Samantha Murphy’s phone is undamaged and working perfectly after being found in a dam near Ballarat.
Victoria Police search teams incredibly discovered Ms Murphy’s phone in the water at Buninyong, about 19km from her Ballarat home, where she was last seen four months ago on February 4.
The device, protected by a teal-covered case, was found by a specialist sniffer dog, who was cuddled shortly after the groundbreaking discovery.
It was revealed on Monday that the phone is said to be in near-perfect condition.
It is understood detectives hope the phone will provide valuable information about Ms Murphy’s final movements and lead to the discovery of her body.
A phone belonging to allegedly murdered mother Samantha Murphy (pictured) is
His muddy phone was found on the edge of a dam on Wednesday
Cybersecurity expert Nigel Phair said the results of the forensic tests could lead to a major breakthrough.
“The physical properties of the phone will obviously be damaged, but what’s behind it, those ones and zeroes of data, will be recoverable,” he said.
“This is a game changer for the investigation.”
The device was found near where it last made contact with a nearby tower in the Buninyong area before going silent.
The phone is believed to have been submerged in the dam since February 4 – the same day police say Patrick Orren Stephenson, 22, murdered Ms Murphy while she was out for her Sunday jog.
Daily Mail Australia learned this week that detectives from the missing persons unit became suspicious of the dam shortly after taking over the investigation, interviewing its owner a few weeks later.
The police did not return until early May when they asked the owner again if he would allow police to enter his property.
Three weeks passed before searches on Wednesday revealed the phone.
The dam was at its lowest level since the summer heat of December.
The owner of the dam, who wished to remain anonymous, suggested that police had no specific information that the phone had been dumped there.
“They started all the way at the other end of the road and worked their way up,” he told Daily Mail Australia.
“As far as I know, one of the sniffer dogs found it. A tech dog.
The dam’s location is right next to the Durham Lead Nature Conservation Reserve, which search teams visited on April 12.
At the time, the police also had concentrated their search in Enfield State Park, 30 km south of Ballarat and about 5 km from the Durham Reserve.
Durham Nature Reserve is just south of Buninyong, where Ms Murphy’s phone was last detected by mobile phone towers at 5pm on the day she disappeared.
Ms Murphy was last seen leaving her home on Eureka St in Ballarat about 7am to run 14km through nearby Woowookarung Regional Park.
Police believed she reached the Mount Clear area, adjacent to the park, about an hour after leaving her home, but had not been seen or heard from since leaving.
Subsequent searches by police and volunteers failed to locate any trace of the missing mother.
The dam is next to a main road out of the area and close to the Durham Lead Nature Conservation Reserve.
A police technical dog (photo) is said to have made the discovery at the dam.
An excavator was used on Wednesday to clear the mulberry trees next to the dam.
In February, a huge group of volunteers trekked through the bush after gathering at Ballarat’s Eureka Stockade Memorial Park – some bringing metal detectors and even a sniffer dog.
Later that month, police launched a targeted search of the Buninyong Bushland Reserve involving a range of specialist units, including mounted officers, dog squads and motorcyclists.
The search area was highlighted by “intelligence from multiple sources,” a police spokesperson said at the time.
The location of the phone supports the police theory that Ms Murphy’s killer probably threw it in the dam before heading to the Durham reserve to dispose of her body.
Search teams are expected to venture into the thick terrain again in the coming weeks as forensic technicians work to extract data from the muddy phone.
The phone could contain information ranging from a tip to the actual location where Ms. Murphy died, to video footage or images of her last moments alive.
Although it is difficult to extract data from a waterlogged phone, it is not impossible with the right experience and financial support.
It is understood Victoria Police will spare no expense in extracting what it can from the phone, including possibly sending it overseas to international experts in the field.
Chop-off scanning has traditionally been chosen as an effective data recovery method for damaged devices, including water damaged phones.
In an article titled “Forensic Analysis of Water Damaged Mobile Devices” published by the Netherlands Forensic Institute, experts say that data recovery is entirely possible.
But this is not done without difficulty.
“It should be noted that longer immersion duration creates more metal corrosion, making device recovery processes much more difficult,” the document states.
“If handled properly and proper procedures are carried out in a forensic laboratory, there is a high chance of restoring the water damaged mobile device to working condition to successfully complete data recovery medico-legal.”
If the phone is a newer model, it might even be “waterproof,” meaning it’s sealed tightly so it can be used in water.
But that doesn’t usually mean staying in a muddy dam for months.
The search for Samantha Murphy’s body
Police divers searched the dam for Ms Murphy’s body on Wednesday.
Murder Accused Patrick Orren Stephenson
Whatever may or may not be extracted from the phone will likely see search teams return to nearby bushland to resume the search for Ms Murphy’s body.
In April, Victoria Police brought in specialist cadaver dogs from New South Wales to bushwalk through dense forest stretching across a vast expanse of countryside.
It was the first time search teams had used highly trained cadaver dogs, brought in by NSW Police, since the investigation was launched.
They are specially trained to be able to detect human remains and corpses, even in extreme conditions.
Police officers on trail bikes were also used to help cover the vast area of the increasingly desperate search for Ms Murphy’s remains, more than eight weeks after she disappeared.
Officers had previously carried out unsuccessful searches in Buninyong Bushland Reserve in March.
It remains unclear what new information triggered Wednesday’s new search.
In March, detectives charged Stephenson with Ms Murphy’s murder, alleging he killed her in Mount Clear on the day she disappeared.
Stephenson is the son of Orren Stephenson, who played 15 AFL games for Geelong and Richmond between 2012 and 2014.
It is understood Stephenson has refused to co-operate with police and reveal what they claim to know about the location of Ms Murphy’s body.
The alleged killer has since hired Paul Galbally of Melbourne-based law firm Galbally O’Bryan.
Mr Galbally represented the late Catholic Cardinal George Pell, whose conviction on historic child abuse charges was overturned by the High Court.
He has previously said he has no problem acting for individuals accused of the most serious crimes.
“You either have a disposition or a personality that can handle this job or you don’t,” he said in a 2009 interview.
Police moved into thick bush in April in an area about 15 miles from where Samantha Murphy went missing.
Specialist dogs capable of finding bodies were brought in to help with the search.
Missing Persons Unit Acting Superintendent Mark Hatt assured the community his detectives would never stop searching for Ms Murphy’s body.
“I want to assure residents of the Ballarat community that police remain focused on doing everything possible to return Samantha to her family,” he said previously.
Anyone with information about Ms Murphy’s disappearance is asked to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.