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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I've started to do a bit of a timeline with what we do know.

It's no where near complete, I have just been jotting things down as I re-read some old articles etc.

What we do know:

FEBUARY 2024

  • 4th Feb SM left for a run @ approx 7am from her Ballarat East House for an early morning trail run along Woowookarung Regional Park, formerly known as Canadian State Forest. She was last captured on CCTV outside her Blairs Lane home, dressed in a maroon singlet and black running tights.
  • SM had her phone, Smart watch & ear pods with her.
  • SM didn’t arrive to a planned brunch @ 11am & family raised the alarm
  • About 8am 4th Feb – Murphy is believed to have reached the Mount Clear area by foot, according to mobile phone data later obtained by police.
  • Emergency services and community volunteers begin to search in nearby Woowookarung Regional Park, or Canadian Forest.
  • 5th Feb Victoria Police launch a public appeal. A search area is established near Buninyong, about 14 kilometres from where Murphy was last seen. Police say Murphy's phone was recorded near the Buninyong Golf Club.
  • 6th Feb - More than 100 specialist police officers, SES searchers, Forest Fire Management Australia and Parks Victoria officials search for signs of Murphy in the bush. Focused the search on Woowookarung Regional Park and bushland near the Buninyong Golf Course. New search area includes three bushland reserves — Black Hill Reserve, Chisholm Street Reserve, Monte Christo Bushland Reserve — and the Wallaby Track. Police said yesterday they had been using mobile phone data and Ms Murphy's usual running routes to determine the search area.
  • 6th Feb - police added parts of Black Hill, Brown Hill and Nerrina as a focus area.
  • 7th Feb - Police release CCTV footage of a runner they believe to be Murphy heading north-east toward Yankee Flat Road. The footage is scrapped from the investigation the following day after a community member says they featured in the image.
  • 8th Feb - Murphy's husband Mick and eldest daughter Jess hold a press conference, appealing for information and thanking the public for their assistance.
  • 9th Feb - Missing persons unit detectives take over the investigation from Ballarat police. Police reveal they are closely examining Murphy's electronic devices.
  • 10th Feb - Investigators scale back the search. SES and CFA volunteers are called off.
  • 14th Feb - Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton confirms detectives are treating Murphy's disappearance as suspicious.
  • 23rd Feb - Police say they suspect that "one or more parties" are most likely behind her disappearance. They send search units to Mount Clear again based on new phone data analysis.
  • Investigators were in the process of reviewing about 12,000 hours of CCTV footage and following up more than 500 separate pieces of information.
  • Police continued to ask everyone in the Ballarat East and Mount Helen areas, particularly around the Canadian forest, to check their CCTV for any possible sightings over the past three weeks.
  • Detectives are also urging anyone travelling through the area, particularly between 7am and 7pm on Sunday, 4 February, who may have dashcam footage to also check this for possible sightings.
  • Hatt - “I encourage anyone who does have information that could be relevant to this investigation – whether that’s a person or vehicle seen in the area on that day, something unusual such as a damaged vehicle or property – to please come forward and speak to police or provide the information via Crime Stoppers,” he said.
  • 24th Feb - Acting Det Supt Mark Hatt says that while the area had previously been extensively searched, they are looking for small items that may have been missed and “intricate details” of what occurred on 4 February.
  • “We’re absolutely looking for a phone, we haven’t yet found that,” he says. “We’re looking for a body.”
  • Police will also investigate the possibility Murphy was removed from the local area.
  • A volunteer-led community search takes places in Ballarat with hundreds of locals and visitors searching dense bushland in the hope of finding a clue to assist the investigation.

MARCH 2024

  • 6th March - A 22-year-old man is arrested at a home in Ballarat about 6am.
  • 7th March 9.30am -Police charge a Mount Clear man ( PS ) with one count of murder.
  • Police inform the public of the man's arrest.
  • Prosecutors asked for 20 weeks to compile evidence to hand to the defence, because of the "significant amount of material" that needed to be analysed.
  • 7th March - A suppression order is requested by defense team
  • 8th March – court – Defence lawyer David Tamanika withdrew suppression order ( instructed by his client )
  • 9th March -Chief Commissioner Patton said the police would allege Mr Stephenson acted alone.
  • 20th March - A widespread police search for the Ballarat mother's body is sparked after detectives receive new intelligence.
  • Police spend eight hours scouring thick bushland in Buninyong, about 11km from Ballarat.
APRIL 2024

  • 11th April - Police search bushland in the Enfield State Park area, after police receive intelligence from "various sources".
  • Stephenson isn't cooperating with police.

May 2024


  • 29th May - Police find a phone in the mud on the bank of a dam along Buninyong-Mt Mercer Road.
  • Detectives from the Missing Persons Squad, together with a range of specialist resources including federal police, spend the day performing a "targeted search" south of Buninyong, about five kilometres south of where Samantha's phone last pinged to a mobile phone tower.
  • 30th May – Phone found confirmed to be SM’s

August 2024

  • August 8th Court Hearing. Mr Stephenson's lawyer, Moya O'Brien, said she was yet to receive the CCTV footage and would need time to review it. "It has been described as unprecedented in terms of size," she said.
  • She requested at least a 12-week adjournment, a move also supported by the prosecution. Same was granted, next court date 14th Nov 2024
TBC

Court hearings for man accused of murdering Samantha Murphy delayed due to 'huge' evidence brief Thur 8th Aug 2024

Patrick Orren Stephenson named as Samantha Murphy's accused killer after suppression order ends Friday 8th March

Alleged killer of Ballarat mother Samantha Murphy unmasked Friday 8th March

Samantha Murphy: police ‘very doubtful’ missing Ballarat woman still alive amid suspicion ‘one or more parties’ involved 23rd Feb 2024

Search area expands for missing Ballarat woman Samantha Murphy Tues Feb 6th

https://www.9news.com.au/national/samantha-murphy-update-timeline-of-missing-ballarat-mums-disappearance/71927797-1901-4364-95b5-b50355b16410 29th May 2024 29th May 2024

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/mar/07/samantha-murphy-timeline-disappearance-investigation-news-update-events-ballarat-has-she-been-found March 7th 2024 7th March 2024

Samantha Murphy: a timeline of the alleged murder investigation 7th March 2024
Thank you Doc - grateful for the time & effort this would’ve taken.
Interesting break between 24/02 and 06/03 don’t you think? The fortnight surveillance perhaps?
The “damaged vehicle” from the 23/02 always bothers me. There’s something in that.
 
This case has fairly common motifs for a lone predator attack IMO.

Women alone walking/running in parkland, rural area or otherwise isolated. Most times the body is not far away - so in this case we know a car was used to move the body. I will not be surprised to learn it's traces of her in that car that are key to his arrest.
That month, in Ballarat, a regional rural city, 118,137 population, in 2024 there was , shockingly and terrifingly , 3 women murdered.. one was a young girl 22 murdered by her snarky ratbag boyfriend, 21, who tried in a very amateur way to stage it as a suicide. A very ordinary murder .

One was a women, a mother of 5 young kids, married to a wastrel yob, who fancied himself as some sort of consigliere to the Bandito's bike gang, but took umbrage at something his wife did, so he shot her, in front of the kids then shot himself, a 4th murder. Man lives with woman, has 5 kids, kills woman.

The other one was Mrs Murphy, a woman of substance and dignity, who , as women sometimes do, went out for an early Sunday morning run, thru familiar bush track, a short training run as she had important commitments to attend, and had the terrible misfortune to intercept in some way, with a young man intent on killing some woman. She didn't know him, he didn't know her. A very ordinary murder.
 
That is my thoughts, the police also said in the beginning more parties involved in her disappearance, whether that's true now, we don't know. But a lot of new evidence has come forth, witnesses as well as CCTV
What court allegation ? I know earlier in the piece they suspect 'more parties' involved in Samantha's disappearance
The police aren't going to say anything that will jeopardise their operational activity
In sticking to the facts, what was said was "one OR more parties".
AFAIK police never committed to 'more parties involved' they kept it broad. It's smart policing as it keeps the suspect guessing and if there is anyone on the periphery of the crime or if someone holds a piece of information, they may feel pressured to come forward. It's police covering all bases IMO.

Hatt said the most likely scenario is that Murphy’s disappearance involves “one or more parties”.

“Given the extensive and detailed search that has already been undertaken, and the fact no sign of Samantha or her personal belongings has been located, we have ruled out any type of medical incident,” he said.

“There is also nothing to indicate that Samantha left the area of her own accord.

“Based on our elimination process we do think that another party has been involved, whether it be one person or a number of people.”
 
VICPOL hauling dogs and horses and camels, and dancing bears and Nubian slave girls around Ballarat just to fool folks into believing they are searching for a body does not make a lot of sense.. All done in the pouring rain, too.

Even for VICPOL , a police force not known for it's humourous contingent, that's a bit much...
You paint quite the picture Trooper. I'll be sure to be on the lookout for rogue bears and camels next time I'm in Ballarat. :)
 
Don’t forget the Nubian slave girls! haha
I guess what I was conveying, opaquely, was, VICPOL and Ballarat Rural police station were, and probably still are inundated by high level crime in Ballarat at that time, and that has consequences, investigation, searches, interrogation, follow up, door knocking , 24/ 7 as well as the usual criminal stuff people in Ballarat get up to, traffic stuff, farm theft, aggro in the pubs, a bit of biffo at the football, some big racquet banging event at the tennis club, a hair pulling at the CWA.

It is a huge stretch to imagine they had the time, or the money or the staff to bung on a staged search, when they had real searches to do.

The paper work alone for 4 coroners inquests, let alone the resulting trials, which is one of many consequences for VICPOL as a result of this huge wave of murder in the district would sink many a police station, anywhere. No wonder we see their vehicles with slogans of their 'burn out' etc, perfectly understandable.
 
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In sticking to the facts, what was said was "one OR more parties".
AFAIK police never committed to 'more parties involved' they kept it broad. It's smart policing as it keeps the suspect guessing and if there is anyone on the periphery of the crime or if someone holds a piece of information, they may feel pressured to come forward. It's police covering all bases IMO.

Hatt said the most likely scenario is that Murphy’s disappearance involves “one or more parties”.

“Given the extensive and detailed search that has already been undertaken, and the fact no sign of Samantha or her personal belongings has been located, we have ruled out any type of medical incident,” he said.

“There is also nothing to indicate that Samantha left the area of her own accord.

“Based on our elimination process we do think that another party has been involved, whether it be one person or a number of people.”

OR more parties, which might be possible the police are keeping quiet on
But we won't know everything until a trial (hopefully)

As I have mentioned previously, we don't even know if the accused was the definite person who put Samantha's phone in the dam, the police have to link him to there and whether the phone was put in recently

I am keeping my options open, until I hear differently
 
In sticking to the facts, what was said was "one OR more parties".
AFAIK police never committed to 'more parties involved' they kept it broad. It's smart policing as it keeps the suspect guessing and if there is anyone on the periphery of the crime or if someone holds a piece of information, they may feel pressured to come forward. It's police covering all bases IMO.

Hatt said the most likely scenario is that Murphy’s disappearance involves “one or more parties”.

“Given the extensive and detailed search that has already been undertaken, and the fact no sign of Samantha or her personal belongings has been located, we have ruled out any type of medical incident,” he said.

“There is also nothing to indicate that Samantha left the area of her own accord.

“Based on our elimination process we do think that another party has been involved, whether it be one person or a number of people.”

And that was before they arrested PS.

After they arrested him, they alleged that he acted alone.

Likely because they had gathered their proof by then. imo
 
I am happy to agree to disagree with you. I can see how it is likely that PS did. Thanks, Scooby.
There are no facts or evidence that we know of to say PS did it. Where is your proof to say he put the phone in the dam ?
 
Thanks Rocket that was the next one on the list after Monsters the Menendez brothers story (which I can recommend).
Have you watched it now? I wanted to comment on it, particularly the ending, but can’t without spoiling it for people who haven’t seen it.
 

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