Police are investigating several movements made by people to and from the home of Samantha Murphy on the day the mother-of-three disappeared.
Ms Murphy, 51, left her home in Victoria’s Ballarat East to go for a run in the nearby Woowookarung Regional Park at about 7am on February 4.
Despite extensive search efforts, no trace of the missing woman has been found.
Everyone close to Ms Murphy has now been deemed a person of interest, with police revealing they believe the 51-year-old is likely dead.
Police have said there was a ‘number of movements’ to and from the Murphy house on February 4 which they are investigating, A Current Affair reported.
Police are investigating several movements made by people to and from the home of Samantha Murphy (pictured with husband Mick) on the day the mother-of-three disappeared
Known violent criminals in the area are also being spoken to, including a male sex offender.
That man was reportedly interviewed by detectives for several hours and provided an alibi for the day of Ms Murphy’s disappearance.
Extra detectives including personnel from the sex crimes, counter-terror, fraud and armed robbery divisions in Melbourne, have been brought in to help with the case.
There is no suggestion the sex offender is involved in Ms Murphy’s disappearance in any way.
Attention has also turned to the smash repair business, Inland Motor Body Works, Ms Murphy and her husband Mick own.
Police have taken away a number of ‘items of interest’ from the repairs shop.
Victoria Police Crime Command’s Detective Acting Superintendent Mark Hatt earlier said police would be speaking to her family, friends and work colleagues as part of their ‘open-ended’ investigation.
Police said while Mick Murphy (pictured leaving a police station on February 9) was not an official suspect, he was a ‘person of interest’ in the investigation
Police released this image of Ms Murphy from the morning she vanished. Detectives now believe ‘one or more parties’ are behind her mystery disappearance
Forensics are seen scouring the Mt Clear bushland for Ms Murphy on Friday
Acting Superintendent Mark Hatt said while Mr Murphy was not a suspect, that he and ‘everyone in Ms Murphy’s personal life was a person of interest
When Daily Mail Australia asked Superintendent Hatt if Mr Murphy was a person of interest, he said he was not an official suspect, but that he and ‘everyone’ in Ms Murphy’s close personal life was a person of interest.
‘We have a number of people that we are speaking to and I can say the family have been absolutely fantastic in cooperating with police,’ he said.
‘At this stage he 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.’
In a comment that appeared to suggest Ms Murphy may have been targeted, Superintendent Hatt said: ‘We have no intelligence or evidence to suggest that there’s any risk to anyone else.’
‘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.
The superintendent said the possibility Ms Murphy had suffered a medical episode had been ruled out and said he was ‘doubtful’ she was still alive.
‘Given the extensive and detailed search that has already been undertaken, and the fact no sign of Samantha or her personal belongings has been located, we have ruled out any type of medical incident,’ he told reporters.
‘Unfortunately given the fact we’ve found no trace of her, we do have severe concerns and are very doubtful that she is still alive.’
Samantha Murphy left her Ballarat home at 7am February 4 to go for a run in the nearby state forest and did not return home. Police have now launched a major new ground search after phone data led them to a specific area of bushland 6km from where she was last seen
Forensics launched a search in a new area of bushland in the state forest on Friday
Superintendent Hatt said police suspect Ms Murphy’s body may have been removed from the Mount Clear area they are searching after meeting foul play.
‘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.’
Superintendent Hatt said detectives had searched Ms Murphy’s home ‘to a certain extent’ as part of its investigation.
‘In relation to our investigation I won’t comment any further,’ he said.
Officers are currently following up more than 500 separate pieces of evidence and sifting through 12,000 hours of CCTV footage.
Superintendent Hatt said questions over the movements of those within the family home in the period Ms Murphy was on that run were difficult to answer.
‘There’s a lot of movements to and from the house during the day and again we’re very, very confident we have tracked all of those movements and we are following up on everything,’ he said.
