Major update on Sam Murphy’s phone
A mobile phone belonging to missing woman Samantha Murphy is undamaged and in near-perfect working condition, after police made the astonishing discovery in a dam near Ballarat.
Forensic testing on the phone is ongoing after police located the item during a renewed search in the Ballarat area last week.
7 News reports the phone is in near-perfect condition and undamaged - which could provide vital clues on the final movements of Ms Murphy.
It follows Samantha Murphy’s husband Mick revealing he knew it was his wife’s phone as soon as police called to tell him a phone was found.
There were subdued celebrations from police this week as a muddy phone in a wallet was pulled from a dam outside Ballarat.
Ms Murphy has been missing since she went for a run on February 4, from their home in Ballarat.
Police are still working to retrieve data from the phone.
“The physical properties of the phone will obviously be damaged but what’s behind it, those ones and zeros of data, will be retrievable,” cybersecurity expert Nigel Phair said.
“This is the game changer for the investigation.”
Ms Murphy was last seen on February 4.
Her body has not been recovered.
Footage captured by the ABC shows police hugging, backslapping and shaking hands after finding the phone at the edge of the dam on Wednesday.
The device was found about 19 kilometres south of the Murphy family home.
Ms Murphy was last seen leaving her Eureka St house in Ballarat about 7am to go for a 14km run through the nearby Woowookarung Regional Park.
Police believed she had reached the Mount Clear area, adjacent to the park, about an hour after leaving home, but had not been seen or heard from since departing.
Subsequent searches by police and volunteers have failed to locate any trace of the missing mum.
In February, a huge group of volunteers combed through bushland after gathering at Ballarat’s Eureka Stockade Memorial Park – some bringing metal detectors and even a sniffer dog.
Later that month, police launched a targeted search of Buninyong Bushland Reserve involving a range of specialist units including mounted officers, dog squad and motorcyclists.
The search area was highlighted in “intelligence derived from a number of sources,” a police spokesperson said at the time.
It comes as solicitor Paul Galbally from Melbourne-based law firm Galbally O’Bryan has recently been hired by Patrick Orren Stephenson, the young man charged in March with the murder of the missing mother of three.
Mr Galbally has represented clients in some of the highest profile and most complex criminal trials including that of the late Catholic cardinal George Pell.
Mr Stephenson, 22, was charged with her murder on March 8. He is yet to enter a plea.
He is scheduled for a committal mention in the Ballarat Magistrates’ Court in August.
