Samantha Murphy: Shock twist as police make sudden switch in the hunt for missing mum – and corpse-sniffer dogs are brought in for the first time

EXCLUSIVE 

Police have brought in specialist cadaver dogs from New South Wales to scour the Victorian bush at multiple locations in the hunt for missing mother Samantha Murphy. 

Search crews renewed the hunt for the mum-of-three’s remains on Thursday at various locations in dense scrub spanning a vast stretch of countryside. 

Teams of officers focused their search within Enfield State Park, 30km south of Ballarat – but another search team was also working 25km away in thick scrub in the Durham Lead Nature Conservation Reserve.

The nature reserve is just south of Buninyong where Ms Murphy’s phone was last detected by mobile phone towers at 5pm on the day she vanished.

A helicopter was seen flying overhead the dense woodland just before 2pm on Thursday, with search crews making their way deeper into the thick scrub. 

Ms Murphy, 51, was last seen leaving her home on Eureka Street, Ballarat East, to go for a run in the Canadian State Forest on the morning of February 4.

The latest search is about 20km south of the Murphy family home and was not made public when the police first announced the renewed search on Thursday morning.

A statement said detectives would be searching Enfield State Park 30km away, but police later admitted several search sites were underway simultaneously.

Thursday was the first time search crews have used the highly-trained cadaver dogs, brought in from NSW Police, since the investigation was launched.

They are specially trained to be able to sniff out humans remains and corpses, even under extreme conditions.

Police on trail bikes have also been used to help cover the wide area of the increasingly desperate hunt for Ms Murphy’s remains, more than eight weeks after she vanished.

Officers had previously made unsuccessful search efforts at Buninyong Bushland Reserve in March.

Crews scouring the area include those that specialise in missing persons, search and rescue, the public order response team and the mounted branch.

The terrain has been described as treacherous, with search crews having to not only navigate dense bush, but hidden mine shafts. 

Unlike a search carried out last month, Ms Murphy’s family were informed of Thursday’s search in advance. 

Daily Mail Australia had last month spotted Ms Murphy’s husband searching the bush for his missing wife alone in an area where police had earlier been searching. 

It remains unclear what new information has triggered the fresh search locations for police on Thursday. 

In March, detectives charged 22-year-old tradesman Patrick Orren Stephenson with Ms Murphy’s  murder. 

They allege he killed her at Mount Clear on the day she went missing. 

Stephenson is the son of Orren Stephenson, who played 15 AFL games for Geelong and Richmond between 2012 and 2014.

Detective Acting Superintendent Mark Hatt described Thursday’s effort as an ‘extensive’ large scale search that built on targeted searches in other areas.

‘I want to assure those in the Ballarat community that police remain focused on doing everything we can to return Samantha to her family,’ he said.

The regional western Victorian city has been rocked by a series of tragedies this year, including Ms Murphy’s disappearance, a mine collapse that claimed the life of miner Kurt Hourigan, the death of mother-of-five Rebecca Young and bushfires in surrounding areas.

On April 5, 23-year-old Hannah McGuire was also found dead in a burnt out car at nearby Scarsdale.

Her ex-boyfriend Lachlan Young has been charged with her murder. 

Ms McGuire had only bought a house with Young a year earlier before she was allegedly murdered.  

Ms McGuire’s death has left Ballarat locals fuming, with plans to stage a rally in the centre of the city on Friday evening as an act of solidarity to end violence against women.

A description of the event on social media said women do not feel safe in Ballarat.