Sinister twist as police bring in specialists and ground search for missing mum is mysteriously scaled back less than a week after she vanished without a trace

Police hunting missing mum Samantha Murphy have sent in specialist rescue teams to investigate abandoned local mineshafts as the main search winds down.

The mother-of-three vanished after going out for a morning jog around 7am last Sunday near her home in Ballarat in country Victoria.

CCTV footage captured her leaving the house in her running gear and she was believed to be heading towards the nearby Woowookarung Regional Park.

Her husband Mick Murphy, 53, raised the alarm when she never returned in time for a pre-planned 11am family brunch date.

A huge hunt for the beloved mum has been mounted by police, Country Fire Association and State Emergency Service volunteers and hundreds of locals.

But not a single trace of her has been found anywhere. 

Now police have revealed specialist rescue teams and divers have been brought in to look for the 51-year-old in the abandoned mineshafts that litter the Goldfields area.

It’s feared she may have strayed from the forest trails where she normally runs and fallen down one of the treacherous shafts which are often obscured by bush.

But locals have also said the mineshafts could be used to hide her body if she’s fallen victim to foul play.

Police are also checking the countless local dams on surrounding farmland to see if there is any trace of her there.

‘There’s a lot of unused mines in the area,’ admitted Crime Command Detective Acting Superintendent Mark Hatt.

‘At the moment we’ve got police search and rescue squad involved in the operation [for that]. They’ve been involved in the search since day one.

”It’s a challenging area and terrain within the area of search operation…it’s also thick and rugged bush terrain.’

Detectives from Victoria Police’s Missing Persons Squad have now taken control of the search as the manhunt on the ground is scaled back.

They have also called in an army of telecoms technology experts to try to piece together Ms Murphy’s movements from the phone data available to them.

Supt Hatt confirmed Ms Murphy was wearing an Apple Watch and carrying her mobile phone with her when she disappeared.

But he was hesitant to share any information on what the phone data had revealed so far. 

‘We don’t comment on that at this stage,’ he said. ‘We’re still working through our expert telecommunications technicians to help us with that.’

It’s understood a local mobile phone tower registered a ping from Ms Murphy’s phone on Sunday after she disappeared but police refused to say more about the timing or location of the phone.

‘We can’t answer that at this stage,’ said Supt Hatt. ‘Obviously that is going forward to our telecommunications technicians.’

Locals have speculated contact with her phone may have cut off if she fell, or was thrown, down a deep mineshaft. 

Maps of the Goldfields show dozens of abandoned alluvial and reef gold mineshafts, but locals say hundreds – or even thousands – more unlisted mines dot the bushland, with some lying unused and overgrown for generations.

‘Some go down for miles and the sides are unstable,’ said one local prospector. 

‘Heaps are capped off but I’ve seen them fall in on themselves as rain and the years take their toll.’

Former homicide detective Charlie Bezzina said the mine shafts should be a priority for police as concern grows for Ms Murphy while she continues to be lost.

‘For all we know she may be injured in a mine shaft,’ he told Nine’s Today show on Saturday.

‘That’s an avenue of inquiry that needs to be looked at and eliminated.’

He also stressed the need to quickly follow up any information that’s been discovered through GPS tracking on Ms Murphy’s phone and watch.

‘(It’s) absolutely crucial from the very outset because obviously, battery life is an issue,’ he said.

‘They would be relying very, very heavily on the GPS coordinate through her smartwatch, and/or Apple Watch and also the phone.

‘They are the two crucial elements that they’ll be looking at.’

On Thursday, her husband broke his silence to beg for anyone with information to come forward.

‘People just don’t vanish into thin air,’ he added. ‘Someone’s got to know something.’