On a special episode of Under Investigation, host Liz Hayes discussed the various scenarios that Victoria Police have been working on since the disappearance of mother-of-four Laura, who was last seen jogging on February 4.
The team included prominent experts such as Dr. Peter Ashkar, a criminal psychologist, Damian Marrett, a former detective, and Valentine Smith, a specialist in missing persons.
During the program, Sissy Austin, a local runner, shared her experience with a violent attack that happened in the same area a year prior.
She told Hayes that it’s possible that Laura’s disappearance is linked to men’s violence.
Hayes, together with Smith and Marrett, traveled to Ballarat, the location of the missing person case, to investigate.
They checked the areas where Samantha might have been ambushed.
Through the help of Raymond Shaw, a renowned mine shaft explorer, Hayes and Smith were able to visit the numerous abandoned mines in the area. One of the possible scenarios that they explored is that Samantha fell into one of these mines, which are usually around a hundred meters deep.
According to Shaw, there could be up to 5,000 abandoned gold mines beneath the town. It was around seven in the morning on February 4 when Samantha Murphy, who was carrying out a 15 kilometer jog, went missing.
She was training for a fun run and had planned to meet her friends and family at 11 am. However, she never arrived. She is known for her passion for supporting local arts and theatre groups and is regarded as a respected individual in the community. Her husband Mick, who owns a smash repair business, is also a well-known figure in Ballarat.
The police have also considered the possibility that Samantha staged her own disappearance. This would be unlikely since she was close to her daughter Jess. In an emotional plea, Jess stated that she knows her mother is somewhere. She asked the public to continue searching for her.
The family also made an emotional plea to Samantha, asking her to come home. However, according to Dr. Peter Ashkar, who was part of the team that investigated the case, there is nothing indicating that she intentionally disappeared.
The scenarios presented by the experts at UI revolved around the abandoned mine shafts. According to Austin, an experienced runner, an accidental fall into a mine shaft would not have happened to Samantha. She noted that the locals would have known how to navigate through the mines without falling.
The experts at UI believed that if Samantha had been murdered, her body would have been thrown into a mine shaft. Marrett noted that the area could serve as a hiding place for a crime or even a corpse. Dr. Ashkar, who specializes in profiling criminals, said that the lack of evidence regarding Samantha’s possible whereabouts could be a sign that she was attacked by a psychiatric predator.