Detectives leading the investigation into the disappearance of mother-of-three Samantha Murphy are holding onto clues they believe will solve the mystery.
On Friday, Missing Persons Unit Superintendent Mark Hatt held a strategically designed press conference that left many questions unanswered, including one about outlaw motorcycle gangs.
For more than 15 minutes the seasoned detective took question after question from a horde of reporters until they ran out of steam.
Police were questioned about possible links between Samantha Murphy’s disappearance and bikies. Ballarat is the meeting point for the Bandidos (pictured on national run in Ballarat last year)
CCTV captured Samantha Murphy’s last known movements on the morning of February 4
The gathering outside the Mount Clear Scout Hall was billed as a ‘major update’, but in reality offered few real insights into what detectives believed happened to the 51-year old.
Ms Murphy has not been seen since leaving her home at Ballarat East at 7am on February 4 to go for a run in a state forest on the outskirts of the regional town, west of Melbourne.
Last week’s press conference was called to allow reporters to document police returning to a remote section of bush they had searched weeks earlier.
While the ‘targeted search’, which oddly included members of Victoria Police’s Major Collision Investigation Unit, turned-up nothing, it provided headline news across the country that day.
On Saturday, locals desperate to continue the search for Ms Murphy again ventured into the bush in what has become little more than a grim sideshow to the real hunt.
Superintendent Hatt said police suspect Ms Murphy’s body may have been removed from the area where they are all searching.
‘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,’ he said.
Traipsing through the scrub, all the questions Superintendent Hatt didn’t answer were no doubt a hot topic of discussion.
Missing Persons Unit Superintendent Mark Hatt prepares to face the press outside a scout hall in Mount Clear on Friday. He took questions for a full 15 minutes until they stopped coming
Ballarat locals carried out another pointless search of the bush on Saturday despite detectives declaring they believed Ms Murphy’s body had been moved
Questions about Ms Murphy’s run on the day, her husband Mick’s movements and whether or not he was a suspect were answered with caution.
‘At this stage, he is not (a suspect),’ Superintendent Hatt answered after initially avoiding the question.
He is though, like everyone in Ms Murphy’s direct family, a ‘person of interest’ in the case.
Superintendent Hatt suggested several people may well turn out to be suspects as the investigation progressed.
If they had a suspect now, he refused to say.
‘We have a number of people we are speaking to,’ he said.
‘All I can say is our avenues are taking us down certain directions and we’re following everything.’
Who was home at the time Ms Murphy embarked on her run remains unanswered, but Superintendent Hatt suggested they know the answer and where they went that day.
‘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.
A search was carried out by volunteers outside the Murphy home just days after she vanished
Part of that line of inquiry has seen police search the Murphy property for clues.
‘It has to a certain extent (been searched),’ Superintendent Hatt said, refusing to confirm whether Mr Murphy’s phone or other electronic devices had been looked at.
As the search for Ms Murphy evolves into a hunt for her body, Superintendent Hatt confirmed the family business had come under scrutiny.
The Murphy couple own and operate smash repair business Inland Motor Body Works, which is among the largest of its kind in the region.
Speculation outlaw motorcycle gangs were customers of the shop have swirled among the Ballarat community since Ms Murphy vanished.
The Ballarat community is no stranger to bikie-related violence, with a senior Bandidos member shot at its clubhouse during the club’s national run just months ago.
Superintendent Hatt refused to answer questions about potential links with bikies and Ms Murphy’s disappearance.
However he did confirm the panelbeater’s books were being closely looked at by detectives.
‘Absolutely we are looking at everything we possibly can to find out what happened to Samantha,’ Superintendent Hatt said.
Mick Murphy comforts his daughter Jessica during his only press conference in the week after his wife vanished
The results of that line of inquiry would not be discussed.
Nor would he say what vehicles and where they had been obtained from had been searched.
Asked if police had executed any search warrants in relation to the search, Superintendent Hatt refused to say.
‘Would you say no if it was no?’ Channel Seven’s Paul Dowsley asked.
‘No comment,’ Superintendent Hatt responded, with a smirk.
The detective refused to say what information, if anything, had or hadn’t been obtained from the Apple watch Ms Murphy was wearing when she went on her run.
Nor would he say if Ms Murphy had activated Google location tracking on her phone.
Superintendent Hatt claimed detectives know Ms Murphy was on foot when she entered the bush due to data obtained from that phone’s communication with a nearby telecommunications tower.
The Murphy family business (pictured) is being investigated by police in part of their hunt for Samantha Murphy
If detectives have information on other phones shadowing Ms Murphy’s at the same time, they aren’t saying.
‘Unfortunately I can’t comment on specifics relating to the phone data. That’s part of our police methodology and something we need to protect the integrity of during our investigation,’ Superintendent Hatt said.
Police have now ruled out any notion Ms Murphy disappeared due to a medical episode or because she simply wanted to vanish.
Superintendent Hatt claimed the 7km run to where her phone went dead took the experienced runner more than an hour – about half-an-hour longer than it should have.
While not directly stated, Superintendent Hatt suggested police believed whoever helped Ms Murphy disappear had specifically targetted her.
‘We have no intelligence or evidence to suggest that there’s any risk to anyone else,’ he said.
Police continue to comb through 12,000 hours of CCTV footage and 500 separate intelligence reports from members of the community.
If police believe anyone has credible information on seeing Ms Murphy in the bush, Superintendent Hatt refused to say due to ‘methodology exposure’ concerns.
‘Our investigation is ongoing and I can’t comment on specific details as to what we’re looking at,’ he said.
Superintendent Hatt warned whoever was responsible for making Ms Murphy disappear would be caught sooner or later.
‘It’s our number one investigation at present … We’d like to resolve this as soon as possible,’ he said.
Anyone with information on the case should contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk