# Missing Pieces

An episode of [What Happened To…](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1812362613), 29 Sep 2026, 28 min.

Audio: https://p.podderapp.com/2544644999/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/2fb3740d-3436-44af-8cc0-a91900716aa5/8c185e62-46f1-4292-81b7-b2d00059655d/aa564d52-dfbb-4649-8925-b4d40050b8e6/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=fcf80ea6-cd25-4daa-b194-b2d000596ad2

A man has now been charged with the alleged murder of Samantha Murphy, but many questions about what happened on the morning she disappeared remain unanswered. In this episode, former Victorian Police detective Damien Marrett helps piece together what investigators may have known before the arrest, how phone and location data could have shaped the investigation, and what happens behind the scenes when police decide they have enough evidence to charge someone with murder. As the case moves towards court, we examine the evidence still missing from the public picture and why finding Samantha remains so important. The accused is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:05] Speaker 1: A Poche Production.
[0:13] Speaker 2: Welcome back to What Happened to Samantha Murphy. A person
[0:16] Speaker 2: has been arrested and charged for Samantha's alleged murder in 2024.
[0:22] Speaker 2: There was an original suppression order on the accused person
[0:25] Speaker 2: and it was lifted back in 2024. He's since been
[0:29] Speaker 2: named as now 24-year-old Patrick Stevenson. In this podcast, we
[0:33] Speaker 2: make no assertions that Mr Stevenson had anything to do
[0:36] Speaker 2: with Samantha's disappearance. This podcast is a retelling of the
[0:40] Speaker 2: show that was initially released in 2024 at the time
[0:44] Speaker 2: of Samantha's disappearance. In this podcast, we're trying to put
[0:52] Speaker 2: together some of the missing pieces about 51-year-old Samantha Murphy,
[0:56] Speaker 2: who went for a run one Sunday morning in February
[0:59] Speaker 2: and never came home. It's left a family devastated and
[1:04] Speaker 2: a community searching for answers. And of course, the whole
[1:07] Speaker 2: of Australia wondering what happened to Sam Murphy. Then a
[1:12] Speaker 2: month later, the man is arrested and charged for her murder.
[1:16] Speaker 1: We have identified through a very painstaking methodical investigation an offender.
[1:22] Speaker 1: We've charged that person with murder.
[1:25] Speaker 2: At the time of publishing this episode, that man has
[1:28] Speaker 2: not cooperated with police. We called this podcast Missing Pieces because,
[1:36] Speaker 2: like when you put together a jigsaw, you normally start
[1:39] Speaker 2: with a picture on the front of the box. That
[1:42] Speaker 2: picture becomes, if you like, the guide to what you're building.
[1:46] Speaker 2: Then normally you start with the outside pieces, the corners,
[1:49] Speaker 2: that help you build the frame. The frame in this
[1:53] Speaker 2: case is the bits we know about Samantha Murphy's disappearance.
[1:57] Speaker 2: We know she left her house at 7am and went
[1:59] Speaker 2: for a 14k run. which would normally take her a
[2:03] Speaker 2: little over an hour. She failed to return home. Let's
[2:07] Speaker 2: call that piece one. Then her digital footprint is found
[2:11] Speaker 2: inside a Mount Clare running track, seven kilometres from her house.
[2:16] Speaker 2: Let's call that piece two. Piece three is the evidence
[2:21] Speaker 2: police have on the person they arrested and charged. That's
[2:24] Speaker 2: a piece that we probably won't know about for some time.
[2:28] Speaker 2: And in this episode, that's the piece we're going to
[2:31] Speaker 2: try to explore. Former Victorian police detective Damien Marrett is
[2:37] Speaker 2: an expert in these sort of cases.
[2:39] Speaker 1: Yeah, so I'm Damien Marrett, a former Victorian police detective
[2:44] Speaker 1: and currently a private investigator.
[2:46] Speaker 2: Very early on in the first three weeks, Damien was
[2:49] Speaker 2: part of the Under Investigation Channel 9 program that looked
[2:52] Speaker 2: into Samantha's disappearance. And he had some of his own
[2:56] Speaker 2: thoughts at the time. We have to assume, Dewey, that
[2:59] Speaker 2: someone knew that she was on that run that morning.
[3:01] Speaker 1: Somebody either knew where she'd run past and waited. or
[3:05] Speaker 1: there were more than one person, one was behind following,
[3:09] Speaker 1: another one was waiting up further, or, you know, she
[3:13] Speaker 1: was followed in there. What I believe is this was
[3:16] Speaker 1: targeted and seven kilometres in an incident has happened. And
[3:20] Speaker 1: obviously that's a pretty important incident because that's where police
[3:24] Speaker 1: have told us that she got to and that's where
[3:28] Speaker 1: searches are continuing. So what happened after that and who
[3:33] Speaker 1: was involved?
[3:34] Speaker 2: This was before anyone had been arrested and charged. Can
[3:40] Speaker 2: you talk to me, in your previous life as a detective,
[3:44] Speaker 2: what would the steps have been to arrest the suspect
[3:48] Speaker 2: or the alleged murderer?
[3:51] Speaker 1: Well, look, it seems, and I kind of said this
[3:55] Speaker 1: at the time we did the under-investigation show, that... It
[4:00] Speaker 1: looked as though police had a good suspect from very
[4:04] Speaker 1: early on. Now, whether that's been a mix of the
[4:07] Speaker 1: data from the telephones and the watch she was wearing,
[4:13] Speaker 1: as well as possible eyewitnesses to certain events that took place.
[4:19] Speaker 1: But it was kind of obvious, and it's even more
[4:22] Speaker 1: obvious looking back in hindsight, that they probably pretty much
[4:26] Speaker 1: were focused on this person.
[4:28] Speaker 2: It seemed evidence, we've had a couple of chats on
[4:31] Speaker 2: the phone, but it seemed evidence when they started saying
[4:34] Speaker 2: things like, the husband is not a suspect.
[4:39] Speaker 1: Yeah, look, you generally wouldn't do that. You may sort of,
[4:45] Speaker 1: I mean, police play these games all the time using
[4:48] Speaker 1: the media. They might try and make a suspect relax,
[4:54] Speaker 1: think that they're looking somewhere else so that if phones
[4:58] Speaker 1: are off or they're being followed, they're less paranoid. But
[5:03] Speaker 1: in this case, you wouldn't say, okay, the husband had
[5:06] Speaker 1: nothing to do with it if they thought that he
[5:09] Speaker 1: could have. So for them to come out and say that,
[5:12] Speaker 1: it's kind of obvious he wasn't a suspect. He would
[5:15] Speaker 1: have been looked at, no doubt, but no.
[5:17] Speaker 2: Okay. There was a bit said early in the piece,
[5:23] Speaker 2: before they arrested anyone, around that police believed there was
[5:27] Speaker 2: more than one person.
[5:29] Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know whether that was just the way
[5:33] Speaker 1: they worded it, meaning to cart the body away. When
[5:38] Speaker 1: I re-listened to those comments... We're looking into a number of.
[5:46] Speaker 2: people from information that we have received and all I
[5:48] Speaker 2: can say is that our avenues are taking us down
[5:52] Speaker 2: certain directions and we're following everything.
[5:54] Speaker 1: It sounds like they were just using the word one
[5:57] Speaker 1: or more, you know, and they wouldn't have known exactly,
[6:02] Speaker 1: even if they had a suspect back at that time,
[6:05] Speaker 1: they wouldn't have known whether somebody else did assist him
[6:08] Speaker 1: in any way. So I don't think they were actually
[6:12] Speaker 1: saying there's two.
[6:14] Speaker 2: Equally, the car that had damage to it played an
[6:19] Speaker 2: important part. Do we know whether Patrick Stevenson, who's the
[6:23] Speaker 2: man accused of her murder, was he driving a damaged car,
[6:27] Speaker 2: do you know?
[6:27] Speaker 1: Well, yeah, I don't know for sure. But when that
[6:32] Speaker 1: press conference took place, and it actually took place on
[6:35] Speaker 1: the day we were filming under investigation, so it was
[6:38] Speaker 1: a little bit hard. We were tossing back and forth,
[6:41] Speaker 1: you know, listening to what came out of that. But
[6:44] Speaker 1: that was one of the points I said, well, for
[6:47] Speaker 1: police to say we're looking for a damaged car, obviously
[6:52] Speaker 1: that's either come from a witness or somebody who's seen
[6:56] Speaker 1: that car or they've connected that car to the suspect
[6:59] Speaker 1: knowing that it was damaged.
[7:01] Speaker 2: From what we understand, he was an electrician. He has
[7:04] Speaker 2: a ute. It's a white vehicle. We know that. And
[7:06] Speaker 2: police were saying- There was a white damaged car, so
[7:09] Speaker 2: we don't know whether his car's damaged or not. You know,
[7:12] Speaker 2: this podcast is called Missing Pieces, and some of these
[7:14] Speaker 2: missing pieces are suddenly starting sort of to come together.
[7:20] Speaker 1: Yeah. Look, I think once it sort of does hit
[7:23] Speaker 1: the court proceedings and things like that, I think we're
[7:29] Speaker 1: going to be surprised how much the police actually have
[7:32] Speaker 1: already got.
[7:34] Speaker 2: It's important here to mention that although someone has been
[7:36] Speaker 2: charged and arrested with Samantha's murder, until that person is convicted,
[7:41] Speaker 2: he is presumed innocent. A lot of what we'll talk
[7:44] Speaker 2: about in this episode is what Damien thinks, given his
[7:47] Speaker 2: past experience. Of course, the police know far more than
[7:50] Speaker 2: we do about the evidence they hold and how solid
[7:54] Speaker 2: it is. Talk me through... At the point you're a
[8:01] Speaker 2: copper and you know that you're about to arrest someone,
[8:04] Speaker 2: what are the steps you go through as a police
[8:06] Speaker 2: officer to actually turn up at someone's house at 6am
[8:10] Speaker 2: in the morning?
[8:12] Speaker 1: Yeah, well, you know, they've obviously got what they need.
[8:18] Speaker 1: I'm not saying they've got the whole brief sorted or
[8:21] Speaker 1: anything like that, but they're pretty sure that they've got
[8:24] Speaker 1: the right person. and definitely enough to interview that person
[8:29] Speaker 1: as a suspect. So, look, pulling him in at 6
[8:33] Speaker 1: o'clock in the morning, I wouldn't read too much into that.
[8:37] Speaker 1: That's just a convenient time to get somebody by surprise
[8:42] Speaker 1: and to make sure that they're at home. So, you know,
[8:46] Speaker 1: they've arrested him. They've obviously spoken to him, interviewed him.
[8:51] Speaker 1: He sounds like he's not cooperating. fully with police. But
[8:58] Speaker 1: for them to then go and lock him up, charge
[9:02] Speaker 1: him and lock him up, they've obviously got a fair
[9:04] Speaker 1: bit of evidence already.
[9:07] Speaker 2: My guess is they would have been surveilling him too
[9:09] Speaker 2: because it seems like he wasn't at his parents' place,
[9:12] Speaker 2: which is actually just across the road from near where
[9:16] Speaker 2: Samantha went missing. Equally, he wasn't at his girlfriend's house.
[9:20] Speaker 2: They were at the house sitting someone else's house.
[9:23] Speaker 1: If he was, say, at the parents' house around the
[9:26] Speaker 1: time that this happened, and remember, he probably is visiting
[9:31] Speaker 1: the parents' house back and forward, depending on where he
[9:35] Speaker 1: permanently lives. But I'd say the police would have searched
[9:39] Speaker 1: the parents' house as well, would have searched the house
[9:42] Speaker 1: that he's staying in, would have even searched the girlfriend's house.
[9:47] Speaker 2: Why not charge him straight away? So they arrested him
[9:50] Speaker 2: and brought him in as a suspect, but they didn't
[9:52] Speaker 2: charge him straight away. And, you know, in chatting to
[9:55] Speaker 2: a whole bunch of people that are in the industry,
[9:57] Speaker 2: we found that a little weird. Is that weird or
[9:59] Speaker 2: is that normal procedure?
[10:01] Speaker 1: Well, you know, the police would have been waiting for
[10:04] Speaker 1: all the data to come through. They would have wanted
[10:07] Speaker 1: to understand that data. And they also would have been
[10:11] Speaker 1: putting his own phone data into the system to see
[10:15] Speaker 1: where he was at that time. So that all takes time.
[10:18] Speaker 1: It doesn't happen straight away they may have been trying
[10:21] Speaker 1: to even get um you know the google data and
[10:24] Speaker 1: things like that which can take even longer um so
[10:28] Speaker 1: you know i mean to run out and charge somebody
[10:31] Speaker 1: um just because you think he's a good suspect i
[10:35] Speaker 1: mean you wait until you've got everything in line they
[10:38] Speaker 1: would have made the decision that other persons weren't in
[10:42] Speaker 1: danger and taken that into account but um yeah Basically,
[10:49] Speaker 1: it happens when you've got sufficient evidence to hold him
[10:53] Speaker 1: inside and then now we'll be gathering everything and cleaning
[10:58] Speaker 1: it all up, putting it into a hand-up brief and
[11:01] Speaker 1: going before the courts.
[11:03] Speaker 2: Do the police, the lead detectives on this particular case,
[11:06] Speaker 2: do they have to get approval to arrest someone or
[11:08] Speaker 2: they just go to their higher-ups and have a conversation?
[11:11] Speaker 1: Yeah, no, they just go to their higher-ups and have
[11:13] Speaker 1: a conversation, their boss or their supervisors. might have been
[11:17] Speaker 1: saying things like, yeah, if you get this piece, yeah,
[11:20] Speaker 1: we've got enough. So it's not like the American system
[11:26] Speaker 1: where you have to go to your DA and, you know,
[11:29] Speaker 1: we want to arrest this bloke and then go to
[11:31] Speaker 1: a judge and get an arrest warrant. You basically pick
[11:34] Speaker 1: up somebody and arrest them. If you feel that you've
[11:38] Speaker 1: got enough, you interview them and you lay charges. You
[11:41] Speaker 1: either give them bail or you don't. In cases like this,
[11:44] Speaker 1: you obviously don't get bail.
[11:46] Speaker 2: We don't know how police ended up landing on him
[11:50] Speaker 2: as the alleged killer of Sam. Um, however, what we,
[11:56] Speaker 2: we can assume some things, what is most likely do
[11:59] Speaker 2: you think on the way police might've tracked him down?
[12:03] Speaker 1: Something, uh, sort of changed in the way police were
[12:06] Speaker 1: carrying out their, um, media briefings, um, sort of in that, um,
[12:11] Speaker 1: two to three week period. Um, They sort of pulled
[12:15] Speaker 1: back a lot from the searches. They went less vocal.
[12:20] Speaker 1: And so I would say something's happened around that time
[12:24] Speaker 1: for them to start looking very closely at this guy. Now,
[12:28] Speaker 1: whether that's been from information received, whether he has told somebody,
[12:34] Speaker 1: whether it's been that somebody saw him leaving the park
[12:37] Speaker 1: at that time and then the data has backed it up,
[12:42] Speaker 1: You know, all these things would have come into play,
[12:44] Speaker 1: but it kind of sounds like either it was the
[12:51] Speaker 1: data that put him inside that reserve near her or
[12:56] Speaker 1: there's been a witness that's come forward with information.
[13:00] Speaker 2: And we heard on under investigation, it was actually really
[13:05] Speaker 2: eye-opening to me where police... were maybe less focused for
[13:09] Speaker 2: then a little while on Samantha's mobile phone data, but
[13:14] Speaker 2: more so in the data that was being captured from
[13:19] Speaker 2: anyone else in that surrounding area.
[13:21] Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it's a really good... You know, data
[13:25] Speaker 1: nowadays is brilliant stuff. You know, like, obviously, I didn't
[13:29] Speaker 1: have it in my day. It would have made a
[13:31] Speaker 1: lot of things a lot easier. But if you know
[13:35] Speaker 1: where her data stopped... and something occurred and they say
[13:41] Speaker 1: that was at that seven kilometre mark, then it's quite
[13:45] Speaker 1: easy to look at any other data that's coming out
[13:49] Speaker 1: of the reserve around that time. And if there's one
[13:52] Speaker 1: or two people in the middle of that reserve within
[13:55] Speaker 1: metres from where her phone stopped, it's a pretty good indicator.
[14:01] Speaker 2: What we've seen in the last couple of days, in fact,
[14:04] Speaker 2: literally it's been over the weekend, that a lot of
[14:07] Speaker 2: people have started now to come out going, I was
[14:11] Speaker 2: with him the night before he was at a part,
[14:14] Speaker 2: he was at a club. Um, the, the allegations are
[14:17] Speaker 2: that he was a white powder on a phone. Um,
[14:22] Speaker 2: that now, I guess it's harder to keep a secret
[14:25] Speaker 2: once police have made an arrest.
[14:26] Speaker 1: Right.
[14:27] Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
[14:29] Speaker 1: Uh, look, everything he was up to, uh, in those days, um,
[14:34] Speaker 1: I'd say you're going to hear a hell of a
[14:35] Speaker 1: lot of stuff about him now. There's going to be
[14:39] Speaker 1: people who were friends of his or didn't like him.
[14:45] Speaker 1: People will come out of the woodwork and pretty much
[14:48] Speaker 1: he won't have any secrets.
[14:50] Speaker 2: The Samantha Murphy case was big news. However, at the
[14:54] Speaker 2: same time the search was on for Sam, there was
[14:57] Speaker 2: another case happening in Sydney. It was the case of
[15:00] Speaker 2: the two men who were allegedly killed by a police officer.
[15:04] Speaker 3: The 28-year-old man facing these charges was in a relationship
[15:08] Speaker 3: with Jessie some time ago, which finished a couple of
[15:11] Speaker 3: months ago.
[15:11] Speaker 2: That case made headlines across Australia and the world, and
[15:15] Speaker 2: it didn't take all that long for someone to be
[15:18] Speaker 2: arrested for the two men's murder. Investigators allege Mr Lamar
[15:22] Speaker 2: Condon killed the couple in Mr Baird's home sometime on Monday.
[15:25] Speaker 2: The person arrested was at first... not cooperative with police. However,
[15:30] Speaker 2: we knew more about that case than we do about Sam's.
[15:35] Speaker 2: Police told us that he used his police revolver. He'd
[15:37] Speaker 2: bought surfboard bags to hide the bodies. He hired a
[15:41] Speaker 2: van from the airport and drove the bodies out of town.
[15:45] Speaker 2: At first, the alleged killer didn't cooperate, but then it's
[15:48] Speaker 2: believed due to the no body, no parole law, he
[15:51] Speaker 2: decided to tell police where the men's bodies were. Good evening.
[15:56] Speaker 3: Police have made a grim breakthrough in the search for
[15:59] Speaker 3: Jesse Baird and Luke Davies, finding two bodies hidden in
[16:03] Speaker 3: a state forest. Detectives say the discovery was based on
[16:07] Speaker 3: information provided by the police officer accused of killing the pair.
[16:12] Speaker 2: I wanted to know from Damien, are the rules around
[16:14] Speaker 2: no body, no parole the same in Victoria as they
[16:18] Speaker 2: are in New South Wales?
[16:20] Speaker 1: Okay, so in Victoria, it's not as some of the
[16:24] Speaker 1: other states have a dead set, no release if you
[16:28] Speaker 1: don't disclose where the body is. In Victoria, it's up
[16:32] Speaker 1: to the parole board to decide and they can take
[16:36] Speaker 1: that into account. If you haven't disclosed where the body is,
[16:42] Speaker 1: the parole board can refuse you parole, but it's still
[16:46] Speaker 1: up to the parole board. So they're not strong. laws
[16:51] Speaker 1: in Victoria. I know it comes up all the time
[16:54] Speaker 1: whenever a body isn't found for Victoria to push through
[16:59] Speaker 1: the tougher sentencing, tougher laws in regards to disclosure of
[17:04] Speaker 1: a body. I personally don't agree with it. I think
[17:09] Speaker 1: it's good if you know 100% somebody has killed a
[17:14] Speaker 1: person and, you know, got rid of the body and
[17:18] Speaker 1: nobody knows where it is. But You know, there's too
[17:21] Speaker 1: many cases where, you know, people aren't being released in
[17:25] Speaker 1: other states and from day one they've, you know, said,
[17:30] Speaker 1: I am innocent of this. And many of them I
[17:34] Speaker 1: can't see why they wouldn't disclose where the body is.
[17:38] Speaker 1: You know, Bradley Murdoch's a good example. Now, he's going
[17:43] Speaker 1: to sit in jail for the rest of his life unless,
[17:46] Speaker 1: he says, where Falcone's body is. So why wouldn't he
[17:50] Speaker 1: turn around and say it? He's already been branded and
[17:53] Speaker 1: convicted as a murderer. Yeah, I mean, if you were
[17:57] Speaker 1: in that position, you'd say where it is. So is
[18:01] Speaker 1: he totally guilty? I have my doubts about Murdoch.
[18:05] Speaker 2: And this is a psychology question, and maybe we're not
[18:09] Speaker 2: best placed to answer it, but in your experience, you
[18:12] Speaker 2: might be able to have a crack at it. What
[18:15] Speaker 2: would be the reason that someone wouldn't say something where
[18:19] Speaker 2: the body was if they did commit this crime?
[18:25] Speaker 1: Well, I suppose it would come down to whether they're
[18:29] Speaker 1: prepared to admit it themselves, you know, and there could
[18:33] Speaker 1: be certain reasons for that. You know, they possibly don't
[18:38] Speaker 1: want certain people close to them to know that they
[18:41] Speaker 1: actually did commit a crime like that. But, look, generally...
[18:47] Speaker 1: You would think if you weren't a total psychopath, a
[18:50] Speaker 1: serial killer, you think most people would sort of look
[18:54] Speaker 1: at it and say, okay, I'm never getting out if
[18:57] Speaker 1: I don't tell them where it is. So, you know,
[19:00] Speaker 1: I've got everything to gain, nothing to lose.
[19:03] Speaker 2: Tell me about the process now. So what we do
[19:05] Speaker 2: know is he has been charged. He's currently, I guess...
[19:11] Speaker 2: So he won't be bailed. He will be in a
[19:15] Speaker 2: holding cell or in a jail until he's taken to court.
[19:18] Speaker 2: What's the process for police now? What are they doing?
[19:21] Speaker 1: Yeah, so police, the first thing they've got to do
[19:24] Speaker 1: is prepare a hand-up brief. And that hand-up brief will
[19:29] Speaker 1: go to the OPP in Victoria, Office of Public Prosecutions,
[19:34] Speaker 1: and they'll decide whether there's enough evidence available. or whether
[19:39] Speaker 1: they require police to do some more work. Usually you've
[19:43] Speaker 1: got to finish that brief, I think, within six weeks
[19:48] Speaker 1: of charging somebody, but you can apply for extensions if
[19:52] Speaker 1: it's a complicated case. So that brief... will contain any
[19:56] Speaker 1: evidence that they've got. It'll contain all the data. They'll
[20:00] Speaker 1: have to, um, you know, get a statement, um, or
[20:04] Speaker 1: get evidence from a, uh, an expert in the data
[20:07] Speaker 1: and phone technology, um, You'll also have to get any
[20:12] Speaker 1: witnesses that have come forward. They would have made statements.
[20:17] Speaker 1: Everything that you can think of to do with that
[20:19] Speaker 1: is relevant to this investigation to, you know, have a
[20:25] Speaker 1: successful prosecution will go into that brief and, yeah, and
[20:31] Speaker 1: it will go to a committal hearing, which is usually
[20:34] Speaker 1: in the magistrate's court, and that committal is simply for
[20:38] Speaker 1: the court to say, yes, there's enough evidence to warrant
[20:41] Speaker 1: a trial in a higher court. And in this case,
[20:44] Speaker 1: it will be the Supreme Court in Victoria.
[20:46] Speaker 2: And so Supreme Court isn't– we're not talking this is
[20:50] Speaker 2: going to be something that's ended in the next month
[20:52] Speaker 2: or so, right? We're talking six to 12 months that
[20:55] Speaker 2: this will take.
[20:56] Speaker 1: You would think so. I mean, there's a– I mean,
[21:00] Speaker 1: I was trying to think it's– even though it's a
[21:03] Speaker 1: complicated case– There's not all that much. Other than the data,
[21:10] Speaker 1: you know, there's no reason why the committal hearing can't
[21:17] Speaker 1: go forward within, you know, a few months. And then,
[21:20] Speaker 1: you know, it depends on the schedule of the court systems.
[21:24] Speaker 1: Victoria is just like all the other states. You know,
[21:28] Speaker 1: the backlog and drag is just out of control.
[21:31] Speaker 2: Given the public scrutiny on this particular case, you would
[21:34] Speaker 2: imagine this is a case that would move through faster
[21:38] Speaker 2: than your general case?
[21:40] Speaker 1: They'll want to make sure that they've got everything right,
[21:44] Speaker 1: crossed every T, dotted every I, and it'll be scrutinised
[21:49] Speaker 1: from day one, the actual evidence. So everything is going
[21:53] Speaker 1: to be spot on.
[21:54] Speaker 2: How important is finding Samantha's body now?
[21:58] Speaker 1: Look, it's always important in a case like this because
[22:02] Speaker 1: you're charging somebody with murder. So to actually find the
[22:07] Speaker 1: body and for the coroner and forensics to go over
[22:11] Speaker 1: that body and determine how she died is all forms
[22:16] Speaker 1: another part of the evidence against any person charged. So,
[22:22] Speaker 1: you know, it is important and it'll show exactly, well,
[22:25] Speaker 1: you can sort of indicate exactly what happened to her.
[22:28] Speaker 1: So it's important in that there's no doubt she is deceased,
[22:36] Speaker 1: but it's better to prove that by having the body.
[22:39] Speaker 2: What were the tools the police would be using to
[22:42] Speaker 2: try and convince Patrick to.
[22:46] Speaker 1: Oh, look, I think they'd try anything, really. At this stage,
[22:52] Speaker 1: he probably... is, well, possibly expressing that he's not guilty
[23:00] Speaker 1: and that's why he can't say where the body is
[23:03] Speaker 1: because he's not saying to the police, okay, you got me.
[23:08] Speaker 1: He's denying it. So it's going to take time between
[23:13] Speaker 1: his solicitors, lawyers, even the use of his family to
[23:18] Speaker 1: get the truth out there. Police will use anything they
[23:21] Speaker 1: can to find that body.
[23:23] Speaker 2: What are we expecting to see as the next movements
[23:26] Speaker 2: from police or from him? What's most likely?
[23:29] Speaker 1: Well, he's not going to get bail. So he'll have
[23:32] Speaker 1: his bail hearings every four weeks or so. He'll pretty
[23:37] Speaker 1: much stay in jail. And what they'll be trying to
[23:41] Speaker 1: do is the police will only release information now if
[23:46] Speaker 1: they want other people to come forward. So as they
[23:49] Speaker 1: find out certain things where he might have been at
[23:51] Speaker 1: different times, Then they'll put something out. If anybody saw
[23:55] Speaker 1: this vehicle, this person on such and such a date,
[23:59] Speaker 1: give us a call. So they'll be tightening all the
[24:03] Speaker 1: evidence up by doing things like that.
[24:06] Speaker 2: It seems that they've been to the nightclub that he
[24:08] Speaker 2: was at the night before. The club was called The Deck.
[24:10] Speaker 2: They've grabbed the CCTV of him there. They're also investigating
[24:15] Speaker 2: a light industrial area that's just around the corner. and
[24:20] Speaker 2: obviously they had said early on in the piece that
[24:25] Speaker 2: there was no connection between him and Samantha Murphy, and
[24:29] Speaker 2: now some news has come out that Samantha was actually
[24:32] Speaker 2: working in the uniform shop as a helper when he
[24:38] Speaker 2: was at primary school. So is that just coincidence in
[24:42] Speaker 2: a small town? I'd say so.
[24:45] Speaker 3: Like....
[24:47] Speaker 1: You know, it's a bit of a stretch to say
[24:49] Speaker 1: they were involved in some way with each other. You know,
[24:54] Speaker 1: there'd be a thousand kids probably gone through that uniform shop.
[24:59] Speaker 1: And how often do you get uniforms? You know, once
[25:02] Speaker 1: every year?
[25:04] Speaker 2: I guess that's armchair detectives trying to find a connection
[25:07] Speaker 2: between Stevenson and Samantha. How annoying is that as a
[25:12] Speaker 2: cop when that sort of stuff happens?
[25:14] Speaker 1: Look, it didn't happen as much in my day because,
[25:17] Speaker 1: you know, we didn't have all the social media and
[25:20] Speaker 1: so forth. But it can be annoying because it can
[25:24] Speaker 1: really affect, you know, what the police are doing and
[25:29] Speaker 1: there's all this noise around it and people are, you know,
[25:33] Speaker 1: it's like what was said about the husband earlier on,
[25:37] Speaker 1: you know. We all heard those rumours and different rumours
[25:41] Speaker 1: kept coming back, you know, and that's armchair people, you know,
[25:47] Speaker 1: sitting there saying, oh, I knew this about him. They
[25:49] Speaker 1: didn't know that about him. And whether that had anything
[25:52] Speaker 1: to do with, you know, his wife being murdered, obviously
[25:57] Speaker 1: it didn't. You know, look, I'd say the biggest connection
[26:01] Speaker 1: that you could possibly surmise of him knowing Samantha Murphy
[26:07] Speaker 1: was would be the location of his parents' house because
[26:13] Speaker 1: she was running there pretty much every day.
[26:16] Speaker 2: And we know because it's not public information that no
[26:20] Speaker 2: one's come out and published that address, but we've spoken
[26:24] Speaker 2: and we've seen that house is literally across the road.
[26:29] Speaker 1: So she's running to that park each day. Chances are
[26:33] Speaker 1: he would have seen her at some stage. whether that's
[26:37] Speaker 1: turned into a fascination or whatever, I don't know. But,
[26:43] Speaker 1: you know, if they can't connect her and him together
[26:48] Speaker 1: in a social or work sort of atmosphere, you know,
[26:52] Speaker 1: it is a good sort of assumption to say, well,
[26:55] Speaker 1: he lives so close to the reserves that she was running,
[26:59] Speaker 1: possibly that's where they come across each other or he's
[27:03] Speaker 1: come across her.
[27:06] Speaker 2: In the next episode, we talk to a criminal psychologist
[27:10] Speaker 2: who profiles the sort of person that might attack a
[27:13] Speaker 2: woman in a park. Thanks for listening to this episode
[28:02] Speaker 2: and supporting this story. Independent storytelling that shapes the world
[28:06] Speaker 2: is what Podshape really cares about. Right now, there's thousands
[28:09] Speaker 2: of people listening to this show and our other true crimes,
[28:12] Speaker 2: and they're completely engaged. More than 10 million Australians listen
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[28:21] Speaker 2: out in the show notes or head to podshape.com to
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