# Samantha Murphy: The Run She Never Came Home From

An episode of [What Happened To…](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1812362613), 20 Sep 2026, 27 min.

Audio: https://p.podderapp.com/2544644999/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/2fb3740d-3436-44af-8cc0-a91900716aa5/8c185e62-46f1-4292-81b7-b2d00059655d/ee4f0d64-db7a-46f6-ae43-b4cb00a5c995/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=fcf80ea6-cd25-4daa-b194-b2d000596ad2

On the morning of 4 February 2024, Ballarat mother Samantha Murphy left her home for a routine run and never returned. Originally recorded during the early stages of the investigation, this episode retraces Samantha’s last known movements and the massive search that followed. We speak with former Detective Inspector Greg Lamey about what happens in those crucial first 48 hours of a missing-person investigation, what police look for, and why seemingly insignificant information can become an important piece of the puzzle. What did investigators know in those early days and what were the missing pieces? IMPORTANT NOTE: This episode was originally recorded and published during the early stages of the investigation and reflects information publicly available at that time. Since its original publication, criminal proceedings relating to Samantha Murphy’s disappearance have commenced. This episode has not been updated to discuss those proceedings and does not address the person currently before the courts, the evidence in those proceedings, or questions of guilt or innocence. Nothing in this episode should be interpreted as commenting on, prejudging or seeking to influence any current court proceedings. The accused is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty according to law. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:12] Speaker 1: It's Saturday the 3rd of February. Samantha Murphy and her
[0:15] Speaker 1: husband Mick have people over for dinner at their palatial
[0:18] Speaker 1: home on Eureka Street in East Ballarat. It's the nice
[0:22] Speaker 1: part of Ballarat, full of affluent houses. Over the course
[0:25] Speaker 1: of dinner, Sam tells her friends that she's all set
[0:28] Speaker 1: for a 14km run the next day. She's training for
[0:31] Speaker 1: a 21km fun run in a little while, so the
[0:34] Speaker 1: Sunday morning sacrifice... After a dinner party the night before
[0:38] Speaker 1: is worth it. The next morning at 7am she leaves
[0:41] Speaker 1: the house and is never seen again. Sam Murphy and
[0:49] Speaker 1: her husband Mick were solid community members in Ballarat. They
[0:53] Speaker 1: owned and ran a local panel beading shop called the
[0:55] Speaker 1: Inland Motor Repairs. From the website, it's one of the
[0:58] Speaker 1: cleanest panel shops I've seen. Mick was the boss and
[1:01] Speaker 1: Sam worked in the office. They had a handful of
[1:03] Speaker 1: staff and specialised in all sorts of work, including insurance work.
[1:08] Speaker 1: It seems another family member also worked at reception, and
[1:11] Speaker 1: there's nothing but positive reviews on Google. It was a
[1:14] Speaker 1: family business that led to the family having a comfortable life,
[1:17] Speaker 1: living in one of the bigger houses in East Ballarat.
[1:20] Speaker 1: Sam and Mick have three kids. It was said from
[1:22] Speaker 1: people that knew Sam that she was a fantastic member
[1:25] Speaker 1: of the community. Now, Ballarat's about one hour and 20
[1:30] Speaker 1: minutes from Melbourne to the northwest. It's the third largest
[1:33] Speaker 1: city in Victoria and has about 120,000 people living in it.
[1:37] Speaker 1: So the town is by no means small, but it's
[1:39] Speaker 1: not like you can know everyone. But that said, it
[1:42] Speaker 1: was the sort of town that people stuck together. And
[1:44] Speaker 1: over the last four weeks, we've seen that town bandied together,
[1:47] Speaker 1: searching for Samantha Murphy.
[1:50] Speaker 2: Everything since the disappearance of Sam has basically been a
[1:53] Speaker 2: little bit of a sombre feel, moving around within the community...
[1:57] Speaker 2: So many people are wondering what has happened to her.
[2:00] Speaker 2: There's a lot of empathy towards her family and what
[2:05] Speaker 2: has occurred. It is a very close-knit community.
[2:10] Speaker 1: Sam was a regular and keen runner. She was training
[2:12] Speaker 1: for a fun run, and one of her regular trails
[2:15] Speaker 1: was running in the Woolwookarung Regional Park, which has bike trails,
[2:19] Speaker 1: horse trails and walking trails. It's a popular spot for
[2:22] Speaker 1: the locals who are into fitness. and the great outdoors.
[2:26] Speaker 1: As part of that 640-odd-acre forest is an area called
[2:30] Speaker 1: the Canadian State Forest in Clear Mountain. And that was
[2:34] Speaker 1: the plan for Sam on that Sunday morning. At 7am,
[2:38] Speaker 1: Sam is pictured from her own CCTV at the front
[2:41] Speaker 1: of her house with a dog poo bag. She's dressed
[2:46] Speaker 1: in a brown sleeveless shirt, black leggings, and is wearing
[2:49] Speaker 1: an Apple Watch with a rose-coloured band. It's believed she
[2:53] Speaker 1: was also wearing a set of headphones, however they can't
[2:56] Speaker 1: be seen in the image. She looks like any of
[3:00] Speaker 1: us would on a Sunday morning, about to head off
[3:02] Speaker 1: for a run. She doesn't look worried or dishevelled, and
[3:05] Speaker 1: the CCTV capture is pretty much like any of us
[3:08] Speaker 1: at that time of the morning. So the last image
[3:13] Speaker 1: we have of Sam is the one outside her house,
[3:16] Speaker 1: as she's about to head off on her run. We
[3:23] Speaker 1: do know more than that though. Because she was wearing
[3:26] Speaker 1: an Apple Watch and had her phone with her, police
[3:29] Speaker 1: on learning of Sam's disappearance were able to ping her
[3:32] Speaker 1: phone and work out that she made it seven kilometres
[3:35] Speaker 1: away from her home in the area of the Canadian
[3:37] Speaker 1: State Forest. And then her phone goes dark. Before we
[3:51] Speaker 1: get deep into the story, I want to say why
[3:54] Speaker 1: we decided to cover this story and what this podcast
[3:56] Speaker 1: is trying to do. We know the podcast medium is
[3:59] Speaker 1: powerful and some people might not have seen the mainstream media.
[4:02] Speaker 1: They may have missed the story or at least the
[4:04] Speaker 1: detail of the story. Our aim is to give you
[4:07] Speaker 1: all of the info that we know that might help
[4:09] Speaker 1: in some way find out what happened to Sam. Of course,
[4:13] Speaker 1: if you think you can help, call Crimestoppers. It's the
[4:16] Speaker 1: best way to make contact with police. That number is 1-800-333-000.
[4:20] Speaker 1: In these six episodes, we're going to talk with people
[4:24] Speaker 1: who knew Sam and people who might be able to
[4:26] Speaker 1: help with some of putting some of the pieces together.
[4:29] Speaker 1: We've made a conscious effort not to draw suspicion on
[4:32] Speaker 1: anyone in particular, as this is an active case and
[4:35] Speaker 1: at some point we hope someone's going to be before
[4:37] Speaker 1: the courts. What we do know from police is that
[4:40] Speaker 1: Sam didn't just leave. She didn't just have a medical
[4:43] Speaker 1: episode on her run. Police believe that Sam was taken.
[4:46] Speaker 1: They also believe it's unlikely that she's still alive. Ambiguous
[4:51] Speaker 1: loss is something I know a little about. In missing
[4:53] Speaker 1: persons language, ambiguous loss is when someone goes missing and
[4:57] Speaker 1: you have no idea of what happened to them. I
[5:00] Speaker 1: know about it because when I was 10, my own
[5:02] Speaker 1: uncle went missing and has never been seen again. And
[5:05] Speaker 1: that's why I got into true crime in the first place.
[5:08] Speaker 1: It was less about trying to find an answer and
[5:10] Speaker 1: more about trying to find out all the information so
[5:13] Speaker 1: I could do my own thinking about what might have happened.
[5:16] Speaker 1: That was over 40 years ago now, and a lot
[5:18] Speaker 1: of time has passed. But to lose your mum and
[5:21] Speaker 1: to have that sort of pain as a young adult
[5:24] Speaker 1: is something no one could ever imagine. It was evident
[5:28] Speaker 1: when Sam's daughter, in the days after she went missing,
[5:30] Speaker 1: made a plea to the public.
[5:32] Speaker 3: I know she's out there somewhere. So if you could
[5:35] Speaker 3: please continue to search for her. To give us something
[5:39] Speaker 3: to work with. We'd really appreciate it. Mum, we love
[5:44] Speaker 3: you so much and we miss you. And we need
[5:46] Speaker 3: you at home with us. Please come home soon. I
[5:50] Speaker 3: can't wait to see you. And to give you the
[5:53] Speaker 3: biggest hug when I do. And to tell you all
[5:56] Speaker 3: for giving us so much stress. I love you.
[6:06] Speaker 1: Let's start with what police do when someone first goes missing.
[6:10] Speaker 1: Greg Lamey is a former New South Wales detective inspector
[6:13] Speaker 1: and has some great experience when it comes to looking
[6:16] Speaker 1: for a missing person.
[6:17] Speaker 4: Gregory Lamey, I'm a former New South Wales detective inspector,
[6:21] Speaker 4: now an investigator.
[6:23] Speaker 1: And the business you run?
[6:25] Speaker 4: My business is the Professional Investigators College of Australasia and
[6:29] Speaker 4: we train investigators, government, corporate, private, all over Australia. and
[6:35] Speaker 4: throughout the world.
[6:35] Speaker 1: Let's talk about some of the cases that you might
[6:37] Speaker 1: have been involved in in your time in New South Wales.
[6:41] Speaker 4: Probably the biggest investigation I had, which still remains unsolved,
[6:44] Speaker 4: is the murder of an Aboriginal lady called, by the
[6:48] Speaker 4: name of Teresa Binge.
[6:50] Speaker 3: Yep.
[6:50] Speaker 4: And Teresa went missing from a place called Gundawindi, a
[6:54] Speaker 4: pub in Gundawindi, in 2003. Interestingly, she wasn't found, her
[7:00] Speaker 4: body wasn't found until 10 days later. So it was
[7:04] Speaker 4: initially a missing persons investigation that turned into a homicide.
[7:08] Speaker 4: That investigation is still unsolved.
[7:11] Speaker 1: How long ago was this?
[7:13] Speaker 3: 2003.
[7:14] Speaker 4: So we had the 20-year anniversary of her death. Now,
[7:18] Speaker 4: police response to missing persons is primarily based on risk.
[7:23] Speaker 4: People go missing, hundreds of people probably, every day and
[7:27] Speaker 4: every year. Thousands of people go missing. A very small
[7:30] Speaker 4: percentage of those are what I'd call suspicious or involved
[7:35] Speaker 4: in homicide or something like that, probably 99% of them,
[7:40] Speaker 4: things like teenage runaways, for example. You're not going to
[7:43] Speaker 4: form a strike force and go searching through bushland for
[7:46] Speaker 4: a teenager that's run away 15 times and has suddenly
[7:50] Speaker 4: run away again. So police investigations of missing persons nowadays, thankfully,
[7:55] Speaker 4: is based around the risk. But there's a lot that
[7:58] Speaker 4: goes into that. You've got to find out what the
[7:59] Speaker 4: risk is and you've got to find out about the person.
[8:03] Speaker 4: This case we're going to talk about today is quite
[8:05] Speaker 4: interesting in that regard.
[8:06] Speaker 1: So just to pull that apart, risk meaning the risk
[8:11] Speaker 1: around the chance of them going missing, not on their
[8:15] Speaker 1: own accord.
[8:15] Speaker 4: Well, that. But I mean, I've investigated many cases, some
[8:20] Speaker 4: quite memorable. There was a fellow called Bill Roach who
[8:24] Speaker 4: went missing from a northern New South Wales town called
[8:27] Speaker 4: Armadale in, let's say, the early 90s. Now, I investigated
[8:33] Speaker 4: that around 2005, so I had to back-capture almost 15
[8:37] Speaker 4: years of him being missing. Now, Bill's never been found either,
[8:41] Speaker 4: but that presents its own circumstances. So what's really important
[8:44] Speaker 4: is that you look into the circumstances surrounding when somebody
[8:48] Speaker 4: going missing, because that indicates the risk and the subsequent
[8:54] Speaker 4: police responses.
[8:55] Speaker 1: So the first step for police in any missing persons
[8:58] Speaker 1: case is to work out all of the information, and
[9:01] Speaker 1: in this case, finding out all of the information surrounding
[9:04] Speaker 1: Sam's disappearance. From the media reports, we know she left
[9:07] Speaker 1: home at 7am and was off on a run or
[9:10] Speaker 1: a walk through nearby bushland, which would have taken less
[9:13] Speaker 1: than two hours. She should have been home by at
[9:16] Speaker 1: least 9am. As a former police officer... What's the first
[9:21] Speaker 1: thing you do when that's the back story?
[9:26] Speaker 4: Well, Jay, I guess the first thing I would say
[9:29] Speaker 4: is you made the point that's what we know, the
[9:31] Speaker 4: public knows. I can tell you now that the police
[9:33] Speaker 4: will know a whole lot more than that.
[9:35] Speaker 5: Yeah, okay.
[9:36] Speaker 4: And they're not going to tell the wider community for
[9:40] Speaker 4: very good reason.
[9:41] Speaker 1: I want to know that reason. We all want to help. Yeah.
[9:43] Speaker 4: Right.
[9:44] Speaker 1: We all think that we're, you know, when I'm doing
[9:46] Speaker 1: this podcast, we think we're investigators and we can help.
[9:48] Speaker 4: Yeah.
[9:49] Speaker 1: But what is the primary reason the cops won't tell
[9:52] Speaker 1: us more?
[9:52] Speaker 4: Well, primarily it's because they may, and I say may,
[9:55] Speaker 4: I'm not supposing anything, but may have a suspect in
[9:58] Speaker 4: mind that may be involved in a disappearance. There are
[10:01] Speaker 4: a lot of mays there. I don't know that for
[10:03] Speaker 4: certain because I don't know whether... the police holdings are,
[10:06] Speaker 4: and no one does. And again, the reason they keep
[10:08] Speaker 4: that is because if that gets out in the community,
[10:11] Speaker 4: the person that they may be investigating as a suspect
[10:14] Speaker 4: may be alerted. Again, there's a lot of mays there.
[10:17] Speaker 4: There's a lot the public probably doesn't know, and I
[10:20] Speaker 4: often tell people that, you know, You can easily make
[10:24] Speaker 4: judgments on what you hear in the media, and don't
[10:27] Speaker 4: get me wrong, Jay, there's a massive benefit of having
[10:30] Speaker 4: the media assist in these types of things, as you know.
[10:33] Speaker 4: They keep that to themselves because it's important in terms
[10:36] Speaker 4: of their methodology and their way they go about investigating things.
[10:40] Speaker 1: What would be your first point of call in an
[10:44] Speaker 1: investigation like this?
[10:46] Speaker 4: Firstly, to try and find a crime scene. or a scene.
[10:51] Speaker 4: We call it a crime scene. It might not necessarily
[10:53] Speaker 4: be a crime. Now, in this case, that's very difficult
[10:56] Speaker 4: because we don't know other than the seven kilometres where
[10:58] Speaker 4: her phone stopped pinging. So that's a crime scene. I
[11:01] Speaker 4: know the police, for many, have been searching that area
[11:04] Speaker 4: along with other areas as well. But one of the
[11:07] Speaker 4: most important things is what we call victimology. What that
[11:11] Speaker 4: means is that it's very important to speak to those
[11:13] Speaker 4: closest to her about everything in relation to her. Now, again,
[11:19] Speaker 4: We know nothing about that other than she was married
[11:22] Speaker 4: and had some kids and was married to a man
[11:25] Speaker 4: who owned a smash repair business, I understand.
[11:27] Speaker 1: Yep.
[11:28] Speaker 4: We know nothing beyond that.
[11:29] Speaker 5: People just don't vanish in the thin air. Someone's got
[11:33] Speaker 5: to know something. Whether it be any little thing that
[11:36] Speaker 5: you might think is relevant, just call the police, let
[11:40] Speaker 5: them know. It'll give us a bit of peace of
[11:43] Speaker 5: mind if we get some hope from someone.
[11:46] Speaker 4: So there are so many what-ifs involved in that that
[11:50] Speaker 4: the police would know by speaking to people. It's the
[11:52] Speaker 4: old adage, you know, you can't solve any crime from
[11:55] Speaker 4: behind a computer. You've got to, in the words of
[11:58] Speaker 4: the famous fictional detective Harry Bosch, get off your arse
[12:03] Speaker 4: and go knock on doors. And that's what good detectives do.
[12:06] Speaker 4: They talk to people, they gather evidence. Now, in this case,
[12:08] Speaker 4: it's all about gathering everything, everything they know about the
[12:13] Speaker 4: missing person to try and form some sort of picture
[12:17] Speaker 4: as to why this might have happened.
[12:19] Speaker 6: Today we're undertaking a search in the Mount Clear area
[12:22] Speaker 6: in relation to an area of interest to our investigation.
[12:26] Speaker 6: I can confirm that we have identified that Samantha did
[12:30] Speaker 6: leave home on the morning of the 4th of February
[12:33] Speaker 6: 2024 at just after 7am. We believe she then travelled
[12:38] Speaker 6: on foot into the Canadian State Forest where she embarked
[12:42] Speaker 6: on a run for a period of time and made
[12:45] Speaker 6: her way to the Mount Clear area. We'll be looking
[12:48] Speaker 6: for anything that may give us evidence as to what
[12:50] Speaker 6: may have happened in that area on the day.
[12:52] Speaker 4: Generally with investigations like this that are high profile in
[12:56] Speaker 4: the media, you will get tens, scores, hundreds of phone
[13:00] Speaker 4: calls from people who have seen things, heard things, clairvoyance,
[13:05] Speaker 4: all sorts of people. Now, they've all got to be
[13:07] Speaker 4: followed up. I know they've done lots of, in this case,
[13:11] Speaker 4: appeals for information for dash cams and stuff like that.
[13:15] Speaker 4: And the other thing police will do is, I would imagine...
[13:18] Speaker 4: because it's what I would do, is it was close
[13:20] Speaker 4: to the town of Ballarat. The first thing they would
[13:22] Speaker 4: do is go and gather every piece of digital evidence
[13:26] Speaker 4: from a large portion of that town that they can.
[13:29] Speaker 3: Why?
[13:29] Speaker 4: It may not be relevant, but it may be later.
[13:32] Speaker 1: What are you looking for then? Are you just building
[13:33] Speaker 1: a picture?
[13:34] Speaker 4: Yeah, that's exactly what you're doing, because nobody knows what's
[13:36] Speaker 4: happened here.
[13:37] Speaker 3: Yep.
[13:37] Speaker 1: Nobody.
[13:39] Speaker 4: So you're talking to the family members. You're getting a
[13:42] Speaker 4: very good account of her life and what her movements were.
[13:47] Speaker 4: There could be third parties involved that the police would
[13:51] Speaker 4: find out about by questioning people. They would be doing
[13:54] Speaker 4: quite extensive, I'd suggest, what we call canvases, which are
[13:57] Speaker 4: hitting the ground and knocking on people's doors and asking,
[14:00] Speaker 4: did you see this? Did you see that? I do
[14:03] Speaker 4: note in the media that in this particular case, they
[14:06] Speaker 4: are looking for apparently a car with damage. No one
[14:10] Speaker 4: seems to know what that's about, but obviously they do.
[14:13] Speaker 4: And the reason they know that is because they may
[14:15] Speaker 4: have a witness that saw a car. Back in the
[14:21] Speaker 4: 80s on the north shore of Sydney, there was a
[14:24] Speaker 4: series of murders on old ladies called the Granny Killers.
[14:27] Speaker 4: A fellow by the name of John Glover was eventually
[14:30] Speaker 4: convicted for murdering eight old ladies. Now, the police had
[14:34] Speaker 4: no idea who was murdering these ladies. What they would
[14:38] Speaker 4: do when they did their canvases is ask people, did
[14:40] Speaker 4: you see anything suspicious? legitimate question, would you concur? It's
[14:46] Speaker 4: actually not really a good question because people saw lots
[14:50] Speaker 4: of things, none of which was suspicious. What they did
[14:53] Speaker 4: see is a 4 in 20 pie salesman. Now, isn't
[14:57] Speaker 4: it funny how one little question can change a whole thing?
[15:00] Speaker 4: Did you see something suspicious?
[15:01] Speaker 1: No.
[15:02] Speaker 4: What did you see? 4 in 20 pie salesman. That
[15:04] Speaker 4: would have come up time and time again. Now, this
[15:07] Speaker 4: was pre-software databases and stuff, so it was a bit
[15:10] Speaker 4: more difficult. But I guess that's, you know, Getting out
[15:14] Speaker 4: there to the police and talking with people is the
[15:16] Speaker 4: original best way of getting evidence and building that picture
[15:20] Speaker 4: about what might have happened to someone. Once you're able
[15:23] Speaker 4: to do that, you can move your investigative strategy the
[15:25] Speaker 4: way it needs to.
[15:27] Speaker 1: So just to go back on your story, what you're
[15:30] Speaker 1: essentially saying is that it doesn't need to be suspicious.
[15:33] Speaker 1: It just needs to be information.
[15:35] Speaker 4: Well, I heard them actually, the police, say, and I
[15:37] Speaker 4: sort of cringe a bit because, again, I teach this
[15:39] Speaker 4: stuff to investigators, say, did anybody say anything suspicious?
[15:43] Speaker 6: No.
[15:44] Speaker 4: What did you see?
[15:45] Speaker 7: Yeah.
[15:45] Speaker 4: Talk to as many people who was in and around
[15:48] Speaker 4: that entire area slash route that she traveled. What did
[15:52] Speaker 4: you see? Because the same, you know, different people might
[15:55] Speaker 4: have seen the same thing. That same thing keeps coming up.
[15:58] Speaker 4: For example, a car with damage. I don't know. That's
[16:01] Speaker 4: what's happened. But if that came up, there's a lead. Okay. So.
[16:05] Speaker 4: Many people saw a car with damage, so now they're
[16:08] Speaker 4: looking for a car with damage.
[16:09] Speaker 1: Police have been inundated with information, over 700 pieces of info.
[16:13] Speaker 1: There are thousands of hours of CCTV footage to go through,
[16:17] Speaker 1: all to try and find that little bit of information
[16:20] Speaker 1: that might help. The media, podcasts and newspapers now play
[16:24] Speaker 1: a vital role in getting this information out to the public.
[16:28] Speaker 1: The more people that know about it, the more chance,
[16:30] Speaker 1: as Greg told us, that someone might remember something. It
[16:33] Speaker 1: might not seem suspicious at the time, but it might
[16:37] Speaker 1: hold a vital clue to finding Samantha Murphy. In an
[16:44] Speaker 1: investigation like this where it really has got the whole
[16:47] Speaker 1: of the country talking about it, does that then become
[16:51] Speaker 1: inherently harder for police because everybody thinks they know something.
[16:56] Speaker 4: About Once things hit the media, people start ringing up,
[17:00] Speaker 4: and that's a good thing. I mean, look, police use
[17:03] Speaker 4: media as part of their investigative strategy, and generally it's
[17:09] Speaker 4: to generate interest, so people will call in and say
[17:13] Speaker 4: what they've seen. Now, those 700 pieces are probably 600
[17:16] Speaker 4: people that have called in with some information. Again, a
[17:19] Speaker 4: lot of that might not be relevant. It might be clairvoyance,
[17:22] Speaker 4: saying that they know where she's buried and all this
[17:25] Speaker 4: sort of stuff that happens. I mean, you can't completely
[17:28] Speaker 4: discount anything. So the job of the police, and this
[17:32] Speaker 4: is why resourcing in terms of having detectives on the
[17:35] Speaker 4: ground is really important, is to go through all that stuff.
[17:37] Speaker 4: 1,200 hours of CCTV, somebody's got to go through that
[17:41] Speaker 4: and see if she's on it, if someone else is
[17:43] Speaker 4: on it, or if there's anything of interest.
[17:45] Speaker 1: Interestingly, we talk about that CCTV footage. There was footage
[17:49] Speaker 1: that was released a couple of days into the search
[17:51] Speaker 1: for Samantha that And it was at 7.16am and it
[17:55] Speaker 1: was a shot from someone's house, their front veranda, if
[17:59] Speaker 1: you like. And it was looking into a park and
[18:01] Speaker 1: they saw a woman that sort of matched Samantha's description
[18:05] Speaker 1: running past.
[18:06] Speaker 7: Police releasing the CCTV vision yesterday. It's from a Eureka
[18:10] Speaker 7: Street property near Miss Murphy's home. And it appears to
[18:13] Speaker 7: show her heading out on that jog at about 7.16am.
[18:17] Speaker 7: It's prompted that urgent call for anyone on Eureka Street
[18:20] Speaker 7: or nearby areas to check CCTV if they have any
[18:23] Speaker 7: for any footage of Miss Murphy as this search enters
[18:26] Speaker 7: its fifth day, now covering vast tracks.
[18:29] Speaker 1: And then a day later, someone come forward and said,
[18:32] Speaker 1: that wasn't Sammy, it was me. I was running.
[18:35] Speaker 4: Well, there you go. I mean, but someone's got to
[18:37] Speaker 4: analyse that and go through it and that takes time.
[18:39] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[18:40] Speaker 4: That's why large investigations like this, they do normally stack
[18:44] Speaker 4: them with a lot of detectives because you need that
[18:48] Speaker 4: people power to go through all these things and get
[18:51] Speaker 4: statements from people. It's fine to get statements from 20, 30, 50, 100,
[18:57] Speaker 4: 200 people. Somebody's got to analyse that information and see
[19:00] Speaker 4: if there are any patterns.
[19:01] Speaker 1: Greg told me that the first 48 hours of a
[19:04] Speaker 1: missing persons case is critical.
[19:06] Speaker 4: Well, Jay, it's not only critical for missing... For missing people,
[19:10] Speaker 4: it's critical for any major investigation, whether it be a
[19:13] Speaker 4: homicide or sexual assault or armed robbery or anything. Those
[19:18] Speaker 4: first 24 or 48 hours, you know, they make shows
[19:22] Speaker 4: about this on TV. The Americans call it the first
[19:25] Speaker 4: 48 hours because that's the time period where things are fresh,
[19:29] Speaker 4: particularly people's memories are fresh. Like anyone would know, people's
[19:34] Speaker 4: memories decline over time, some worse than others. So it's
[19:38] Speaker 4: important to try and identify a scene so you can
[19:42] Speaker 4: analyze that, that's the first thing, and try and identify
[19:45] Speaker 4: and speak to anybody who may have any information in
[19:48] Speaker 4: that period as well, simply because of memory. But having
[19:54] Speaker 4: said that, there's plenty of investigations that people have spoken to.
[19:57] Speaker 4: I've done these myself decades later. It can be very
[20:01] Speaker 4: difficult to assist them with their memory. Obviously, people's memories
[20:05] Speaker 4: are what's important in terms of evidence and following things up.
[20:09] Speaker 1: Is there a likelihood, does the likelihood decrease as time
[20:12] Speaker 1: goes on that a person... is either not going to
[20:16] Speaker 1: be found or the circumstances around their disappearance aren't going
[20:19] Speaker 1: to be solved. Maybe.
[20:20] Speaker 4: I don't think that's necessarily the case. Again, it all
[20:24] Speaker 4: really depends on this concept of victimology. Again, we, the
[20:31] Speaker 4: public and the media, really don't know much about this lady.
[20:34] Speaker 4: We don't know, you know, did she have gambling debts?
[20:37] Speaker 4: Was she having an affair? I'm not saying this is true,
[20:39] Speaker 4: by the way, but these are just hypotheses. These are
[20:41] Speaker 4: all just pie-in-the-sky things, but you can only get that
[20:44] Speaker 4: information and build a picture by talking with people.
[20:47] Speaker 7: Yeah.
[20:48] Speaker 4: That's why it's so important to talk to the right
[20:50] Speaker 4: people as soon as you can and then build that picture.
[20:53] Speaker 4: It will become pretty clear if it's not already to
[20:56] Speaker 4: the police what's probably happened, and that'll be a line
[20:59] Speaker 4: of inquiry that they won't solely focus on but that
[21:04] Speaker 4: they may emphasise.
[21:05] Speaker 1: So police have said that everybody is a person of
[21:09] Speaker 1: interest in So explain the word person of interest because
[21:13] Speaker 1: there is a person of interest and then there's someone
[21:16] Speaker 1: that they're looking at as possible involvement.
[21:21] Speaker 4: To be honest, that's just police talk. Person of interest, suspect,
[21:25] Speaker 4: sort of mean the same thing. I mean, you're not
[21:27] Speaker 4: a person of interest in this case, neither am I.
[21:30] Speaker 4: But if you had rung up with some information, you
[21:32] Speaker 4: might be a person of interest. So I think people
[21:35] Speaker 4: get caught up on the whole suspect thing. They've said
[21:39] Speaker 4: in this case, the husband's not a suspect. It's a
[21:43] Speaker 4: bit unusual for them to come out and say that.
[21:46] Speaker 3: Okay.
[21:46] Speaker 1: Why so?
[21:47] Speaker 4: Well, how do they know?
[21:49] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[21:50] Speaker 4: Okay. Unless they do know. And it goes back to
[21:52] Speaker 4: my point, they would know a lot more than us.
[21:55] Speaker 4: And I understand people get very frustrated by not knowing
[21:58] Speaker 4: every intricate piece of the case, but Jay, there's a
[22:01] Speaker 4: really good reason that police hold that information and so
[22:05] Speaker 4: it doesn't affect the investigation. So they've said their husband
[22:09] Speaker 4: wasn't a person of interest. They must have fairly strong
[22:12] Speaker 4: indications that he wasn't involved. I think it's dangerous to
[22:16] Speaker 4: completely rule out anybody. That's my personal view. I mean,
[22:21] Speaker 4: they've done it, obviously, for whatever reason. There could be
[22:24] Speaker 4: a number of different reasons around that. But, yeah, I
[22:28] Speaker 4: think until someone's in the dark, getting charged and then
[22:32] Speaker 4: put before a court with it and then convicted, of course.
[22:35] Speaker 4: Everyone is a person of interest. You can never discount.
[22:39] Speaker 3: Anyone.
[22:40] Speaker 4: And I've done investigations, the Teresa Binge one I talked
[22:42] Speaker 4: about before, where there was probably a dozen persons of
[22:47] Speaker 4: interest slash suspects, whatever you want to call them. But
[22:50] Speaker 4: there was one or two that were stronger, but they've
[22:54] Speaker 4: all got to be investigated in some way. You can't
[22:56] Speaker 4: ever rule anyone out because, Jay, unless you were there
[23:00] Speaker 4: and you saw what happened... which in this case presumably
[23:04] Speaker 4: nobody has, how can you ever rule anyone out? That's
[23:07] Speaker 4: how police work. We don't charge people unless we've got
[23:11] Speaker 4: sufficient evidence to, one, put them before the court, but
[23:14] Speaker 4: also there's got to be a reasonable prospect of convicting
[23:17] Speaker 4: that person as well. And police don't always get that right,
[23:20] Speaker 4: by the way.
[23:21] Speaker 5: Yeah.
[23:22] Speaker 4: But, yeah, it really does centre all around evidence. I mean,
[23:25] Speaker 4: you can have all the theories and strong bits of
[23:28] Speaker 4: information leading one way or the other, But if the
[23:31] Speaker 4: evidence is not there and in criminal matters to prove
[23:34] Speaker 4: something beyond a reasonable doubt.
[23:37] Speaker 1: Police have said that they think more than one person
[23:42] Speaker 1: is likely to be involved. I found that really interesting
[23:47] Speaker 1: because that goes to what you've said previously. Like they,
[23:50] Speaker 1: most of the time, they're not telling us anything. They're
[23:54] Speaker 1: keeping everything very close to their chest. In this particular instance, though,
[23:58] Speaker 1: is that They've outwardly come out and said it's likely
[24:02] Speaker 1: more than one person is involved.
[24:05] Speaker 4: They simply must have some information that they're not letting
[24:08] Speaker 4: everybody else know to say that. There's got to be
[24:11] Speaker 4: some reason why they've said that. I don't know what
[24:16] Speaker 4: that is. I have no idea. It could be some
[24:18] Speaker 4: witness who has seen something.
[24:21] Speaker 1: But if we start putting some of these pieces together...
[24:23] Speaker 1: And the title of this podcast is Missing Pieces.
[24:25] Speaker 7: Yeah.
[24:26] Speaker 1: So the fact that cops have said more than one
[24:29] Speaker 1: person most likely involved, the fact that cops have said
[24:34] Speaker 1: she didn't have a medical episode, the fact that cops
[24:38] Speaker 1: have also said husband's not a suspect, and then finally
[24:43] Speaker 1: this other piece, this other missing piece is we're looking
[24:47] Speaker 1: for a car, a damaged car that was in the area.
[24:50] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[24:51] Speaker 4: When you put those puzzle pieces together, to me it
[24:55] Speaker 4: looks like they're investigating a homicide with more than one
[24:58] Speaker 4: person involved.
[24:59] Speaker 1: When you front the media as a police officer and
[25:03] Speaker 1: you're the one that's the mouthpiece, in this case there's
[25:06] Speaker 1: been a couple of different people that have come forward
[25:09] Speaker 1: to give the updates on the search for Samantha, that's
[25:14] Speaker 1: very obviously scripted, right?
[25:16] Speaker 4: Yeah, massively.
[25:17] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[25:18] Speaker 4: Massively because you don't want to say something that may
[25:20] Speaker 4: impact on your investigation. No one wants that. And not
[25:25] Speaker 4: even the media republic would expect them just to give
[25:27] Speaker 4: over everything that's going to ultimately impact whether someone gets
[25:31] Speaker 4: convicted for possibly doing something. No one wants that. So
[25:36] Speaker 4: they are carefully scripted. A person giving information to the
[25:41] Speaker 4: media probably has spent a fair bit of time consulting
[25:46] Speaker 4: with the investigators and making sure they don't say something
[25:51] Speaker 4: that's going to impact the investigation. And police often have
[25:55] Speaker 4: what they call hold back information that's done for a
[25:58] Speaker 4: purpose because they hold it back because the only person
[26:02] Speaker 4: that knows that is the person who was involved. That's
[26:05] Speaker 4: the reason why they don't want to go and tell
[26:07] Speaker 4: everybody everything because then everybody knows everything, including the suspects.
[26:13] Speaker 4: So hold back is a methodology that police use because
[26:17] Speaker 4: they Only the person who was involved could know that
[26:20] Speaker 4: piece of holdback information. So it's a really important process.
[26:23] Speaker 1: In the next episode, we speak to the bush tracker
[26:26] Speaker 1: who joined in the search for Sam.
[26:29] Speaker 8: And then I started to look at areas where she
[26:31] Speaker 8: could have potentially been lost. I looked all along the
[26:34] Speaker 8: really thick scrub as much as I could. We did
[26:38] Speaker 8: find something that if that area had been thoroughly searched,
[26:42] Speaker 8: that should have been spotted.
[26:45] Speaker 1: If you know anything about the disappearance of Samantha Murphy,
[26:49] Speaker 1: contact Crimestoppers on 1800 333 000. Thanks for listening to
[26:58] Speaker 1: this episode and supporting this story. Independent storytelling that shapes
[27:03] Speaker 1: the world is what Podshape really cares about. Right now,
[27:06] Speaker 1: there's thousands of people listening to this show and our
[27:08] Speaker 1: other true crimes, and they're completely engaged. More than 10
[27:11] Speaker 1: million Australians listen to podcasts each week. If you've ever
[27:15] Speaker 1: thought about advertising your business in a podcast, there's a
[27:18] Speaker 1: link to reach out in the show notes or head
[27:21] Speaker 1: to Podshape.com to book a free call.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.