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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Rocket333 said:
AAP site
Click to expand...

I believe that is at or near the police staging area. One of the articles said that the staging area was the Grenville recreation reserve, which is not far from Treloars Road and McKerrals Road (I looked them up on Google maps last night).

There is a Ballarat Courier video of one of their reporters speaking from the Grenville recreation reserve yesterday, so the journos must be able to get quite close to the staging area. The reporter speaks of watching police motorcycles and horses leaving from the staging area.


Ballarat Courier video:
Wet Conditions and Mineshafts - Where the Police are Searching for Samantha Murphy
 
Rocket333 said:
What do you make of this? An error?
Click to expand...
Could be an admin error, ,could be an indication of a change of barristers, which is awfully big news, if so.

I doubt that, at this point in the proceedings, not saying it isn't possible, though. Let it go a few days and see what emerges , because Ballarat court is dealing with some very large cases, this trial, Lachlan Young's trial, and a Coroners court inquest into Butler et al. . possibly folks have not got all the paperwork sorted out, and particularly , since both Stephenson and Young have chosed to skip Committal, the court has had to play catchup.

Which it can, and will do but sometimes little bits go astray...
 
Melt71 said:
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.
Click to expand...
I get that part, I was just wondering why that particular photo, featuring the cross roads, was shown. I'm guessing the media were just vultures waiting for a scoop, and taking pics of what they thought may be pics of interest.
 

"Scaled back search for Samantha Murphy ​

to resume for third day.​


1727305726895.png

Investigators are hoping for better weather conditions
after yesterday's search was hampered by heavy rain.

Detectives from the Missing Persons Squad alongside specialist interstate and federal police
have been scouring bushland at the Enfield State Park,
south of Ballarat.

The search area,
which is littered with disused mineshafts,
is about five kilometres away
from where the 51-year-old's mobile phone was discovered in a dam in May."

1727305664818.png

Samantha Murphy update: Scaled back search for Samantha Murphy to resume for third day

amp-9news-com-au.cdn.ampproject.org amp-9news-com-au.cdn.ampproject.org
 
Marg944 said:
It isn’t a traffic offence….. it is Samantha’s case.

And when it was listed in August, it also showed “not represented”

Here is the August listing:-

View attachment 533452
Click to expand...
It’s just a mention. Meaning in order to continue to incarcerate someone. It has to be agreed to by a law officer.

The closer you get to the date, the fields will likely be populated.
 
I'm so glad the police are searching for her, but if this guy is a first-time offender, it seems like he managed to pull off an incredibly careful operation. What are we missing? He was time-poor and, by all accounts, drug or alcohol affected, and yet we have nothing. Did he return to the scene later and move evidence - it all seems so unreal, given that people were mobilised and aware that SM was missing so soon after her family reported her missing. Abduction perhaps?
 
Liadan said:
I'm so glad the police are searching for her, but if this guy is a first-time offender, it seems like he managed to pull off an incredibly careful operation. What are we missing? He was time-poor and, by all accounts, drug or alcohol affected, and yet we have nothing. Did he return to the scene later and move evidence - it all seems so unreal, given that people were mobilised and aware that SM was missing so soon after her family reported her missing. Abduction perhaps?
Click to expand...
Well, he’s in jail so he wasn’t that incredibly careful.
Seems like they have loads of video evidence which led to him and then physical evidence that he killed her.
Also he was sloppy and now they have her undamaged phone too.
He’s just lucky they haven’t found her yet.
Praying that they are indeed closer and that they find her soon.
All IMHO
 
Thirty-five specialist police members travelled back to the Enfield State Park just before 9am on Thursday, including officers on motorbikes, members from the mounted unit and NSWPF cadaver dogs, along with AFP cadaver dogs.

Missing persons squad members were unable to recover any items of interest on Wednesday, and the large-scale, interagency search effort looks set to come to a close by the end of Thursday day if no items are found.

 
Liadan said:
I'm so glad the police are searching for her, but if this guy is a first-time offender, it seems like he managed to pull off an incredibly careful operation. What are we missing? He was time-poor and, by all accounts, drug or alcohol affected, and yet we have nothing. Did he return to the scene later and move evidence - it all seems so unreal, given that people were mobilised and aware that SM was missing so soon after her family reported her missing. Abduction perhaps?
Click to expand...
No offence, but I do not agree.

He hasn't pulled off anything, except hiding her body. He was in the sight of police officers very quickly in the scheme of things, and I still maintain he's been lucky to date as far as her body goes. He's surrounded by bush, mineshafts, dams etc. It's like looking for a needle in a hay stack.

We don't really know he was time poor. By the time the alarm was raised, it appears the deed was done and he had traveled some distance away from where she was expected to be, and therefore being looked for. It appears she left home at 7ish, got to roughly her halfway point in Woowookarung Regional Park at 8 (where it's alleged she was murdered), and I'm guessing expected home around 9. At some point, shortly after she was expected home, the alarm was raised, and Mick went looking for her. In these early hours, only her family, some friends and the local police knew she was missing, and were not doubt searching the area she regularly ran. If indeed she is in Enfield state park, that is 28km/30 minutes away. Of course, the general public were not aware at this point that anything was astray and wouldn't have been on high alert for anything that could appear odd.

We are assuming, based on past videos of the accused taking drugs and being impaired, that this would be a regular weekend thing for him. We're also assuming that, because he visited several bars the night prior/earlier in the morning, that he would have been impaired at 8am. While I don't disagree that this was likely, it's all speculation at this point.

He may have just gotten lucky as far as not leaving any physical evidence at the scene of the crime. There may not have been blood, nor signs of a struggle. Perhaps he came up behind her with a blunt object and she just fell to the ground, then he picked her up and moved her to the car. The only signs could perhaps be almost impossible to conclude came from a scenario such as this, although forensics are very, very good. Maybe there weren't any footprints, no messed up gravel, broken twigs or branches etc?

Abduction? Definition: The action of taking someone away by force or deception.
I don't think so. I think she died at the scene, or was almost dead when she was moved. My interpretation of abduction is that it's a live person. Once that person is no longer alive, then it becomes tampering with a corpse, or similar. (I would imagine) I'd be keen to hear others thoughts on what constitutes an abduction in legal cases.

MOO of course.
 
Last edited:
Lemony said:
Thirty-five specialist police members travelled back to the Enfield State Park just before 9am on Thursday, including officers on motorbikes, members from the mounted unit and NSWPF cadaver dogs, along with AFP cadaver dogs.

Missing persons squad members were unable to recover any items of interest on Wednesday, and the large-scale, interagency search effort looks set to come to a close by the end of Thursday day if no items are found.

Click to expand...
Early on I think I pinpointed Enfield Sate Park and also Enfield Plantation as possible locations. AFAIK, none of the plantations in the area have never been searched, or made public as search locations anyway. (Clarendon, Mt Mercer, Enfield) Google maps doesn't give a great look, but it does look very, very dense.
 
The police are also looking for a man (74, with dementia) who is missing from Ballarat. They have drones up and the SES is searching. Ballarat sure is having its run of bad times this year.

May they find Gary, and may they find Samantha.

Police continue to search for missing man Gary

Police continue to appeal for public assistance to help locate missing man Gary.The 74-year-old was last seen in Golden…
www.police.vic.gov.au www.police.vic.gov.au
 
HoneyBunOne said:
Early on I think I pinpointed Enfield Sate Park and also Enfield Plantation as possible locations. AFAIK, none of the plantations in the area have never been searched, or made public as search locations anyway. (Clarendon, Mt Mercer, Enfield) Google maps doesn't give a great look, but it does look very, very dense.
Click to expand...

They have searched Enfield before. Back in April. They had cadaver dogs for that search too, according to The Age article below.
But it is a really huge park - 4,400 hectares (which is the equivalent of about 2,400 Melbourne Cricket Grounds, covered in trees and bushes imo)


.... with officers searching the Enfield state park, about 25km south of the regional city, on Thursday.

www.theguardian.com

Samantha Murphy: new intelligence sparks police search for missing woman’s body south of Ballarat

Large-scale search launched in Victoria’s Enfield state park due to intelligence from ‘number of sources’
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

www.theage.com.au

Police halt new search for body of missing Ballarat woman Samantha Murphy

Cadaver dogs were used to scour Enfield State Park and its surrounds for the remains of the mother of three, with searching due to resume on Friday.
www.theage.com.au www.theage.com.au
 
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SouthAussie said:
They have searched Enfield before. Back in April. They had cadaver dogs for that search too, according to The Age article below. But it is a really huge park - 4,400 hectares.

.... with officers searching the Enfield state park, about 25km south of the regional city, on Thursday.

www.theguardian.com

Samantha Murphy: new intelligence sparks police search for missing woman’s body south of Ballarat

Large-scale search launched in Victoria’s Enfield state park due to intelligence from ‘number of sources’
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

www.theage.com.au

Police halt new search for body of missing Ballarat woman Samantha Murphy

Cadaver dogs were used to scour Enfield State Park and its surrounds for the remains of the mother of three, with searching due to resume on Friday.
www.theage.com.au www.theage.com.au
Click to expand...
Enfield State Park - yes. Enfield Plantation - AFAIK no.
 
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