A CCTV image of her moments before she left home for an early morning run and a ping on a mobile phone tower 11km south of Ballarat – these are among the few clues to Samantha Murphy’s disappearance.
Yet, from these two pieces of evidence, psychics, armchair detectives and online sleuths have created and fuelled theories about how the Ballarat woman vanished, as the investigation enters its second week.
Glimmers of hope have been dashed. Items found near Murphy’s house – which sparked frenzied media reporting – were quickly ruled irrelevant to the search. CCTV footage of a person running down a street, originally thought to be the missing mother, was later dismissed after the filmed jogger came forward.
The official police-led search for Murphy was scaled back over the weekend, as Sunday marked a week since the 51-year-old disappeared. But police said the investigation was ongoing.
Dedicated volunteers – including locals and people from other parts of the state, albeit in smaller numbers – continued to comb through Ballarat’s dense bushland over the weekend.
A Facebook group set up by a friend of Murphy’s amassed about 20,000 members before it was closed on Monday. It had been intended to help coordinate searches by members of the public, but it quickly became littered with unfounded claims about Murphy’s disappearance – creating an evolving challenge for moderators of the group seeking to shut down conspiracy theories.
One member pondered if Murphy had indeed left her house, as police had only released a still image from the CCTV.
Some members questioned the accuracy of the phone pings, while others suggested foul play – prompting the group’s administrator, Cin Hobbs, to urge people to stop speculating about her friend’s disappearance.
The Victorian police chief commissioner, Shane Patton, also urged the public not to speculate about her disappearance. It came as the police also called for the public to report information to Crime Stoppers – and not to local police stations, saying they were “overwhelmed” with phone calls.
Last week, on the page she administered, Hobbs, resorted to asking for “no more psychic medium posts”.
Many members of the Facebook group had posted questions seeking more information to help them search, including asking for details about the brand of phone Murphy owned.
Reddit forums have also become an online meeting place for armchair detectives, while on YouTube a self-described psychic uploaded a video of her conducting a “reading” about Murphy’s disappearance.
The mayor of Ballarat, Des Hundson, said speculation was “not helpful.’”
“Everyone potentially thinks they have a scenario and a theory on what might have happened,” he said.
“My suggestion would be to please leave that for the professional investigators that will be working behind the scenes. It’s not always visible, but they’ll be looking at a whole range of different range of inquiries to hopefully draw some leads into what has happened to Samantha.”
But he urged people to pass on information to investigators.
Many residents have also raised the bashing of a former Greens Senate candidate, Sissy Austin, who was attacked last February, about 20km from where Murphy had planned to run. At the time, Austin said an unknown male knocked her unconscious with a rock tied to a stick while she was running along a motorcycle track in the Lal Lal state forest.
There were also comments about a dishevelled man seen near the Woowookarung regional park - where Murphy had planned to run - in the days before her disappearance.
On Monday, Hobbs announced the group would shut down, saying it had “served its purpose.”
“We have been given the go ahead to delete,” she said before the group was archived.
“Praying for a miracle”.
On Friday, police announced that the missing persons squad would take over as lead investigators, but stressed that Murphy’s disappearance was not being treated as suspicious.
Murphy’s family reported her missing after she failed to turn up to a Sunday brunch.
She had told friends she was planning a 14-kilometre run through the nearby Woowookarung regional park.
A CCTV camera in the family’s driveway captured her outside her Ballarat East home at 7am on 4 February, wearing a purple running singlet and black leggings.
A still image of the footage is now the last known image of Murphy. It has been shared countless times since she disappeared.
