Detectives have vowed to keep hunting for the body of Samantha Murphy, as the anniversary of her disappearance approaches.
The 51-year-old mum-of-three left her Ballarat home in Victoria on the morning of February 4, last year, to go for a run and was never seen again.
Despite extensive searches in the surrounding bushland, involving hundreds of police officers, SES workers and volunteers, her body has never been found.
But detectives from the Victoria Police missing persons squad have promised not to give up on their tireless search, confident they can still find her.
‘I want to reaffirm to the community that the missing persons squad remains committed to doing everything we can to locate Samantha,’ Detective Inspector Dave Dunstan told the Herald Sun.
‘While a year has passed, we still believe we can locate her.’
Inspector Dunstan, who is in charge of the missing persons squad, said they would continue to search the Ballarat area, ‘including searches in areas highlighted by intelligence derived from a number of sources’.
Just over a month after Ms Murphy vanished, Patrick Orren Stephenson, 24, was charged with murdering her at Mount Clear on the day she went missing.
In November, he pleaded not guilty to the murder with his trial set to take place later this year.
Although Inspector Dunstan acknowledged that nothing could alleviate the unimaginable grief of Ms Murphy’s family, he said being able to return her to them was ‘incredibly important’.
‘There is nothing we want more than to return Samantha to her family and we remain committed to doing this,’ he added.
Criminal psychologist Dr Tim Watson-Munro previously told Daily Mail there could be ‘a multitude of reasons’ as to why Ms Murphy’s body has not been found.
‘The police (have) thrown a lot of resources at this in terms of analysing metadata, speaking to people in the community and a fairly consistent and rigorous press campaign,’ he told Daily Mail .
‘But if you look at the geography of Ballarat (with its disused) mine shafts, it’s essentially a rural city … the surrounding countryside is pretty foreboding and hostile.
‘I think it’s about geography, rather than a lack of effort.
‘People could disappear there, they could fall down or be secreted in a mine shaft, and there’s so many of them.’
Dr Watson Munro said that the pain for a victim’s family can be particularly intense around anniversaries.
‘Anniversaries are always difficult times for families of people who have disappeared or been murdered, or even killed by an act of God,’ he said.
‘It brings to the fore the magnitude of the loss. Inevitably, they start thinking about this time last year or this time 10 years ago, the last conversations, the last physical interactions with the person.
‘And so it can be an extremely difficult time for those people, as the anniversaries of any death can be for families.
‘But I think in a case like this where it’s still a mystery in terms of where she is, what happened to her, who’s responsible, all of those feelings would be accentuated and crystallised at a level of significance.’
For those frustrated at the seeming lack of progress, Dr Watson-Munro said it’s understandable that the police ‘wouldn’t telegraph every move that they’re making solving this crime.
‘They don’t want to contaminate evidence or contaminate the possibility of gaining better and further particulars surrounding her disappearance, and in all likelihood death.’
He said one issue that gets forgotten about is the impact of the continuing search for Ms Murphy’s body on local people.
‘The Ballarat community rallied around the family. There were line searches, there were a lot of volunteers attempting to assist the police in the early days,’ he said.
‘And I would imagine the anniversary of her disappearance would be quite triggering for the people in Ballarat in terms of we have this person, a member of our community who’s disappeared, and the crime’s unsolved.
On May 29 last year, Ms Murphy’s wallet containing ID cards and her mobile phone were found on the bank of a dam during a targeted search.
The phone was probably thrown into the dam, but a dry period in the area meant the water receded and what could be a vital clue emerged on the bank.
The police have not revealed what data, if any, they were able to extract from the phone, or if the find has brought them any closer to finding Ms Murphy’s body.
But given the terrain, Dr Watson-Munro said the continuing search is ‘like literally finding a needle in a haystack’.
Dr Xanthé Mallett, a Forensic Criminologist at the University of Newcastle, said the case has resonated with so many ns for one simple reason.
‘My first thought when I saw that Samantha had vanished, was that could be any one of us doing very normal things, going about their life and yet she’s been allegedly the victim of a violent crime,’ she said.
‘So many women could imagine being her, they could sympathise.’
Dr Mallett said it has been a very detailed investigation, and the police were obviously searching for Ms Murphy’s body.
‘Not only for the family’s benefit, although they do desperately need to know where she is, they need to return to them, but that Samantha’s body will also be a primary source of information for them, and so they will very much need that for the investigation.’
She said cases can proceed on a ‘no body’ basis, so police would be looking to all of the movements of the accused and people they may have spoken with.
The investigation into Ms Murphy’s disappearance continues.
Anyone with information has been urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.