A leading criminologist has revealed a mobile phone found on the banks of a dam in the hunt for missing mum Samantha Murphy might be damaged beyond use as police close their investigation at the latest search site.
Ms Murphy vanished without a trace after she left her home on Eureka Street in Ballarat East, Victoria, on the morning of February 4.
The 51-year-old set out for her morning run at 7am, through the nearby Woowookrung Regional Park – a 14km route she had done countless times before.
In early March, almost five weeks after Ms Murphy’s disappearance, local man Patrick Orren Stephenson, 22, was charged with her alleged murder. Her body has yet to be found.
On Wednesday, police launched a new search in the hunt for her remains with the focus on a dam at a property south of Buninyong, approximately 14km from her home.
Officers located a mud-splattered mobile phone in a wallet at the water’s edge, believed to have been found by a police tech detector dog.
In a statement issued shortly after the mobile phone was found, police said they had located some ‘items of interest’ during the search for the missing mum.
The phone, along with other items found in the search, underwent forensic testing with sources confirming to 7News the device belonged to Ms Murphy.
On Thursday, a police spokesman said missing persons detectives’ search of the Buninyong location had concluded.
‘There is no update on the forensic assessment of the items,’ the spokesman said.
The update from police would be a blow to Ms Murphy’s family after the latest search sparked new hope her body would be found.
University of Newcastle criminologist Xanthe Mallett told Sunrise on Thursday the phone discovery was ‘very significant’ as it could provide information on where Ms Murphy had been.
However, Dr Mallett added the phone had been exposed to the elements for an extended period of time.
‘Unfortunately, it may have been damaged,’ she said.
‘Samantha Murphy has been missing for 116 days now, so almost four months.
‘If it does transpire [the phone] is hers, they may not have got as much information as they could have done if it had been found earlier.
‘It really depends on the quality of the phone and how damaged it is. Remember, it has been outside.’
Dr Mallett said technicians would immediately be assessing the condition of the phone and whether it belonged to Ms Murphy – but that process could take weeks.
‘They will be working on them quickly but it is not going to be short term. We are not talking days, we are talking weeks at the earliest,’ she said.
‘Whether it has been for four months or if it transpires it is Samantha’s or longer, we really don’t know yet. We are going to have to wait and see exactly what condition that phone is in.’
Aerial footage of the search showed detectives in jubilant celebrations after locating the phone at the water’s edge of the dam.
Police hugged, backslapped and shook hands in the wake of the discovery, in the video captured by the ABC.
A team of police divers were also sent into the water to scour the small dam for any further possible evidence.
Dr Mallett said the reaction by police showed the discovery was a ‘good moment’ in their desperate search for Ms Murphy.
‘I think we have to remember the police are people too,’ Dr Mallett said.
‘This case has really touched everybody not only the Ballarat community but the wider community and the police.
‘To find [her phone] after so long of no real leads… it would have been a really good moment for them, giving them hope they can progress this case for Samantha’s family.’
The owner of the property, who wished to remain anonymous, said police contacted him about three weeks ago asking for permission to access his land.
The man said officers returned on Wednesday where they told him they were going to perform a line search along the road.
‘A dog found something on the banks and they came up and asked me and my wife to make a statement,’ he said.
The man said police were interested in the levels of his dam.
‘I hasn’t seen anything suspicious out there. We don’t have cameras. But yeah I believe one of those tech dogs found it,’ he said.
The man said detectives came and spoke to him about a month after Ms Murphy vanished, but only returned again in recent weeks.
‘They just asked me if I’d seen anything suspicious,’ he said.
Daily Mail understands police are still searching for other key pieces of evidence, such as Ms Murphy’s missing watch and headphones, or a possible murder weapon.
Since February, police have launched multiple searches in bushland as part of the investigation.
Last month, police brought in specialist cadaver dogs from New South Wales to scour the Victorian bush at multiple locations in dense scrub without success.
Teams of officers focused their search within Enfield State Park, 30km south of Ballarat – but another search team was also working 25km away in thick scrub in the Durham Lead Nature Conservation Reserve.
Police allege Stephenson ‘deliberately attacked’ Ms Murphy in Mount Clear, about 7km into her run.
Stephenson, who has no connection to the Murphy family, was charged with murdering the mother-of-three on March 7.
The 22-year-old is the son of former AFL player Orren Stephenson, who played 15 games for Geelong and Richmond between 2012 and 2014.
Stephenson remains in custody and is yet to enter a plea.
It comes Stephenson was slapped with new charges in relation to an alleged drug and alcohol-fuelled bender last year.
He received drink and drug driving charges after he allegedly crashed a motorbike into a tree on the night of October 1 following the AFL grand final and has also been charged with careless driving.
Daily Mail doesn’t suggest that Stephenson has been involved in any wrongdoing, only that charges have been laid.
He has not yet entered a plea to the new charges.
Stephenson is due to face court again on August 8 over the driving and murder charges.