Samantha Murphy: Missing mum’s husband Michael ‘Mick’ Murphy sends heartbreaking message with one simple word
It’s one simple word but the message the husband of missing Ballarat mother Samantha Murphy has sent in a social media update is simply heartbreaking.
“Widowed”.
When Michael Murphy took to Facebook to update his marital status he also acknowledged a devastating reality.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.His wife and the mother of his three children is not coming home.
Mrs Murphy, 53, left their Eureka Street property in Ballarat to go for a run in the Canadian State Forest on February 4. She has not been seen since.
Police allege Patrick Orren Stephenson — the son of a former AFL player — murdered Mrs Murphy at nearby Mount Clear on the day she went missing.
Mr Murphy has recently been openly confirming his wife would not be found alive, The Herald Sun reports.
For months he would leave home every day to search for her, although he acknowledged in April “nothing was going to bring her back”.
When the family had to face mark Mrs Murphy’s birthday without her, Mr Murphy said: “It’s the first things, the first birthday without Sam … any anniversaries without Sam.”
“That’s a hard thing but we’ve gotta face reality and realise she’s just not coming back.”
The revelation that Mr Murphy is now acknowledging he is a “widower” comes after numerous police searches, scouring nearby bush and farmland.
In May, detectives, with the aid of a sniffer dog, had a breakthrough when they recovered Mrs Murphy’s mobile phone while scouring the banks of a dam on a property in Buninyong, near where she went missing.
7NEWS reported that the phone was in working order, meaning the data from the device will form a major part of the search for her body and longing investigation into her death.
Mr Murphy confirmed that her credit cards and licence were also recovered in mud at the dam.
Further targeted searches were conducted around Ballarat last month.
Mr Orren, a 22-year-old tradie, was arrested at the beginning of March and charged with murder and is due to return to court in August.
He has reportedly hired top criminal defence lawyer Paul Galbally, who represented the late Cardinal George Pell, to defend him.
