The heartbroken husband of missing Ballarat mum Samantha Murphy has offered a sad public update on his life almost seven months after her suspected murder.
The mother-of-three vanished without a trace on the morning of February 4 after leaving her home on Eureka Street in Ballarat East, Victoria.
Her family reported her missing later that day after she failed to show up to a family brunch.
Ms Murphy’s husband Mick has now taken to social media to confirm his heartbreaking acceptance that his beloved wife is never coming home.
Mr Murphy’s Facebook profile now lists his relationship status as ‘widowed’.
Revelations of the heartbreaking change come just short of seven months since Ms Murphy went on her last fateful run.
Mr Murphy had frequently appeared on the social media platform on his wife’s own Facebook page.
The panel shop owner is also known to use the site to keep track of vintage car sales and to sell his own collection of classic cars.
Samantha Murphy vanished in February and is now presumed dead
Mick Murphy changed his relationship status to widowed
Ms Murphy had enjoyed a holiday to Bali in 2017 with her husband and three children in which her husband featured prominently on her own Facebook page.
The couple had been inseparable in life, with Mr Murphy and his daughter facing the media just days after his wife’s disappearance in the hope she would return home alive.
The sad Facebook status update indicates the Murphy clan has accepted Ms Murphy’s fate despite her body never being found.
On May 29, police found what appeared to be Ms Murphy’s phone, raising hopes they might soon be close to finding her remains.
The phone was retrieved on the muddy banks of a dam positioned along the Buninyong-Mount Mercer Road in the same region the phone last connected to a mobile phone tower before it went dark.
An image of the device pulled from the scene showed what appeared to be an Apple iPhone contained in a wallet stuffed with identification cards.
The dam sits about 15km from Ballarat East where Ms Murphy took off on her final run early that summer Sunday morning.
Samantha Murphy’s husband Mick Murphy during a rally against men’s violence
Samantha and Mick Murphy in happier times
Aerial footage from the scene showed police officers hugging, backslapping and shaking hands as they examined the phone.
Mr Murphy later confirmed he instantly recognised his wife’s phone upon seeing the dramatic television footage.
His wife had long used such a wallet to protect her phone and hold her various credit and identity cards.
It had been pictured in a Facebook photo alongside Mr Murphy in a happy snap from their final Bali trip.
The contents of that phone and what, if any, help it has provided investigators in finding Ms Murphy’s body remains unclear.
Forensic tests remain ongoing on the phone as police work to obtain data from it in a bid to receive further clues.
Reports indicate the phone was found to be in a near-perfect working condition.
Police remain tight-lipped over how the investigation is progressing, advising only that the search for Ms Murphy’s body continued.
Patrick Orren Stephenson, 22, is accused of murdering Ms Murphy while she was out on a Sunday jog.
The final haunting image of Samantha Murphy alive on the day of her last jog
Police celebrate after finding what is believed to be Ms Murphy’s phone in a dam
Patrick Orren Stephenson, 22, is accused of murdering Ms Murphy while she was out on a Sunday jog.
It is understood Stephenson, who was arrested five weeks after Ms Murphy was allegedly murdered, has not told police where her body is located.
He is due to appear for a preliminary hearing at the Ballarat Magistrates’ Court in August.
Stephenson is the son of former AFL Richmond and Geelong AFL player, Orren Stephenson and is not known to the Murphy family.
