Kaitlyn Offer and Cassandra Morgan, AAP
Police have uncovered items of interest during a search in the investigation of missing mother Samantha Murphy.
Detectives from the Victoria Police Missing Persons Squad and a range of specialist police resources mounted the search on the morning of Wednesday, May 29.
Its location – initially kept secret – was later revealed to be south of Buninyong, with officers finding what the ABC reported was a phone.
“Detectives from the Missing Persons Squad have located some items of interest in Buninyong this morning during their search for Samantha Murphy,” a Victoria Police spokeswoman said on Wednesday afternoon.
“The area has been cordoned off and those items will now be forensically tested.
“At this stage we are not providing further information about the items until that testing has been completed.”
The search was described as targeted and also involved the Australian Federal Police.
The investigation is ongoing, the police spokeswoman said.
“Further information will be provided once we are in a position to do so,” she said.
“Police ask that members of the public do not attend the search at this time.”
Ms Murphy, 51, was last seen leaving her home on Eureka Street to go for a run in Canadian State Forest on the morning of 4 February.
Her body has not been found.
Police in March charged 22-year-old tradesman Patrick Orren Stephenson with the murder of Ms Murphy at Mount Clear on the day she went missing.
He will return to court in August.
Stephenson is the son of Orren Stephenson, who played 15 AFL games for Geelong and Richmond between 2012 and 2014.
Police have launched multiple searches in bushland since February as part of the investigation.
Ms Murphy’s family has been advised of the latest search.
