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The disappearance of Victorian mum Samantha Murphy is now being treated as suspicious. The news comes 10 days after the mother-of-three disappeared after leaving her Ballarat East home to go jogging in a nearby state forest.
Throughout their investigation police have maintained they do not believe anything sinister happened to the 51-year-old, however on Wednesday Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton said while there were no developments, the case was “suspicious”. “It’s certainly unusual when we haven’t been able to locate any trace of her or any other evidence within that period of time,” he said during a press conference. “It’s suspicious, whether that means there’s foul play involved, or not, I don’t know, but obviously detectives are investigating a matter where a woman’s been missing for a significant period of time.” Police had been leading an extensive search for Murphy in the nearby areas around her home, however on Saturday it was announced they would be scaling back the search. “The investigative stage of the investigation continues and as any new information comes to hand identifying areas of interest, the search will be scaled up,” police said. Former Victoria Police homicide detective Charlie Bezzina theorised the decision likely meant that police had a particular line of inquiry they were looking into. “The fact that they’ve scaled back the search is indicative that they’re looking at a particular line of inquiry,” Bezzina told Sunrise on Tuesday. “They’re not gonna air that, they’ll keep it close to their chest and continue to say that it’s nothing sinister or criminal at this stage, but I think everything’s on the table.” He also said it was likely that police were looking into past criminal activity that occurred in and around the Ballarat area. Bezzina made mention of one incident involving a young woman who was bashed by a man while out jogging last year that he labelled “concerning”. Sissy Austin, 28, was running with headphones near the Blast Furnace Picnic Area in Lal Lal, about 20km from Ballarat East, on February 11, when she was assaulted by an unknown man. The man struck Austin in the head with what police described at the time as a “hand-made weapon” consisting of a rock tied to the end of a branch. She suffered serious facial injuries, and her attacker has never been found. Victoria Police have not confirmed they are looking into Austin’s case in connection to the disappearance of Murphy. Murphy regularly jogged about 14 to 15km through remote areas near her home, including the nearby Canadian State Forest. She was last seen leaving her Eureka St home about 7am on February 4, and was carrying her phone and wearing a smartwatch. Police confirmed her mobile phone did ping at a telecommunications tower 11km from her home. More to come ...
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