{"id":408620,"date":"2025-11-27T15:37:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T15:37:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/408620\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T15:37:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T15:37:17","slug":"victoria-police-reveal-new-search-for-allegedly-murdered-ballarat-mother-samantha-murphy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/408620\/","title":{"rendered":"Victoria Police reveal new search for allegedly murdered Ballarat mother Samantha Murphy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Police in Victoria have launched a new search for allegedly murdered mum Samantha Murphy in a dramatic development ahead of the trial of her alleged killer.<\/p>\n

A police spokesperson confirmed to The Nightly that detectives from the missing persons squad undertook a \u201ctargeted search in the Ballarat area today\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince February 2024, police have regularly undertaken a range of enquiries and small-scale searches as part of the current investigation,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe are not in a position to supply further specific details of today\u2019s operational activity at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

9News reported that the search was focused on the Enfield State Park area, south of Ballarat.<\/p>\n

The police spokesperson said they could not confirm the location but asked \u201cthat members of the public do not attend the search at this time\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mrs Murphy was last seen alive when she went for a run on the morning of February 4, 2024.<\/p>\n

The 51-year-old mother has not been seen since that day.<\/p>\n

In March 2024, police charged 23-year-old tradesman Patrick Orren Stephenson with Mrs Murphy\u2019s murder.<\/p>\n

Police have previously searched sections of the Enfield State Park, including in September 2024.<\/p>\n

Officers have also searched Canadian State Forest and Buninyong Bushland Reserve in their desperate attempts to find Mrs Murphy.<\/p>\n

\"BallaratBallarat mother Samantha Murphy was last seen leaving her home to go for a run on February 4. (Jeremy Bannister\/AAP PHOTOS) Credit: AAP<\/p>\n

In June last year, Ms Murphy\u2019s iPhone, credit cards and driver\u2019s license were recovered in a teal case from the bottom of a dam in Buninyong.<\/p>\n

According to police, her phone was in near-perfect condition when it was found.<\/p>\n

A trial date has been set for Mr Stephenson, who is due to face court on April 8 next year. He has pleaded not guilty to the murder.<\/p>\n

The trial is expected to last six weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the matter is currently before the court, we are not in a position to comment further about the investigation,\u201d the police spokesperson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police in Victoria have launched a new search for allegedly murdered mum Samantha Murphy in a dramatic development…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":408621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,50,8515],"class_list":{"0":"post-408620","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-victoria"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115622409322421244","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}