Former detective shares new theory on Samantha Murphy's murder
After several weeks of no leads, police were happy to share their breakthrough on the case of Samantha Murphy's murder after they located her mobile phone.
During a "targeted search", officers found Ms Murphy's iPhone on the bank of a dam, in what is one of the most significant developments in the case as police continue to search for Ms Murphy’s missing body.
However, retired detective Charlie Bezzina has urged police and members of the public that just because the phone has been located, it could still be some time until Ms Murphy's body is found.
Bezzina suggested that the phone had been planted in the dam and then concealed Ms Murphy’s body elsewhere in a bid to mislead police.
Mr Bezzina, a veteran cop with decades of experience, said he found it perplexing that police could locate the submerged phone without prior intelligence.
He speculated that authorities might have had some degree of tracking information while the phone was still active, hinting that the police may know more than they’re disclosing.
Mr Bezzina went on to suspect that someone may have been in possession of Ms Murphy's phone for some time before discarding it.
“With phones it’s amazing. There’s a lot the carrier, or carriers, don’t tell us about the capabilities of a phone,” Mr Bezzina said via Herald Sun.
“When you’ve got a phone that’s off, people ask the question, ‘is it still transmitting’, and ‘if the battery goes flat does it still transmit?’ Some do and some don’t.”
Mr Bezzina said it’s not uncommon for offenders to keep items for a while before discarding them, particularly mobile phones.
“We don’t know when that phone was dumped in there, it is not unusual for offenders to keep items for a while, especially mobile phones … for all we know that might have been discarded just weeks ago,” he said.
“Often offenders go back and do things, keep the phone somewhere or with them, and then dump it later on."
“And that’s where they’ll get any evidence, if it’s been pinging … people can think ‘I’ll drive 10 or 15 kilometres away and I’ll dump the phone there to really put them off the scent, if the phone is in some way traceable’ … so not unusual at all for it to be dumped in a separate location (to the body).”
Ms Murphy was last seen on February 4th, and although 22-year-old Patrick Orren Stephenson has been charged with her murder, her body has yet to be found.
Image credits: Nine News