{"id":109812,"date":"2025-02-02T15:15:29","date_gmt":"2025-02-02T04:15:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/?p=109812"},"modified":"2025-02-02T15:19:26","modified_gmt":"2025-02-02T04:19:26","slug":"police-pledge-to-continue-year-long-search-for-remains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/police-pledge-to-continue-year-long-search-for-remains\/","title":{"rendered":"Police pledge to continue year-long search for remains"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost a year after Ballarat woman Samantha Murphy vanished, police have pledged to find her.<\/p>\n

The 51-year-old was last seen alive when she went for a run on the morning of February 4.<\/p>\n

Ms Murphy’s disappearance gripped Victoria and the nation and led to an outpouring of grief in the Ballarat community, with an influx of volunteers joining multiple early efforts to find her.<\/p>\n

In March, police charged 23-year-old tradesman Patrick Orren Stephenson with Ms Murphy’s murder, but the search for her body continues.<\/p>\n

Over the past 12 months, extensive searches for her body have taken place with particular focus on the Enfield State Park, Canadian Forest and Buninyong Bushland Reserve.<\/p>\n

The most recent effort focused on the Enfield State Forest at Grenville in September 2024.<\/p>\n

The location is approximately a 15-minute drive from Buninyong, where Ms Murphy’s phone was found in May buried in mud on the edge of an agricultural dam.<\/p>\n

Detective Inspector Dave Dunstan said police had worked tirelessly to find the mother of three.<\/p>\n

“While nothing can erase their grief and loss, being able to return Samantha to her family has always been incredibly important to us,” Det Insp Dunstan said on Sunday.<\/p>\n

“I want to reaffirm to the community that the Missing Persons Squad remains committed to doing everything we can to locate Samantha \u2013 while a year has passed, we still believe we can locate her.<\/p>\n

“This year we will continue to conduct searches in the Ballarat area, including searches in areas highlighted by intelligence derived from a number of sources.”<\/p>\n

Det Insp Dunstan called on locals to be aware of their surroundings and contact police immediately if they believe they may have come across Ms Murphy’s remains.<\/p>\n

“There is nothing we want more than to return Samantha to her family and we remain committed to doing this,” he said.<\/p>\n

Premier Jacinta Allan said the anniversary was a tough moment for Ms Murphy’s family, Ballarat and women more broadly.<\/p>\n

“We should hold them in our hearts today,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Too many women continue to lose their lives at the hands of either a known former or current partner or a complete stranger.<\/p>\n

“This violence against women has to stop.”<\/p>\n

As the search for Ms Murphy’s body intensified in February 2024, Sebastopol mother Rebecca Young was killed at the hands of her partner just five kilometres away in an apparent murder-suicide.<\/p>\n

Two months later the body of 23-year-old Hannah McGuire was found in a burnt-out car in Scarsdale, about 23km south of Ballarat.<\/p>\n

Her ex-boyfriend was charged with murder and has since pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n

Three women have died in Australia due to violence in 2025, according to feminist group Destroy the Joint’s online project\u00a0Counting Dead Women Australia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The group’s data shows 78 women were killed in 2024 due to gender-based violence, up from 64 in 2023, 56 in 2022, 44 in 2021 and 62 in 2020.<\/p>\n

Stephenson pleaded not guilty to murder in November as he elected to fast-track his criminal trial.<\/p>\n

He is the son of Orren Stephenson, who played 15 AFL games for Geelong and Richmond between 2012 and 2014.<\/p>\n

1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)<\/p>\n

Lifeline 13 11 14<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

By\u00a0Melissa Meehan<\/b>\u00a0in Melbourne<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Almost a year after Ballarat woman Samantha Murphy vanished, police have pledged to find her. The 51-year-old was last seen alive when she went for a run on the morning of February 4. Ms Murphy’s disappearance gripped Victoria and the nation and led to an outpouring of grief in the Ballarat community, with an influx […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":170,"featured_media":109813,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-109812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPolice pledge to continue year-long search for remains - Ballarat Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Police remain committed to finding Samantha Murphy's remains nearly a year after her disappearance in Ballarat, continuing searches in key areas.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/police-pledge-to-continue-year-long-search-for-remains\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Police pledge to continue year-long search for remains - 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