Police 'very doubtful' Samantha Murphy is still alive

The Courier

Acting Detective Superintendent Mark Hatt shares insight into the renewed search for the missing Ballarat mother.

Transcript

00:00 Good morning everyone. We're here today to provide an update in relation to the police

00:04 investigation into the disappearance of Samantha Murphy. I can confirm that the missing person

00:09 squad and squad are the lead in relation to this investigation and they have been supplemented

00:14 with additional specialist detectives from across crime command to help them through the

00:18 investigation. Today we're undertaking a search in the Mancleer area in relation to

00:24 an area of interest to our investigation. I can confirm that we have identified that

00:30 Samantha did leave home on the morning of the 4th of February 2024 at just after 7am.

00:37 We believe she then travelled on foot into the Canadian State Forest where she embarked on a run

00:44 for a period of time and made her way to the Mancleer area. Today that search being undertaken

00:50 in the Mancleer area will involve staff from our missing person squad, other investigators

00:58 and other specialist searching resources within Victoria Police. We will be looking for anything

01:03 that may give us evidence as to what may have happened in that area on the day of the attack.

01:07 What's led police to this area? So the intelligence we've received from our phone

01:11 data has led police to this area in Mancleer. Is that data something that you've only just

01:16 uncovered? We've been working through our phone data since missing persons took on the

01:21 investigation which was the day after Samantha was reported missing. And how big is the area

01:26 you'll be searching today? That I can't say, it's a fairly small area in the bigger scheme of things.

01:32 The area that Samantha ran in on the morning we have searched extensively, particularly in the

01:37 first week of the operation and that didn't yield anything at the time in relation to her.

01:43 Can police be informed of any information from the Apple Watch?

01:46 I can't comment on specifics in relation to our investigation but what I can say we're

01:50 looking at absolutely everything and every possible scenario. Are you able to say how

01:55 you're certain she did run in that area? As in have you seen her running on more CCTV that's

01:59 not been released to the public? Has someone seen her? How do you know that? So the CCTV we do have

02:04 is her leaving her home address as I mentioned during the last interview. As far as her movements

02:10 in the bush we don't have any CCTV relating to that. How do you know she went running into the

02:14 bush and wasn't just taken there, picked up and taken there? Again in relation to the intelligence

02:19 received from the phone data would indicate that she was on foot at the time. How many people will

02:24 be searching on the ground today? We've got approximately 20 to 30 people searching today

02:31 but again I just want to clarify that any intelligence leading us to conduct further

02:36 searches will be undertaken on a regular basis if that intelligence points us in that direction.

02:41 What conditions are the searchers facing today? It's pretty extensive bushland. There are some

02:47 tracks and some roads so one thing I'd like to appeal for is anyone that may have seen vehicles

02:53 or people acting suspiciously in that area on the morning of the 4th of February to please

02:58 contact Crime Stoppers. Is Mick Murphy a suspect? We have a number of people that we are speaking

03:04 to and I can say that the family have been absolutely fantastic in cooperating with boys.

03:09 Is he a suspect? At this stage he is not. Do you have anyone that you would class as a suspect?

03:15 At this stage I can't comment on specifics of our investigation and again we are looking at

03:21 absolutely everything we possibly can to find out what happened to Samantha. Police have said that

03:25 one or more posses are likely to be involved in her disappearance. What led you to that rationale?

03:30 So part of our missing persons investigations is eliminating what may or may not have happened.

03:37 So on the particular day we have ruled out that she suffered any sort of medical episode and we

03:44 have no information to suggest that she left the area of her own accord. So we then start looking

03:49 at other possible scenarios which may have led her to be missing. Were you able to say how long

03:54 between she left home and got into the forest where you are now searching now? Yeah we believe

04:02 within an hour, so approximately an hour after she left home she reached the Mancleer area.

04:06 Was she healthy financially? Again I am not commenting on that. Do you think there is any

04:10 chance that Samantha is still alive? Unfortunately given the time and the fact that we have found no

04:16 trace of her we do have severe concerns and are very doubtful that she is still alive.

04:23 Is it your belief that she has been removed from this area?

04:25 That is certainly a scenario that we are looking into. Is that more likely that she has been

04:34 removed? Based on our elimination process we do think that another party has been involved,

04:41 whether it be one person or a number of people. So again anyone that has seen suspicious activity,

04:47 whether it be cars or people in the area on the morning, we would hope they call Crime Stoppers

04:52 please. Do you suspect it is more likely that this person or people are known to her? Again I can't

04:59 comment on that and to be honest that falls part of our investigation but it is a particular avenue

05:06 that we can't comment on.

05:07 you

05:07 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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