Australia Samantha Murphy, 51, last seen leaving her property to go for a run in the Canadian State Forest, Ballarat 100km NW of Melbourne, 4 Feb 2024 #2

[imstilla.grandma]

Chief Commissioner Shane Patton said at a press conference on Wednesday there were still no new leads in the investigation headed by the Missing Persons Squad.

“It’s certainly unusual when we haven’t been able to locate any trace of her or any other evidence within that period of time,” he said.

“It’s suspicious, whether that means there’s foul play involved or not, I don’t know, but obviously detectives are investigating a matter where a woman’s been missing for a significant period of time.

“Call it unusual, call it suspicious. But it certainly is of significant concern to us.”

“We knew this had the potential to be a significant and prolonged investigation when we couldn’t find any trace of Samantha early on,” he said.

“This has been really thoroughly investigated from the start and still is.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/samantha-murphys-disappearance-now-treated-as-suspicious/news-story/0b2c32d8c4923cc3f790d5c67f918701

 

[touch]

Sorry, I don't understand. Are you saying she might have been on websleuths?

Yes, I thought that could have been a possibility from reading the headline: "Samantha Murphy was devoted to helping find missing people [...] in her area".

I couldn't read the whole article because it was behind a paywall so all I had to go on was the headline. @SouthAussie has pointed out that it's based on her sharing some missing people posts on facebook so the headline may be a bit sensationalist.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

"We keep saying it's not suspicious, but when someone's been missing for this period of time, we have no trace, well clearly there must be some suspicions there because we haven't been able to locate her.

"It's certainly unusual when we haven't been able to locate any trace of her, or any other evidence, within that period of time.

"Whether that means there's foul play involved or not, I don't know, but detectives are investigating a matter where a woman has been missing for a significant period of time - call it unusual, call it suspicious.
"It's so traumatic for the family, for her friends, and again, even though we're having this conversation here, I'd urge people not to speculate what has or hasn't happened.

"We are working with the family, working with the friends, and Missing Persons are tracing and stepping through timelines, looking at CCTV, examining many information reports we've received from the public

"It's still early days but the concern is that we still have no leads - we've committed significant additional resources from Crime Command to assist Missing Persons because of the CCTV capture and the exploration of where that may be available, we have literally hundreds of info reports, obviously of varying different quality, we have to wade through those."

'No leads' yet in disappearance of Ballarat mother, police say

'I'd urge people not to speculate,' chief commissioner says.

www.theleader.com.au

 

[epictreasure]

Maybe she was hit by a car, and whoever hit her was drunk and put her in the trunk. Her heart rate would suddenly spike.

7am drinker would be unlikely.
Distracted etc? I can’t imagine a someone putting a person in the boot of their car when they could say she ran out on the road etc

 

[epictreasure]

Questions
Wouldn’t the previous pings of the phone show point a to b and therefore would show the speed if she was travelling via foot or car speed ? (I’m sure the Apple Watch and the myriad of locational trackers /gps will answer all this?)
does anyone know where Ruby was found? Location
regarding leaving in the morning and possible people who were at home? CCTV photo and reflection? (I’ve turned the image upside down in the 1st image. Curious if that is a person)

 

[epictreasure]

There would be clear ground disturbances as the shafts are covered over

I’m thinking now that the abduction of the woman a year ago and SM missing are linked. Criminals tend to escalate the severity of their crimes, the person a year ago got away with the abduction and this time he went one step further. SM may very well have been dumped in a disused mine shaft if so and may never be found.

 

[OptimusLime]

So many things about this case is bothering me and I think this is the one place where I can vent.
The thing that has been on my mind is the fact that there was little, if any follow up on the attack of the young woman almost a year ago
Also, the safety of men and women using these trails still.
The family- I think of those 3 children without their mum, their beloved pup.
Where is Sam?
Where is Bung, William, Jessica Z (there's a POI - blue car man)
Australia's missing indigenous men, women and children?

 

[Bogbacal2]

https://www.news.com.au/national/victoria/news/samantha-murphys-disappearance-now-treated-as-suspicious/news-story/0b2c32d8c4923cc3f790d5c67f918701

Now declared 'suspicious' ...

And it took this long?

 

[benowens]

And it took this long?

TBH I never expected this in a million years. I thought it was gonna turn out she had died in an accident or was still alive and had left for personal reasons.

 

[Sarahlou]

And it took this long?

I would guess they probably suspected it was suspicious from the start, but they had to have good enough reason to believe so before announcing it to the public.

 

[LeahBee]

"We don't have any further developments with the investigation into Samantha Murphy,"



"Whether that means there's foul play involved or not, I don't know, but detectives are investigating a matter where a woman has been missing for a significant period of time - call it unusual, call it suspicious."



"It's still early days but the concern is that we still have no leads"



Kinda sounds like the media took the word "suspicious" and ran with it. Investigators just threw the word out there because it's a strange situation, but it doesn't sound like they have any actual leads about what happened to her.

I'm not putting much stock into them saying "call it suspicious," more like "unusual" because they feel like they should have located her.

Nothing to get excited about yet, IMO

'No leads' yet in disappearance of Ballarat mother, police say

'I'd urge people not to speculate,' chief commissioner says.

www.theleader.com.au

 

[benowens]

"We don't have any further developments with the investigation into Samantha Murphy,"

"Whether that means there's foul play involved or not, I don't know, but detectives are investigating a matter where a woman has been missing for a significant period of time - call it unusual, call it suspicious."

"It's still early days but the concern is that we still have no leads"

Kinda sounds like the media took the word "suspicious" and ran with it. Investigators just threw the word out there because it's a strange situation, but it doesn't sound like they have any actual leads about what happened to her.
I'm not putting much stock them saying "call it suspicious," more like "unusual" because they feel like they should have located her.
Nothing to get excited about yet, IMO

'No leads' yet in disappearance of Ballarat mother, police say

'I'd urge people not to speculate,' chief commissioner says.

www.theleader.com.au

I don't what to believe. Suspicious unusually only means one thing, but I'm not not really sure with this case. <modsnbip>

 

[Curiousobserver]

Questions
Wouldn’t the previous pings of the phone show point a to b and therefore would show the speed if she was travelling via foot or car speed ? (I’m sure the Apple Watch and the myriad of locational trackers /gps will answer all this?)
does anyone know where Ruby was found? Location
regarding leaving in the morning and possible people who were at home? CCTV photo and reflection? (I’ve turned the image upside down in the 1st image. Curious if that is a person)

To me it is very odd that a woman left her home with her phone (as reported) and police have reported there was a ping (although no exact time or location) and yet no trace of the phone and no data from the phone to indicate which direction and where she was at what time etc...

 

[LeahBee]

@benowens oh it's totally suspicious! I just don't think they have any leads beyond "this is strange" imo. Hope I'm wrong

 

[benowens]

@benowens oh it's totally suspicious! I just don't think they have any leads beyond "this is strange" imo. Hope I'm wrong

Unfortunately we don't know what information the police do or don't have . "Suspicious" could also mean that they suspect insurance fraud for all we know.

 

[Cartie]

To me it is very odd that a woman left her home with her phone (as reported) and police have reported there was a ping (although no exact time or location) and yet no trace of the phone and no data from the phone to indicate which direction and where she was at what time etc...

This is what baffles me

 

[WiseOwl]

To me it is very odd that a woman left her home with her phone (as reported) and police have reported there was a ping (although no exact time or location) and yet no trace of the phone and no data from the phone to indicate which direction and where she was at what time etc...

At a guess i would say that fairly soon after the phone pinged at the cell tower then, for whatever reason, it was turned off - never to be turned back on again.

If the phone had pinged, lets say, between 7 & 9 that morning then it would indicate that Samantha was indeed out running before something happened to her - possibly an abduction? Hence the phone being switched off shortly after the ping.

However, if it didn't ping until the afternoon then that would be more puzzling, meaning the phone hadn't been on at all until later that day. That would mean someone else was in possession of the phone but hadn't turned it on until the afternoon - but for what reason?

If only we knew the time of the ping.

JMOO

 

[Detective Willy]

It seems that somebody has made a big effort to cover up what happened to Samantha at the end of the driveway after 7am on Sunday morning.

I imagine there would not be many cars driving around at 7am on a Sunday, usually a bit of a sleep in for most or a lazy start to the day. If there was an arranged pick up point for Sam to voluntarily disappear, no doubt Police would be checking her "contacts" on her phone and those people she had been talking to in the last few weeks.

They would probably interview all of those people and cross check their stories and vehicles that they may own. All of this would take hundreds of hours, to contact, interview, compile information, analyse statements and peoples account of where they were at 7am on Sunday.

IMO without any solid evidence we may be waiting for quite a while for any "public announcement" of a development in this case.

Sure Police would probably have a theory already (voluntary or homicide) but they wont be telling us until they have crossed the T's and dotted the I's.

It makes absolutely no sense that there is not 1 confirmed sighting of her after the end of the driveway on that morning.

 

[Algorithm]

The phone ping is eerily similar to the Ristevski case before the phone was deactivated in that case however if I recall they could only get the location to within a 20km radius due to the location of radio towers but LE used the ping and location only to aid the investigation.

 

[Algorithm]

It seems that somebody has made a big effort to cover up what happened to Samantha at the end of the driveway after 7am on Sunday morning.

I imagine there would not be many cars driving around at 7am on a Sunday, usually a bit of a sleep in for most or a lazy start to the day. If there was an arranged pick up point for Sam to voluntarily disappear, no doubt Police would be checking her "contacts" on her phone and those people she had been talking to in the last few weeks.

They would probably interview all of those people and cross check their stories and vehicles that they may own. All of this would take hundreds of hours, to contact, interview, compile information, analyse statements and peoples account of where they were at 7am on Sunday.

IMO without any solid evidence we may be waiting for quite a while for any "public announcement" of a development in this case.

Sure Police would probably have a theory already (voluntary or homicide) but they wont be telling us until they have crossed the T's and dotted the I's.

It makes absolutely no sense that there is not 1 confirmed sighting of her after the end of the driveway on that morning.

7am on a Sunday in a country town is very very quiet.