It was not just in the streets of the regional Australian city of Ballarat where the unanswered question of what had happened to Samantha Murphy weighed heavy.
For more than a month, the case of the missing runner – a beloved mother of three who never returned home – rippled through political and legal circles, and around dinner tables across the nation.
The historic gold-mining town, about a 90km drive north-west of Melbourne, became engulfed in a missing person’s case that captivated the country and became drenched in speculation and rumour.
On Thursday, the mood changed.
Early that afternoon, police announced they had charged a 22-year-old man, Patrick Stephenson, with her murder. The son of a former Australian rules footballer lived about 20km from Murphy but was not known to her family, police allege.
The breakthrough came nearly five weeks since Murphy left for an early-morning 14km run in the dense bushland around her home.
In the 32 days since she was last captured on CCTV in her driveway, the ground search has spanned hundreds of hectares and included police, locals and emergency services.
Volunteers banded together online to connect those eager to help search for her, and coordinated a large-scale search almost two weeks ago that attracted people from around the country. They combed through the dense bushland in search of any clues that could help find the missing woman.
Ballarat woman Tori Baxter, an organiser of the volunteer-led searches, says the community is “devastated” by the police allegations.
“No one ever wants to hear something so horrific has happened to anyone, let alone someone that we’ve been actively trying to find to help get answers for Samantha’s family,” she says.
“There’s a lot of grief in the community at the moment.”
‘Unanswered questions’
The Ballarat mayor, Des Hudson, describes this week as providing some sort of “devastating closure” to a case that “resonated around Australia”.
“There are still lots of unanswered questions that are in the hearts and minds of community members,” he says.
“It’s important also that we don’t let Sam’s memory go.”
Police allege Murphy was murdered on the day she disappeared, in the Mount Clear area – where mobile phone data allegedly led police to return to the area previously searched.
But her body has not been found.
Hudson says it is important for women to know “they should be able to go out … and do those things that they would expect to be able to do”.
He offered an explanation to the ABC as to why this case seemed to attract so much emotion and intrigue. “I think the fact that Sam was a mum, had young kids, or young teenagers, and just disappeared without any trace, it really sparked the emotion of our community and communities from everywhere.”
While social media groups were used to coordinate ground searches for Murphy, they quickly became littered with rumours, unfounded speculation and theories from overseas-based psychics.
The speculation became more wild when, two weeks ago, police confirmed they were doubtful Murphy was alive and suspected one or more parties were involved in her disappearance.
During that press conference, when a renewed ground search was announced, reporters peppered acting Det Supt Mark Hatt, who fended off wide-ranging questions.
By Monday, police said they were trying to sort through more than 770 individual tips and other pieces of information as part of the investigation.
‘Trying to be brave for everybody’
There appeared palpable relief from Murphy’s husband, Michael, on Thursday. He described news of an arrest as feeling “like someone’s just let the pressure valve off”.
His voice shaking, he told reporters: “God, the adrenaline with everything that’s been going on, it’s just trying to be brave for everybody.”
“It’s something that you wouldn’t want anyone to experience,” he said.
The state’s police commissioner, Shane Patton, said on Thursday the Murphy family had been under “intense scrutiny” from the outset, and stressed they had “no involvement whatsoever in this matter”.
Patton thanked the Ballarat and wider community for assisting the investigation, saying the case has had a “profound impact” on locals.
“Some cases, some disappearances … bring out outpourings of grief. We’ve seen that here,” he said.
At a vigil on Friday night, the Ballarat community paid tribute to Murphy, who some locals knew only through her smile and the “hellos” she would offer on her regular walks through the bushland on the edge of the town.
Weeks after they first came together to form search parties, the Ballarat community was united to offer condolences to Murphy’s loved ones, who still wait for her to be brought home.
As Hudson told the ABC on Friday: “For Sam’s family and close friends, they can never move on, there will always be a hole in their lives.”
