Latest / The Front / The search for Samantha Murphy (Best of 2024)

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The search for Samantha Murphy (Best of 2024) · The Front

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  Speaker 1: From The Australian. I'm Claire Harvey. We're hoping you're having
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: a great holiday break and today we're bringing you one
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  Speaker 1: of our favorite episodes.
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  Speaker 2: From the year.
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  Speaker 1: This episode originally aired on March eighth, when Australians were
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  Speaker 1: enthralled by a bush mystery. What happened to Ballarat mum
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  Speaker 1: Samantha Murphy, a twenty three year old man, the son
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  Speaker 1: of a former Australian rules player, has been charged for
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  Speaker 1: her murder, but searchers by police have so far failed
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  Speaker 1: to locate her remains. Patrick Orn Stevenson appeared in Victoria's
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  Speaker 1: Supreme Court in late November, where he pleaded not guilty
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: to the chargers. The Front will return with all new
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  Speaker 1: episodes on Monday, January thirteen. Just hit follow or subscribe
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: to make sure you don't miss an episode.
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  Speaker 2: The Australian Bush It has forever lurked, not just at
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  Speaker 2: the edges of our towns and cities, but our collective
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  Speaker 2: subconscious a place of almost indescribable beauty and at the
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  Speaker 2: same time a black hole, a more a haunted landscape that,
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  Speaker 2: in the blink of an eye, can snatch us away
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  Speaker 2: without a trace. It is a place where ghosts lurk,
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  Speaker 2: bogie men, monsters, and for centuries it has become almost
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  Speaker 2: mythical in our literature, art and films. This fear is
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  Speaker 2: manifested in the psychopath at the Heart of Wolf Creek,
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  Speaker 2: it's the omniscient villain in the latest Eric Banner movie
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  Speaker 2: Force of Nature, and it's most hauntingly embodied in the
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  Speaker 2: classic nineteen seventy five film Picnic at Hanging Rock. The
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  Speaker 2: pan pipe's theme by George Zamfiir is enough to send
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  Speaker 2: a chill down Australian's spines, and this anxiety gripped us
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  Speaker 2: all over again when Ballarat mother of three Samantha Murphy
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  Speaker 2: fifty one, seemingly vanished into thin air after she took
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  Speaker 2: off for a routine early morning jog into the bush
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  Speaker 2: near her home in early February. For a month, we
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  Speaker 2: followed every detail of the search for sam the police
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  Speaker 2: and volunteers scouring the bush near her home, these vast
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  Speaker 2: tracts of land outside the old Goldfield town with names
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  Speaker 2: like the wou Wookeerung Regional Park and Mount Clear. We
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  Speaker 2: witnessed the tears of the family, the broken heart of
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  Speaker 2: her daughter Jess just On behalf of my dad.
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  Speaker 1: And myself and my siblings.
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  Speaker 2: I just really liked the bank out. Family and friends
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  Speaker 2: were just the continuous love and support.
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  Speaker 1: It's really helping us to get through and to keep
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  Speaker 1: us strong and to keep us motivated, to keep looking
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  Speaker 1: and keep moving forward.
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  Speaker 3: Mom's a really strong woman and she's far too determined
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  Speaker 3: to give up this fight.
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  Speaker 2: I know she's out there somewhere. As each night fell,
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  Speaker 2: we sensed with dread that Samantha was out there in
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  Speaker 2: the dark. Was she yet another of that long line
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  Speaker 2: of Australians lost to the bush? Then suddenly the answer.
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  Speaker 4: Detectives from the Missing Person Squad yesterday morning at six
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  Speaker 4: am arrested a twenty two year old Scottsburned man. They
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  Speaker 4: arrested him at his home address and took him into custody.
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  Speaker 4: The man was interviewed over a number of hours. A
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  Speaker 4: number of search warrants have been executed as a result
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  Speaker 4: of those investigations. He has today been charged with the
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  Speaker 4: murder of Samantha.
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  Speaker 2: At a press conference on Thursday, the Chief Commissioner of
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  Speaker 2: the Victorian Police, Shane Patten, delivered the news the nation
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  Speaker 2: had been dreading.
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  Speaker 4: We will be alleging that murder occurred at Mount Clair
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  Speaker 4: on the day she disappeared. In the interview with the suspect,
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  Speaker 4: he has not disclosed to police where Samantha's body is.
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  Speaker 4: I want to be very clear, I'm limited what I
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  Speaker 4: can say given that there has now been a charge
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  Speaker 4: of murder aid.
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  Speaker 2: Last week on the front we brought you a very
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  Speaker 2: different kind of police press conference fronted in Sydney by
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  Speaker 2: homicide detectives and the New South Wales Police Commissioner. In
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  Speaker 2: that instant, police had obtained the cooperation of the suspect,
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  Speaker 2: serving policeman beau Lamar Condon, and alleged the suspect had
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  Speaker 2: told them where to find the bodies of murdered couple
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  Speaker 2: Jesse Baird and Luke Davies. The level of detail New
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  Speaker 2: South Wales Police divulged about that matter was extraordinary, surprising
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  Speaker 2: even veteran crime reporters. In this matter, Shane Patten batted
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  Speaker 2: away almost every question about detail, eventually making this pointed remark.
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  Speaker 4: Again, I'm not going to go into the evidence and
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  Speaker 4: speculate about the evidence. So in Victoria, when someone's charged,
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  Speaker 4: irrespective of what people's views may be, the details of
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  Speaker 4: that evidence are tested in court. Not a press conferences.
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  Speaker 2: For the past thirty three days, the Australian's reporters have
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  Speaker 2: been in Ballarat trying to talk to Samantha Murphy's family
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  Speaker 2: and everyone else in a town gone wild with frustration
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  Speaker 2: and suspicion.
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  Speaker 3: There was no apparent reason for Samantha Murphy, a fifty
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  Speaker 3: one year old mother who loved her three children, who
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  Speaker 3: lived in a comfortable house in East Ballarat, to disappear.
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  Speaker 2: Damon Johnston is The Australian's Victorian editor.
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  Speaker 3: The circumstances of her last appearance were that she left
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  Speaker 3: the family home shortly after seven am on Sunday, February four,
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  Speaker 3: dressed in her jogging gear. This is something she did
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  Speaker 3: a lot, so ostensibly she appears to have been very
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  Speaker 3: much your quintessential Ossie mum, raising a kids, raising a
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  Speaker 3: family and staying fit. And the inexplicable nature of her disappearance,
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  Speaker 3: the fact that there was nobody found despite all the
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  Speaker 3: police searchers, I think, has led to what is ultimately
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  Speaker 3: a tragedy, also being a mystery that's captivated the nation.
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  Speaker 2: It's been thirty four days since Samantha Murphy was last seen.
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  Speaker 2: That gap has prompted questions about whether the police were
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  Speaker 2: moving fast enough.
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  Speaker 3: I'm sure there was a lot of action going on
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  Speaker 3: below the waterline, so to speak, over the last thirty
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  Speaker 3: three days. That said, the initial messaging from Victoria Police
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  Speaker 3: was somewhat confusing. It left the perception that they weren't
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  Speaker 3: treating it seriously enough in that first few days or
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  Speaker 3: maybe that first week. Now clearly that's changed over the
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  Speaker 3: last two to three weeks, where they've deployed their expert investigators.
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  Speaker 3: The language that Victoria Police has used has changed. And
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  Speaker 3: two weeks ago they tragically announced that they were looking
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  Speaker 3: for a body and that they believed that she had
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  Speaker 3: been her remains had been removed by one or more people.
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  Speaker 3: So the police approach to this did escalate in public,
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  Speaker 3: and I think it would be premature to judge the
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  Speaker 3: police too harshly. Because we now have a charge laid.
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  Speaker 3: We'll wait for the courts to determine the fate of
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  Speaker 3: that charge, but we just need more information before we
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  Speaker 3: assess the police investigation.
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  Speaker 2: I think during that long wait for information, detectives repeatedly
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  Speaker 2: asked for Victorians to stop unhelpful speculation about the case,
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  Speaker 2: particularly about their theories on who might have taken Samantha.
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  Speaker 3: The vacuum has been filled with speculation and online gossip.
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  Speaker 3: Ballaratza town of about one hundred and twenty thousand people,
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  Speaker 3: so it's big, but not that big. The Murphys were
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  Speaker 3: a high profile couple. They ran a successful panel beating
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  Speaker 3: business and on one hand, it's only human nature for
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  Speaker 3: people to speculate, but now, obviously with modern technology, it enables.
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  Speaker 2: That to go like wildfire.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up. What we know about motive and method in
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  Speaker 1: the alleged murder of Samantha Murphy. While I've got you.
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  Speaker 1: As this story develops, the Australian subscribers will be the
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  Speaker 1: first to know. Join us at the Australian dot com
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  Speaker 1: dot a U for the best reporting and analysis, live
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: updates direct to your phone, newsletters and special events. Check
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  Speaker 1: us out at the Australian dot com dot AU and
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  Speaker 1: we'll be back after this break.
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  Speaker 2: Samantha Murphy's family found out about the arrest on Wednesday night.
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  Speaker 2: On Thursday, just before they spoke to the media, police
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  Speaker 2: told the family they'd charge the man with murder. That
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  Speaker 2: should have caused some pause for those who'd speculated about
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  Speaker 2: family members not or involvement. Shane Patten again made it
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  Speaker 2: clear the family was not under suspicion and said police
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  Speaker 2: believe the man in custody is not known to the
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  Speaker 2: family at all.
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  Speaker 4: Samantha's family has been advised of this tragic news this
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  Speaker 4: afternoon by detectives from the Missing Person Squad, and obviously
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  Speaker 4: this is a tragic outcome knowing that she has been murdered.
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  Speaker 4: Our thoughts and support are with her family and I
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  Speaker 4: do just want to say something about the family since
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  Speaker 4: the outset. In these cases, it's often that the family
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  Speaker 4: come under scrutiny. They have been cooperative with us, they
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  Speaker 4: have provided everything we needed and they have had no
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  Speaker 4: involvement whatsoever in this matter.
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  Speaker 2: Asked if he was known to Samantha, Murphy, Patten said this.
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  Speaker 4: I don't have that knowledge. I don't believe that to
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  Speaker 4: be the case.
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  Speaker 2: A man whose name was suppressed by the court appeared
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  Speaker 2: before Ballarat Magistrate's Court and police opposed bail. He has
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  Speaker 2: not yet been required to enter a plea and has
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  Speaker 2: not been convicted of anything. Police haven't yet disclosed an
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  Speaker 2: alleged motive or method for Samantha's death. They won't say
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  Speaker 2: if there was a sexual element to the crime. Only
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  Speaker 2: that they believe she died in Mount Clear, a suburb
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  Speaker 2: on Ballarat's outskirts. The nation has suffered a string of
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  Speaker 2: shocking crimes already this year. A mother and child, then
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  Speaker 2: the father, were stabbed to death in Sydney, allegedly by
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  Speaker 2: a martial arts instructor known to the family. The murders
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  Speaker 2: of Jesse Baird and Luke Davies on the eve of
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  Speaker 2: Mardi Gras devastated Sydney's LGBTI community. Now the search for
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  Speaker 2: Amantha Murphy's remains somewhere out there in that haunted landscape.
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  Speaker 1: You can read all the nation's best news, sport, politics
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  Speaker 1: and business anytime at the Australian dot com dot a
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