A huge group of volunteers have joined the search for missing mum Samantha Murphy in bushland, as more disturbing details about her sudden disappearance begin to emerge.
The volunteers, marked out with hi-vis jackets and wearing long pants, backpacks and hats, gathered at Ballarat’s Eureka Stockade Memorial Park in the morning in preparation for the day’s search.
The police have concentrated the search to the areas around Mount Clear, south of the regional Victorian town, on intelligence gleaned from phone data.
In one photo, a man carries a metal detector with him.
In another, a black sniffer dog mingles with the searchers.
A group of volunteers in hi-vis have turned out to search for Samantha Murphy on Saturday
The official police search was scaled down but community-led searches are still going strong
Sniffer dogs were seen in the group as participants readied for a long day of searching
The mum-of-three, 51, went missing three weeks ago after she went out for a run in the Woowookarung Regional Park in East Ballarat at 7am on February 4 and the police now hold grave concerns for her welfare and suspect she may have been the victim of foul play.
‘We do have severe concerns and are very doubtful she is still alive,’ the police said on Friday.
‘We do think another party has been involved (in her disappearance), whether it be one person or a number of people.’
It has also been revealed the police have spoken to a convicted sex offender with a ‘long rap sheet’ as part of their investigations.
The man is understood to have provided an alibi for the day Ms Murphy went missing and there is nothing to suggest he had anything to do with her disappearance.
Police said they would only scale their search up on the back of specific information
Ms Murphy has not been found with police saying they hold grave concerns for her welfare
Huge searches in the area surrounding Ballarat including the Canadian State Forest have turned up no clues as to what happened to Ms Murphy
A Victoria Police spokesman told news.com.au they were not providing specifics on their investigation.
Detective Acting Superintendent Mark Hatt told reporters on Friday that Ms Murphy’s husband, Mick Murphy, and ‘everyone’ in her personal life was now a ‘person of interest’ – though he stressed Mr Murphy was not a suspect in her disappearance.
No arrests or charges have been laid.
‘Everyone in relation to Samantha is a person of interest in our investigation. We are speaking to everyone that was in her life … So that would include family, friends and work colleagues,’ Superintendent Hatt said.
‘We have a number of people that we are speaking to and I can say the family have been absolutely fantastic in co-operating with police.
‘At this stage [Mr Murphy] is not [a suspect]. Everyone in relation to Samantha is a person of interest. In our investigation we are speaking to everyone that was in her life.’
The Mount Clear area police are searching is not new and has already been scoured extensively, but this time, will be looked at for smaller items that could reveal what happened to Ms Murphy.
The police have ruled out a medical episode and said they had not received any information to suggest ‘she left the area of her own accord’.