He may of dumped the phone on a different day. How they found the phone is a story in itself.
I thought it interesting that her phone was switched OFF when Mick tried to ring it that morning . … suggesting had the presence of mind to do that, and I imagine therefore to switch his own phone off as well (including locations etc) Pretty clear head for having been out on the town til all hours IMO (speaking from considerable experience - oh minus the drugs )
Her phone data would’ve been pretty quickly obtained.
There would have been a lot of cross-checking of data from all phones in the area (there is software that does this ) and I’m presuming that turned up a match for both her & phones in proximity of each other at Mt Clear, and perhaps others as well.
It perhaps also matched the time of her phone being switched off, with ’ being switched off around same time.
Next interesting thing for me was that Samantha’s phone was said to Ping at
5pm near the Buninyong Golf Club.( if that’s at MT BUNINYONG RD, BUNINYONG its a major tower in the area shared by all networks)
Said to be it’s ‘final ping’. I think Buninyong would be approx 10 mins drive ( depending on where they were at Mt Clear, which seems pretty closely guarded information as I’d imagine locals would know ‘where it happened) and depending if he took a direct route.
So what was that phone doing / where was it travelling between say 8.30 am - 5.00 pm when it Pinged in Buninyong ?
My thoughts are that he took her body ‘somewhere’ first, but definitely not in the Southerly direction.
I’m inclined to suggest ‘pick one’ :
Where are all the mine shafts in Ballarat?
I think her phone was the last thing he dealt with, and he used that as a decoy …. He’s switched her phone on deliberately so it would Ping in the Buninyong area & then turned it off again.
He’s then ditched her phone along the way out of Buninyong toward Mt Mercer (had a pee stop & threw it in the dam) He’s a big lad & will’ve had a good arm, but it didn’t quite reach the middle of the dam, so as the waters dried up it became visible in the mud.
I think the owners of the dam will have seen it and alerted police, as police went there expecting to find a phone imo - and it would’ve been uppermost in their minds who’s it would be.
Taking a drive on a direct route from Mt Clear, through Buninyong, Mt Mercer, Bannockburn & back to Scotsburn you’d do it in 1hr 30 mins (locals ?) with no hold ups. … but I don’t think he started that particular trip at Mt Clear. I think he’d probably been home, around & about - then
turned His phone Off again to do a drive to dispose of her phone later that afternoon (Daylight Saving time in Feb in Vic - sunset wasn’t until 8.30 pm)
Sorry for the overly long post, I’m just trying to put some thoughts together.
To me this seems a very strange situation on so many levels.
However many a deviate psycho has blended perfectly into society & appeared ‘normal’ - until ..
All just my personal opinions.
