Police will not return to the area where they are believed to have found missing mother Samantha Murphy’s phone.
On Wednesday, Victoria Police search crews celebrated after finding a mobile phone next to a dam on farmland near where the mother-of-three’s mobile phone was last connected to a mobile tower in the Buninyong region.
The dam is about 15km from Ballarat East, where Ms Murphy set off for her final run on February 4.
A police officer answers a phone believed to be that of missing mother Samantha Murphy
The phone turned out to contain an ID in a wallet
A police spokesperson confirmed it The Missing Persons Squad had said it would not send search parties back to the region on Thursday.
“There is no update on the forensic assessment of the items,” the spokesperson said.
The decision to halt the search will be another blow to the Murphy family, who have not yet discussed the dramatic discovery of the cell phone.
While police are still tight-lipped on confirming ownership of the recovered phone, police crews on the scene expressed their joy at the find as a television helicopter captured the moment from above.
Aerial footage from the scene showed officers finding the mud-splattered mobile phone in a wallet at the water’s edge, prompting jubilant celebrations among detectives standing nearby.
Video captured by the helicopter showed police hugging, back-slapping and shaking hands as they examined the phone, which was in a wallet that appeared to still contain ID cards.
Samantha and Mick Murphy in happier times
Police divers searched the dam in brutally cold conditions
The dam is located next to an important road in the region
It is understood the phone had been located by a police tech sniffer dog.
A team of police divers were then sent into the water to search the small dam for further possible evidence.
Police were also seen using a metal detector to scan the water’s edge while an excavator was brought in to clear a path through dense bush for investigators.
TThe property owner, who asked to remain anonymous, said police contacted him about three weeks ago asking for permission to access his land.
The man said officers returned Wednesday and told him they were going to conduct a line search along the road.
“A dog found something on the bank and they came to me and asked me and my wife to make a statement,” he said.
It is believed that a police dog (pictured) made the discovery at the dam
An excavator was used on Wednesday to clear blackberry bushes next to the dam
Patrick Orren Stephenson is charged with the murder of Samantha Murphy
The man said police were interested in the levels of his dam.
‘I didn’t see anything suspicious there. We don’t have cameras. But yeah, I think one of those tech dogs found it,” he said.
The man said detectives came to talk to him about a month after Ms. Murphy’s disappearance, but only returned in recent weeks.
“They just asked me if I had seen anything suspicious,” he said.
Police allege Ms Murphy was murdered the day she went missing in the Canadian State Forest, but no trace of her has been found since her disappearance.
In early March, Ballarat man Patrick Orren Stephenson, 22, was charged with murder.
Police have launched several searches in the bushland since February as part of their investigation.
Last month, police called in specialist cadaver dogs from New South Wales to search multiple locations in dense Victorian bush, without success.
Teams of officers concentrated their search at Enfield State Park, 30 kilometers south of Ballarat, but another search team was also working 25 kilometers away in dense bush in the Durham Lead Nature Conservation Reserve.
The Durham Reserve is just a short distance from the dam where police recovered the phone on Wednesday.
Stephenson is due back in court on August 8 on driving and murder charges.
