Australia Samantha Murphy, 51, last seen leaving her property to go for a run in the Canadian State Forest, Ballarat, 4 Feb 2024 *Arrest* #13

[Scooby-Doo]

Riddle me this.

What does it say when a young, strong, sporty electrical apprentice who is into IT and has a telecommunications technician father, and who would know better, carries a traceable, intact and working smart phone on them, and away from the scene of the crime?

He could have been asleep in his car with his phone left on, and his phone had pinged
the same time as Samantha was jogging past?

We don't know what the evidence is, and there are a lot of scenarios on what could have happened

What if he were only an accomplice? He's pleaded not guilty

Prosecution needs to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that not only is Samantha dead, but died at the hands of the accused and as a result of deliberate action. Otherwise, it's not murder.

 

[emirates1957]

Spoke with someone from Ballarat a while ago and they told me 'most of us in Ballarat are of the same view as to what happened' but wouldn't elaborate.

Almost like if you aren't from around here we aren't going to tell you.

All hearsay Cliff … however the story has remained the same after chatting with long term Ballarat nursing staff in the area.

 

[Rocket333]

He could have been asleep in his car with his phone left on, and his phone had pinged
the same time as Samantha was jogging past?

We don't know what the evidence is, and there are a lot of scenarios on what could have happened

What if he were only an accomplice? He's pleaded not guilty

Prosecution needs to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that not only is Samantha dead, but died at the hands of the accused and as a result of deliberate action. Otherwise, it's not murder.

Aha, the homicidal somnambulist defence.
It worked well for Kenneth Parks and he was really injured. Maybe Stephenson was just showing the cops his humpy’s in Canadian & Enfield.

Seriously Galbally’s & O’Brien should’ve tried harder to get Stephenson out on bail and find the real suspect. VicPol should’ve done the right thing and charged the real culprit rather than a poor sod who was simply minding his own business napping and then had a really crappy afternoon which was caught on a lot of cctv.

.

 

[Scooby-Doo]

Aha, the homicidal somnambulist defence.
It worked well for Kenneth Parks and he was really injured. Maybe Stephenson was just showing the cops his humpy’s in Canadian & Enfield.

Seriously Galbally’s & O’Brien should’ve tried harder to get Stephenson out on bail and find the real suspect. VicPol should’ve done the right thing and charged the real culprit rather than a poor sod who was simply minding his own business napping and then had a really crappy afternoon which was caught on a lot of cctv.

.
Where is all the CCTV footage of him? I haven't seen it

 

[Rocket333]

Aha, the homicidal somnambulist defence.
It worked well for Kenneth Parks and he was really injured. Maybe Stephenson was just showing the cops his humpy’s in Canadian & Enfield.



.
Where is all the CCTV footage of him? I haven't seen it

So nothing is relevant or credible if the court has seen it but you haven’t?

 

[emirates1957]

Borce (middle aged man) managed to get the dead weight of his wife Karen in and out of a vehicle, to bury her far away.

Didn't Baden Clay also transport Allison a distance away ... somehow managing the weight of her dead body?

Simon Gittany lifted Lisa Harnum and stuffed her into a garbage chute by himself.

Lots of cases of people transporting and moving deceased adults by themselves. With the adrenaline flowing people can lift and move dead bodies by themselves.

Borce (middle aged man) managed to get the dead weight of his wife Karen in and out of a vehicle, to bury her far away.

Didn't Baden Clay also transport Allison a distance away ... somehow managing the weight of her dead body?

Simon Gittany lifted Lisa Harnum and stuffed her into a garbage chute by himself.

Lots of cases of people transporting and moving deceased adults by themselves. With the adrenaline flowing people can lift and move dead bodies by themselves.

imo

From memory that was a lady in St Kilda that fell !!!! Into a garbage Shute.

 

[emirates1957]

Gerard managed to heft her up from the ground under the pergola, and then put her in the car, then take her body out of the boot and lift it over the fence of a bridge... Gerard was no fitness freak, either, a bit namby pamby, more a persistent talker than an action man..

How Borce did it is a mystery, shows you what fear can promote the human body to do.. Borce was fat and chonky, and elderly, in his unfit late 50's, only exercise being to watch the horses he had a stake in run 4th or 6th. I don't even think he walked to the bookies area much, at least not to collect any winnings...

Gittany actually lifted Lisa's dead body over a the fencing on the balcony. No easy task, and , as luck would have it a pedestrian saw the whole thing, he struggled with it, but finally got it to fall over the fulcrum and fall down 15 floors to the pavement. His weird run to the elevator and then hurtling out on to the pavement in his pyjamas to scream as if he had been surprised was a terrific piece of acting, ....

YES.

 

[Trooper]

Aha, the homicidal somnambulist defence.
It worked well for Kenneth Parks and he was really injured. Maybe Stephenson was just showing the cops his humpy’s in Canadian & Enfield.



.
Where is all the CCTV footage of him? I haven't seen it

Why would you see it?? it is evidence, and belongs to the court. There would be all hell to pay if the defence, or the prosecution released any part of the evidence, at any time to anyone. The only reason we know there is CCTV and lots of it, is when the Prosecution , in reply to a question by the defence as to the amount of CCTV, the prosecution replied that they handed over all CCTV they collected as evidence to the defence under disclosure rules

So .. we know there is a lot of CCTV, as you may recall. We also know that his defence has seen it, by now, all of it, one presumes... There are implacable rules in place that prevent evidence that has been submitted to the court to be passed around willy nilly to newspaper employees, or anyone else , for that matter. But you knew this, right? So that's why you have not seen it.

And because the court, ( Suprene Court ) accepted the CCTV evidence we know from that , that it was admissable evidence, that is, it fulfilled the criteria and standard acceptable to the Supreme court to be regisfered as evidence, being both acceptable to the Court itself and the defence. Because the defence accepted the evidence produced under disclodure rules. But you know this, also ,right? I am only repeating this for those not as fully woke as you.

 

[SouthAussie]

From memory that was a lady in St Kilda that fell !!!! Into a garbage Shute.

Yes, it was Phoebe Handsjuk who was stuffed into a garbage chute, 12 stories up.

Since I first posted that, I was also thinking about Sarah Cafferkey who was stuffed in a wheelie bin by Steven Hunter, and covered in concrete.

And Yanfei Bao who was murdered and moved far away, then buried, by Tingjun Cao.

Somehow horrible people seem to lift the dead weight of their victims, move them, and dispose of them. All by themselves.

 

[Trooper]

Aha, the homicidal somnambulist defence.
It worked well for Kenneth Parks and he was really injured. Maybe Stephenson was just showing the cops his humpy’s in Canadian & Enfield.

Seriously Galbally’s & O’Brien should’ve tried harder to get Stephenson out on bail and find the real suspect. VicPol should’ve done the right thing and charged the real culprit rather than a poor sod who was simply minding his own business napping and then had a really crappy afternoon which was caught on a lot of cctv.

.

Perhaps it was a case like those blokes who claim sexsomnia.. I think there have been only 94 cases in the rorld that have gone to court.. Men, as one could probably guess 'suffer' from this malady 3 times more than women, apparently....

Man diagnosed with 'sexsomnia' cleared of rape after jury warning

www.9news.com.au

This website gives a bit of background on a bloke who was aquitted due to Sexsomnia... by the look of him, I would guess that the unfortunate woman involved had the same condition. Perhaps Stephenson might use this defence in some way,, just happened to murder someone while sound asleep.. !! who knows

 

[Rocket333]

Perhaps it was a case like those blokes who claim sexsomnia.. I think there have been only 94 cases in the rorld that have gone to court.. Men, as one could probably guess 'suffer' from this malady 3 times more than women, apparently....

Man diagnosed with 'sexsomnia' cleared of rape after jury warning

www.9news.com.au

This website gives a bit of background on a bloke who was aquitted due to Sexsomnia... by the look of him, I would guess that the unfortunate woman involved had the same condition. Perhaps Stephenson might use this defence in some way,, just happened to murder someone while sound asleep.. !! who knows

What a prat. There’s no mention of her inability to give consent whilst intoxicated or unconscious. Hope Rowland was ordered to keep his sexsomnia to himself, and not have pets.

 

[HoneyBunOne]

Riddle me this.

What does it say when a young, strong, sporty electrical apprentice who is into IT and has a telecommunications technician father, and who would know better, carries a traceable, intact and working smart phone on them, and away from the scene of the crime?

What it says to me is that he was panicked, not thinking straight, potentially coming off drugs with little to no sleep, and potentially didn't even think of her phone, or smart watch, while he hurriedly got rid of her body and fled the scene. (That's if her phone was in her leggings out of sight)

Or maybe he's just dumb as a bag of rocks. Or both scenarios. You choose.

MOO of course.

 

[Rocket333]

What it says to me is that he was panicked, not thinking straight, potentially coming off drugs with little to no sleep, and potentially didn't even think of her phone, or smart watch, while he hurriedly got rid of her body and fled the scene. (That's if her phone was in her leggings out of sight)

Or maybe he's just dumb as a bag of rocks. Or both scenarios. You choose.

MOO of course.

Says that to me too HB. Panicked, sleep deprived, not clear headed, and rushing.

Good point about the phone possibly being concealed in her leggings. Maybe he thought she only had her watch on her and came across the phone only when disposing of the body, and then opportunistically chucked it in the dam down the road on the trip back home.

The point is, if he was in fact that muddle headed to carry the phone with him, it’s no wonder he’s been caught quickly and that there’s a mound of evidence on the table. It also makes it easier to understand how the whole phone case could have been tossed in the first available body of water. The goal it seems was to get rid of it all quickly, and make it go away.

Intentionally killing someone and then cleaning it all up would take an incredible amount of energy & effort, and be such a tedious hassle, especially if you’re tired and your gf is waiting at home. Why would he bother to intentionally do that, and why would he not just leave the body where it happened? Next thing he’s tracked, and there’s a mess of evidence in his car and everywhere else.


.

 

[bbbounce]

From memory that was a lady in St Kilda that fell !!!! Into a garbage Shute.

I believe the allegation is that she, PH, voluntarily got into the garbage shute. 0% of me believes that’s likely from all I’ve read and listened to on her case.

 

[Cliff Hardy]

From memory that was a lady in St Kilda that fell !!!! Into a garbage Shute.

It wasn't physically possible to fall into that St Kilda garbage chute. A recreation was done and an athletic girl the same size as the victim had enormous difficulty trying to willingly climb into the chute.

 

[Spectrix]

It wasn't physically possible to fall into that St Kilda garbage chute. A recreation was done and an athletic girl the same size as the victim had enormous difficulty trying to willingly climb into the chute.

She clearly did fall into the garbage chute. It's just that she might have been dead at the time and required some assistance from some kind soul to get in there.

 

[emirates1957]

I thought Borce’s brother was suspected of helping him, although I don’t recall whether he was charged.

And Gittany, I thought he threw Lisa over the balcony and she died on impact.

Both shocking murders which I followed closely but it seems my memory is a little hazy.

He went as far to suggest that Lisa “pirouetted” over the balcony due to her ballet dancing skills !!

 

[BGirl88]

Very brief mention of the use of phone data in the SM case… in this story about gathering phone data for the mushroom murder trial.

Phone data has “been vital in the inquiry into what happened to Ballarat mum Samantha Murphy who went missing, believed murdered, in March last year.”

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/police-courts-victoria/police-respond-to-officers-comments-on-cost-of-metadata-records/news-story/ea2b6e2054c4fd4943d86a5804abe915?amp&nk=2c8b52f4836a94ae08a73bccf818fcb1-1748893978#

 

[BoysTown]

Missing Pieces

News Podcast · Updated Weekly · On Sunday, February 4th, 2024, Samantha Murphy left her house to go for a run, she has never been seen again. Over a month has passed, and it seems we are no closer to finding out what happened to Sa...

podcasts.apple.com

Apologies if this has already been posted. Fair warning it is subscription based and not the best with little information.

I thought episode 4 was better with former police detective Damien Marrett.

 

[Rocket333]

Trial start date is 8 April 2026 in Ballarat, and expected to last 6 weeks.

Pre-trial arguments start in November.

Stephenson was rep’d by Moya O’Brien.

Trial date set for Patrick Stephenson, accused of killing Samantha Murphy

A trial date and location have been confirmed for the man charged with the alleged murder of Ballarat mother Samantha Murphy.

www.abc.net.au