that) and I can now see why the CCTV wouldn’t pick up which direction she went - the house is set fairly far back from the road and the driveway takes a bend before getting to the road.

I can also understand how no other sightings or CCTV captures been reported - the area is rural and houses generally seem to be set in quite far from the road. So if anyone has cameras, they would be capturing images closer to their building, not so much on the road itself.

 

[SLouTh]

This link has the 7:30 Report Segment if you want to watch it …

What happened to missing Victorian woman Samantha Murphy?

Sarah Ferguson presents Australia's premier daily current affairs program, delivering agenda-setting public affairs journalism and interviews that hold the powerful to account. Plus political analysis from Laura Tingle.

www.abc.net.au

 

[imstilla.grandma]

 

[mamamama9873]

This link has the 7:30 Report Segment if you want to watch it …

What happened to missing Victorian woman Samantha Murphy?

Sarah Ferguson presents Australia's premier daily current affairs program, delivering agenda-setting public affairs journalism and interviews that hold the powerful to account. Plus political analysis from Laura Tingle.

www.abc.net.au

Thank you for sharing, definitely discredits the ‘fell in a mineshaft’ theory - the report stated that the mineshafts in the area are either filled in or grated.

 

[mamamama9873]

<modsnip - quoted post was removed>

The daughter who spoke at the press conference was the eldest and she had a different name. SM’s other two children are reported to be of school age.

 

[ScottToorak]

I am tipping some sort of family dispute has led to this situation. Cannot conclude anymore without knowledge of family relations and inter workings of same in life and business dealings etc. The new home purchase was a significant milestone in the lives of the family.

 

[mamamama9873]

I am tipping some sort of family dispute has led to this situation. Cannot conclude anymore without knowledge of family relations and inter workings of same in life and business dealings etc. The new home purchase was a significant milestone in the lives of the family.

I also think mutually owning a business and an expensive house purchase when interest rates were at their all time low and now being at much higher rates could be linked to the disappearance

 

[JLZ]

I also think mutually owning a business and an expensive house purchase when interest rates were at their all time low and now being at much higher rates could be linked to the disappearance

I don't think the house move makes sense unless they wanted somewhere to invest an extra million and they decided the new property was a good investment. It's just not that much of a lifestyle change in my opinion. What I could do with a million dollars!

 

[PolyDot]

Or ... I wonder if she came back for the dog ... (I hope she came back for the dog)

Not likely she would come back for the dog and not the children …… I find it unlikely that she has done a runner and left her children

 

[BGirl88]

The recent video news reel from ABC News is interesting to watch. I also went back over the family appeal videos from a few days ago and looked up the property on nearmaps. A few thoughts from me:

The photo of Sam where it looks like she’s standing next to her daughter wearing a white dress and white gloves. This looks like either a formal photo or a debutante ball. If a debutante ball this is something I find more typical of country towns and people involved with a church. To me, shows a strong standing in the community, well connected, respected. I also don’t feel like she’d be the type to up and leave her family.

The family appeal - I reckon the husband seems pretty genuine and typical of a tradie in a regional / country town. An Aussie bloke that probably doesn’t say a lot but is grateful to the community support. I’d be very surprised if he was behind this.

The home - I looked it up on NearMap and can see some significant additions to the property that are not on Google Maps and not in the RE.com photos. These additions I can see have been made between Jan 2022 and Feb 2024 as these are the most recent dates photos have been taken. These additions would have been costly (I’m thinking possibly around $200k-$300k). So there’s additional costs if money had become an issue.

The misadventure / mineshaft - feels like this theory has been ruled out listening to the ABC News VNR.

So my next thoughts are she had an unfortunate chance encounter with a nefarious person in the bush or something happened to her on way to or back from the run/walk. As people have mentioned, it’s a quiet place on a Sunday morning and so perhaps having no CCTV / dash am footage is not unreasonable.

Or, she’s had a medical episode and has collapsed somewhere and has not been discovered yet. However, I do find it interesting that the bush search has been scaled back, as if they know they can rule out finding her in the bush. I do feel as though the police are putting their resources into a specific line of thinking. Or do they literally have nothing and are simply going back to square one… which is… where did she go after she walked down the driveway!?

Where are you Sam? I hope you’re ok!

 

[olaselo]

'Mum's too strong, she can get through this' ...

There is a possibility she has left on her own - a snap sort of. I am aware there were other possibilities earlier, but IF the catalyst was perhaps more recent.

Her favourite (favorite for the US spell checker) dog disappeared 4 days later.

I really hope this is what it is.

 

[olaselo]

Yikes, what a theory

https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/former-homicide-detective-says-police-are-keeping-leads-close-to-their-chest-as-the-investigation-into-the-disappearance-of-samantha-murphy-continues/news-story/f84a90b2016f208db1577fad78accbfb

 

[Oona]

So my next thoughts are she had an unfortunate chance encounter with a nefarious person in the bush or something happened to her on way to or back from the run/walk. As people have mentioned, it’s a quiet place on a Sunday morning and so perhaps having no CCTV / dash am footage is not unreasonable.

Or maybe a stalker?
I think it is possible police have a range of data such as phone pings, cctv, number plates and dash cam footage that they can cross match and overlay to work out who was in the area at the time that Sam Murphy’s phone pinged.
I believe that is how they narrowed down a suspect in the Cleo Smith investigation.

 

[bearbear]

i wonder if ruby the dog is on her way back to their old place looking for her mother?

 

[jjleroche]

Yikes, what a theory (family member of sorts)

View attachment 482900

https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/former-homicide-detective-says-police-are-keeping-leads-close-to-their-chest-as-the-investigation-into-the-disappearance-of-samantha-murphy-continues/news-story/f84a90b2016f208db1577fad78accbfb

I'm not really sure what "could be involved with a family member of sorts" actually means.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

I agree with Mr Bezzina, anything is possible. Nothing has been ruled out in my mind.

 

[Voluspa]

I'm not really sure what "could be involved with a family member of sorts" actually means.

Could he be suggesting a brother in law? That's where my mind went with that statement.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

'It indicates the detectives are following a certain line of inquiry. The fact they've scaled it back should give people confidence that they're following that,' Mr Bezzina told Daily Mail Australia.

'They appear to be comfortable enough to scale this search back. That tells you they're confident to some degree that she's not in that area.'

He added that police would not jeopardise any possible line of inquiry by publicising it to the media.

'The only people they've got to be honest with are the family,' he said.

Ex-homicide detective's theory on why search for mum was scaled back

The 51-year-old vanished on the morning of February 4 while going for a run in the Woowookarung Regional Park, northwest of Melbourne , at about 7am.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[jjleroche]

Could he be suggesting a brother in law? That's where my mind went with that statement.

Aha. Thank you Voluspa.