Australia Samantha Murphy, 51, last seen leaving her property to go for a run in the Canadian State Forest, Ballarat, 4 Feb 2024 *Arrest* #12

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They have added some more photos to the AAP site


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More at link

Treloars rd & Mckerrals Rd

Does anyone else find it intriguing that despite stressing that they don't want members of the public out searching, VicPol have allowed this photo, with a clearly marked cross road showing the exact search area, to be released? Is it aimed to make a certain someone squirm? To lure an accomplice into making a move in that location? I can't see any other reason why this exact location would be shown. Thoughts?
 
Does anyone else find it intriguing that despite stressing that they don't want members of the public out searching, VicPol have allowed this photo, with a clearly marked cross road showing the exact search area, to be released? Is it aimed to make a certain someone squirm? To lure an accomplice into making a move in that location? I can't see any other reason why this exact location would be shown. Thoughts?

I don't think there is any accomplice. I saw again in a SMH article just yesterday that police will allege PS acted alone. I will see if I can find the link and add it.

It is actually also in a news.com.au article .... (which I found more easily).
I think the journos must be getting this info from court documents/appearances.


Mr Stephenson, an electrician and the son of AFL player Orren Stephenson, remains behind bars and he is expected to appear in court again in November.

The police allege Mr Stephenson acted alone.

 
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I don't think there is any accomplice. I saw again in a SMH article just yesterday that police will allege he acted alone. I will see if I can find the link and add it.
Nor I. No one ever comes up with an explanation of this 'accomplice'. Most murders are performed by solo entities, murder generally being a very private business, the odds of 2 people at this one place on that day, to kill a stranger, very long odds indeed. VICPOL would be very careless to let any suspected accomplice wander around, at liberty to interfere with evidence , or witnesses of any stripe.

I doubt he even had an accomplice as an accessory after the fact of the murder. I think it was all his own work, his own fantasy, his own (possibly) carefully rehearsed and practised outcome of a whole lot of solitary cogitation. Not shared with anyone, at any time, a very private inner dialogue .
 
Does anyone else find it intriguing that despite stressing that they don't want members of the public out searching, VicPol have allowed this photo, with a clearly marked cross road showing the exact search area, to be released? Is it aimed to make a certain someone squirm? To lure an accomplice into making a move in that location? I can't see any other reason why this exact location would be shown. Thoughts?

The police seem to be selectively publicising some of the searches in specific locations and making sure the media are involved as they could just go ahead and search quietly
If some of these searches are staged

One explanation is that police suspect someone may have further knowledge of, or may have assisted in disposal of the body, phone, watch or other items, and police wanted to observe that person's reaction to yesterday's search and see what they did, where they went, who they have spoken to

But If police do suspect someone else is involved, they certainly won't be admitting it until they have all the facts.
And making an accomplice nervous

We'll have to wait and see, but certainly intriguing the whole case
 
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Not everything is 9D chess

A large number of police are searching an area - that sticks out like a sore thumb and media are covering it. Although media will general cooperate with police within limits, they also can simply publish stuff and it's not as if this can be hidden.

Personally I suspect police just want to give the community confidence they are working hard on the case. Nice glossy images help with that.
 
Not everything is 9D chess

A large number of police are searching an area - that sticks out like a sore thumb and media are covering it. Although media will general cooperate with police within limits, they also can simply publish stuff and it's not as if this can be hidden.

Personally I suspect police just want to give the community confidence they are working hard on the case. Nice glossy images help with that.

The media also have nice long range lenses on their cameras. They might actually not be that close to the search.

They are just grabbing what they can grab. The AAP photos even include pics of things like a stone marker with the word Buninyong on it, a hotel in Buninyong, the staging area, what the general area looks like from a distance. There aren't many photos of the actual search - and what search photos are there are several photos of the same few scenes.

 
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I don't think there is any accomplice. I saw again in a SMH article just yesterday that police will allege PS acted alone. I will see if I can find the link and add it.

It is actually also in a news.com.au article .... (which I found more easily).
I think the journos must be getting this info from court documents/appearances.


Mr Stephenson, an electrician and the son of AFL player Orren Stephenson, remains behind bars and he is expected to appear in court again in November.

The police allege Mr Stephenson acted alone.

I also don't think there's an accomplice, I was just throwing possibilities out there.
 
Another thread suggests she’s in Enfield and ‘apparently’ the Police know she’s there. To be taken with a grain of salt, most likely but Iam now wondering what that particular post(er) knew.
 
Does anyone else find it intriguing that despite stressing that they don't want members of the public out searching, VicPol have allowed this photo, with a clearly marked cross road showing the exact search area, to be released? Is it aimed to make a certain someone squirm? To lure an accomplice into making a move in that location? I can't see any other reason why this exact location would be shown. Thoughts?

What photo are you referencing?
 
The media also have nice long range lenses on their cameras. They might actually not be that close to the search.

They are just grabbing what they can grab. The AAP photos even include pics of things like a stone marker with the word Buninyong on it, a hotel in Buninyong, the staging area, what the general area looks like from a distance. There aren't many photos of the actual search - and what search photos are there are several photos of the same few scenes.


Yeah I agree. I don't think they are trying to further any strategy - this is just normal coverage as you'd expect
 
Imagine if he was a little tipsy Sunday morning (slept the night off on a bush track so didn’t have to drink and drive ) maybe was outside his vehicle when Sam jogged past . Or perhaps he was riding his motorbike sober.

Alone in the bush, maybe he tried to grab her , she turned , he realised he recognised her or her age was not what he thought and then he attacked her regardless as she would now recognise him. Then killed her again as she would be a witness and seen his face . Perhaps if so then he put her body in his car > drove home and sobered up and thought of his next move . Then searched news sites or Facebook to see if any alerts for her name (he would know her name from her ID cards).

Then perhaps he formulated his plan after arriving home and either sobering up or perhaps he had a lunch with GF to attend then that afternoon made his move …, then departed south perhaps telling his GF he had to run a work errand or call in on a mate. All the while feeling invincible.

Perhaps he had to go via a bunnings for a shovel etc … (cctv?)

Then drove down south but realised the phone was needing disposal or May track the location of where he will dump the body next . Then pulled over by that dam, which he must have known was there , and threw it and the wallet out (i know we have discussed multiple times but i still don’t know why you would do this , wouldn’t you smash it ? And why dispose of the ID too as that makes it even more obvious whose phone it is if found and he would have to imagine by then this would be a news story…) anyway then he kept driving south, and then onwards to dispose of her body perhaps in a place off a motorbike trail he had once been down and knew of (near Grenville). Perhaps down a mine shaft even that he once saw and knew of.

Again very strange the wallet was located . And in such a visible place. This either spells panic from him or another thought he dumped the body first, and then later realised he hadn’t disposed of the wallet and phone and they were still in his car , and so on his way back up north he then pulled over and disposed of them in that dam (but that would involve crossing the road and I’m unsure how busy on a Sunday that road is).

And if the latter case perhaps phone data recovered from SM’s phone showed the new search site vicinity. Just a theory.

I also wonder if they had data that he had performed a search on his own phone beforehand or used Google maps of the area of where he was thinking to dispose of her . Perhaps he had searched for Grenville on maps and that’s why they’re looking there now (but you’d think they would have searched earlier as would I’m sure have seized his phone to look at data, for evidence ). But if they find nothing then perhaps he either concealed her really really well there , or he later changed his mind and went to a different location but the phone data would throw them off.

Or perhaps he had help in disposal. Perhaps they have cctv or dash am footage of someone throwing the phone and wallet . Or a witness to that act, and described a different vehicle make /model And colour . Perhaps they are only slowly piecing together what that angle looks like. Perhaps he used his GFs car even (although I doubt it) if she has one,

Who knows , but so many possibilities .

All speculation and IMOO. And I wish we knew why they targeted this new search location. There are so many forests and trails around there.

I really hope they find something in this search ! There must have been data to lead them there so you would imagine they would give it more than a few days if so

Let’s see…
 
Another thread suggests she’s in Enfield and ‘apparently’ the Police know she’s there. To be taken with a grain of salt, most likely but Iam now wondering what that particular post(er) knew.
Sorry, I don’t understand your comments
 
"A forensic expert
has analysed the fresh search operation for the body of Ballarat mother Samantha Murphy,
as she suggested police may have
a 'lot more information'
than they have released so far.

'The area that they’re searching is around 3 km and they did say that they are confident that this would lead to a result…
finding Samantha’s remains'.

'We were hopeful after that phone was recovered,
and we were told that it was fully functional,
which seemed unusual if it (had) been submerged in water for a number of months',
Dr Mallett said.

'But ultimately,
the police will have been downloading that information and triangulating it with all of the other investigative information they’ve collected over those weeks
and now up to seven months'."

 
Does anyone else find it intriguing that despite stressing that they don't want members of the public out searching, VicPol have allowed this photo, with a clearly marked cross road showing the exact search area, to be released? Is it aimed to make a certain someone squirm? To lure an accomplice into making a move in that location? I can't see any other reason why this exact location would be shown. Thoughts?

It's not at all intriguing to me. Outlets including the Daily Telegraph today reported that the new search location is "a “super dangerous” area with lots of unidentified mines".

I imagine police don't want to be distracted by individuals tramping through as-yet-unsearched bush and either falling in a mine or unwittingly destroying precious evidence.
 
Imagine if he was a little tipsy Sunday morning (slept the night off on a bush track so didn’t have to drink and drive ) maybe was outside his vehicle when Sam jogged past . Or perhaps he was riding his motorbike sober.

Alone in the bush, maybe he tried to grab her , she turned , he realised he recognised her or her age was not what he thought and then he attacked her regardless as she would now recognise him. Then killed her again as she would be a witness and seen his face . Perhaps if so then he put her body in his car > drove home and sobered up and thought of his next move . Then searched news sites or Facebook to see if any alerts for her name (he would know her name from her ID cards).

Then perhaps he formulated his plan after arriving home and either sobering up or perhaps he had a lunch with GF to attend then that afternoon made his move …, then departed south perhaps telling his GF he had to run a work errand or call in on a mate. All the while feeling invincible.

Perhaps he had to go via a bunnings for a shovel etc … (cctv?)

Then drove down south but realised the phone was needing disposal or May track the location of where he will dump the body next . Then pulled over by that dam, which he must have known was there , and threw it and the wallet out (i know we have discussed multiple times but i still don’t know why you would do this , wouldn’t you smash it ? And why dispose of the ID too as that makes it even more obvious whose phone it is if found and he would have to imagine by then this would be a news story…) anyway then he kept driving south, and then onwards to dispose of her body perhaps in a place off a motorbike trail he had once been down and knew of (near Grenville). Perhaps down a mine shaft even that he once saw and knew of.

Again very strange the wallet was located . And in such a visible place. This either spells panic from him or another thought he dumped the body first, and then later realised he hadn’t disposed of the wallet and phone and they were still in his car , and so on his way back up north he then pulled over and disposed of them in that dam (but that would involve crossing the road and I’m unsure how busy on a Sunday that road is).

And if the latter case perhaps phone data recovered from SM’s phone showed the new search site vicinity. Just a theory.

I also wonder if they had data that he had performed a search on his own phone beforehand or used Google maps of the area of where he was thinking to dispose of her . Perhaps he had searched for Grenville on maps and that’s why they’re looking there now (but you’d think they would have searched earlier as would I’m sure have seized his phone to look at data, for evidence ). But if they find nothing then perhaps he either concealed her really really well there , or he later changed his mind and went to a different location but the phone data would throw them off.

Or perhaps he had help in disposal. Perhaps they have cctv or dash am footage of someone throwing the phone and wallet . Or a witness to that act, and described a different vehicle make /model And colour . Perhaps they are only slowly piecing together what that angle looks like. Perhaps he used his GFs car even (although I doubt it) if she has one,

Who knows , but so many possibilities .

All speculation and IMOO. And I wish we knew why they targeted this new search location. There are so many forests and trails around there.

I really hope they find something in this search ! There must have been data to lead them there so you would imagine they would give it more than a few days if so

Let’s see…
I really wonder if he had the phone with him until after he was finished with the body and it tracked him.
 

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