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 #5

[Kemug]

Did anyone else in this thread follow the webslueths thread in the last couple of years about Jonathan Gerrish, his wife, the small child and the dog all found dead in different locations, on a walk in the USA? They were experienced walkers too. Just wondering about something similar. It really was the most perplexing case. Edited to add: Turned out they had all overheated and didn't have enough water - I think iirc it was a hotter than usual day or more intensely humid, or something along those lines. I just wonder if Samantha's case is more along those lines and she did unfortunately end up in one of the mine shafts due to heat exhaustion and disorientation. In other words, could it be more simple than we are all thinking? JMO MOO

But didn't we hear that it wasn't hot at all when Samantha was running? Even though the day was forecast to be quite hot, it was still only 13 degrees or similar between 7 and 8 am?

 

[mondayschild]

Interesting, MOO

Police hunt for wanted man Shaik Rezwan Karim

He is known to frequent Ballarat.

www.thecourier.com.au

There's a second listing as well - also Ballarat area - Jackson Drumm wanted on warrants

 

[Poirot's niece]

I reckon Police have suspect/s. The very intense aerial searches. So much phone ping/location data, all traceable. The persistence re a damaged car. Its not remote High Country on the eve of covid lockdown. Its the outskirts of a large regional city. Tick tock. Painstakingly combing through dense material. If you persist meticulously with the haystacks you will find the needle.

 

[Deleted member 293720]

I wonder if Sam was killed at Mt Clear, not long after this incident occurred
and then her body was taken away in a vehicle

If that was the case, she obviously wouldn't be able to make a frantic call on her watch or use her phone

Maybe the perpetrator/s then used her phone, maybe to make a call or sent a message

I think this ping happened a lot earlier, not long after Samantha was attacked and not around the 5 pm mark
as some media are suggesting

The police will not confirm the time of the ping



'We are absolutely looking for her phone, we haven't yet found that. We are looking for a body. Again, that area has been searched for Samantha herself, and we have not found her in that area,' he said.

Superintendent Hatt said police are 'certainly' looking into whether Ms Murphy's body had been removed from the Mount Clear area after meeting foul play.

'We do think another party has been involved, whether that be one person or a number of people,' Superintendent Mark Hatt said.

'We are keeping an open mind, but believe the most likely scenario is that her disappearance involves one or more parties.'

Superintendent Hatt said police suspect Ms Murphy’s body may have been removed from the area where they are searching.

‘That is certainly a scenario that we are looking into. Based on our elimination process, we do think that another party has been involved – whether that be one person or a number of people.’

 

[MrsWattle]

There's a second listing as well - also Ballarat area - Jackson Drumm wanted on warrants

There seems to be an effort to round em up.

 

[Dotta]

I suspect Police have no clue about the perp/s.

But checking cctv and all pings/ metadata/GPS, etc.
MIGHT lead to the criminal/s.

JMO

 

[Officer Dibble]

But didn't we hear that it wasn't hot at all when Samantha was running? Even though the day was forecast to be quite hot, it was still only 13 degrees or similar between 7 and 8 am?

ah thanks

 

[BreakingNews]

There has been a few convicted murderers in Australia who refuse to give up the whereabouts of the deceased and its only fair if we are feeding and housing them in prison that they stay there until such a time they reveal this information. IMO

eg;- John Edwards serving time for the murder of Sharon Edwards - refuses to reveal where he has buried his former wife.

'An extraordinary series of lies': NSW father jailed for murdering wife, but body still missing

The son of a killer who went to great lengths to cover up his wife's murder says he doubts his father will ever get out of jail — but he holds little hope of ever finding out where his mother's remains are.

www.abc.net.au

Also Chris Dawson murdering his wife Lynette Dawson - no information either.

NBNP. amen MOO

Chris Dawson will probably die before his parole is due, so he won't bother telling.

 

[BreakingNews]

Are we able to quote pod casts on Websleuths???

 

[drsleuth]

Are we able to quote pod casts on Websleuths???

I think only from approved sources?

You can always alert/report on your own post & ask a mod

 

[mondayschild]

I wonder if Sam was killed at Mt Clear, not long after this incident occurred
and then her body was taken away in a vehicle

If that was the case, she obviously wouldn't be able to make a frantic call on her watch or use her phone

Maybe the perpetrator/s then used her phone, maybe to make a call or sent a message

I think this ping happened a lot earlier, not long after Samantha was attacked and not around the 5 pm mark
as some media are suggesting

The police will not confirm the time of the ping



'We are absolutely looking for her phone, we haven't yet found that. We are looking for a body. Again, that area has been searched for Samantha herself, and we have not found her in that area,' he said.

Superintendent Hatt said police are 'certainly' looking into whether Ms Murphy's body had been removed from the Mount Clear area after meeting foul play.

'We do think another party has been involved, whether that be one person or a number of people,' Superintendent Mark Hatt said.

'We are keeping an open mind, but believe the most likely scenario is that her disappearance involves one or more parties.'

Superintendent Hatt said police suspect Ms Murphy’s body may have been removed from the area where they are searching.

‘That is certainly a scenario that we are looking into. Based on our elimination process, we do think that another party has been involved – whether that be one person or a number of people.’

For some reason your post has triggered a thought I had from the 60 mins episode when they were discussing that LE can get data from a phone even if sim is put in another phone or another sim into existing phone etc.

Maybe they tried to make it look like SM was still moving / around later in the day (eg until the 7pm timeframe) by using her sim or phone in a different arrangement. (Ie to give false impression she was not already deceased?). Bit of a sideways thought but we are mostly grasping at straws anyway ...

 

[Poirot's niece]

I reckon Police have suspect/s. The very intense aerial searches. So much phone ping/location data, all traceable. The persistence re a damaged car. Its not remote High Country on the eve of covid lockdown. Its the outskirts of a large regional city. Tick tock. Painstakingly combing through dense material. If you persist meticulously with the haystacks you will find the needle.

I'm hitting refresh on my google search for Samantha. Have set tools to all within the last hour. Needles will drop, perhaps even today.

 

[Deleted member 293720]

This looks like an electricity hub station, close to where police think Samantha was taken, near the phone tower at Mt Clear and where police have been searching and believe in the area something happened,

this is most likely Samantha's turn around point at 7km from home, running from Boak Rd.

This building could have a camera as well

 

[acutename]

View attachment 488242

This looks like an electricity hub station, close to where police think Samantha was taken, near the phone tower at Mt Clear and where police have been searching and believe in the area something happened,

this is most likely Samantha's turn around point at 7km from home, running from Boak Rd.

This building could have a camera as well


View attachment 488252

such a big empty area....

 

[acutename]

For some reason your post has triggered a thought I had from the 60 mins episode when they were discussing that LE can get data from a phone even if sim is put in another phone or another sim into existing phone etc.

Maybe they tried to make it look like SM was still moving / around later in the day (eg until the 7pm timeframe) by using her sim or phone in a different arrangement. (Ie to give false impression she was not already deceased?). Bit of a sideways thought but we are mostly grasping at straws anyway ...

maybe they were trying to disable the devices and it was not so easy for them

 

[Hats]

View attachment 488242

This looks like an electricity hub station, close to where police think Samantha was taken, near the phone tower at Mt Clear and where police have been searching and believe in the area something happened,

this is most likely Samantha's turn around point at 7km from home, running from Boak Rd.

This building could have a camera as well


View attachment 488252

This spot on your map, close to Boundary Rd, would seem a bit far east to be classed as Mount Clear, wouldn't it?

On the other hand, this location seems a better one for an ambush as it covers other possible longer running routes that SM may have chosen to go on that morning.

I had probably wrongly assumed that the previous talk of a location on Boak Rd at Mount Clear was at the western end of Boak Rd. This definitely makes more sense now if this is correct.

 

[Dotta]

Pic from post above

This place looks so desolate.
There's not a living soul there.

It reminds me of a place in the village where I spent my holidays as a kid at my grandparents'.

In fact, I once met a strange, weird looking guy at such a road when I was barely a teen

I was going to the forest to pick wild mushrooms and suddenly this guy appeared trying to say something to me.
I immediately turned away and fled like Pershing bomb, my feet hardly touching the ground hehe

Phew!

Later I learnt that he was a nice villager and I scared the living daylights out of him running like crazy hahaha

 

[acutename]

What happened to Samantha, happened quickly as she couldn't get to use her phone or watch to call urgently,
Another possibility I think she was quickly ambushed at Mt Clear, by more than one person and taken away

The Apple phone has several easy panic settings but I do not know if she had them activated- some of them are so easy to trigger that they can set off false alarms so people deactivate them. Not sure if the watch has something similar... If she did not have time to even press a button, we are talking about a blow to the head or several people pouncing on her, I guess. The picture of the trail at Mt Clear looks really wide open so you would see some one approaching, but there is also no where to try to hide and if they were on, say an ATV, you would not get away from them ... IMO.

 

[caradana]

Climate-wise, are we now in autumn there and heading into winter, with less greenery and an easier view through forestry? I think about the Lara Emanuele case in USA/NJ, and the advent of winter revealed evidence, once nature had leaves off trees. How tropical is this climate? How much will time and seasons potentially reveal in wilderness areas?

 

[ZombieKittie]

Climate-wise, are we now in autumn there and heading into winter, with less greenery and an easier view through forestry? I think about the Lara Emanuele case in USA/NJ, and the advent of winter revealed evidence, once nature had leaves off trees. How tropical is this climate? How much will time and seasons potentially reveal in wilderness areas?

Technically yes we are 6 days into to autumn but it's 31 degrees today in Melbourne. Also as far as I know almost all Australian natives are evergreen