Major update on Samantha Murphy’s phone days after it was discovered by cops in a dam

Samantha Murphy’s phone is undamaged and working perfectly after it was found in a dam near Ballarat.

Victoria Police search crews incredibly discovered Ms Murphy’s phone in the water at Buninyong, and not 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 announced on Monday that the phone is ‘undamaged and in almost perfect condition’.

It is understood detectives hope the phone will provide valuable insight into Ms Murphy’s last movements and lead to the discovery of her body.

The device was found near where it last made contact with a nearby tower in the Buninyong region before going silent.

Samantha Murphy was reportedly murdered while out for a Sunday morning jog

Her muddy phone was found next to a dam on Wednesday

The phone is believed to have been submerged in the dam since February 4 – the same day police allege Patrick Orren Stephenson, 22, killed Ms Murphy while she was jogging on Sunday.

Daily Mail Australia was told this week that detectives from the Missing Persons Unit quickly became suspicious of the dam after taking charge of the investigation, questioning the owner just weeks later.

The police would not return until early May when they again asked the owner if he did not mind the police entering his building.

Three weeks passed before Wednesday’s search turned up the phone.

The dam was at its lowest level since the heat of summer in December.

The owner of the dam, who wished to remain anonymous, suggested that police had no specific information that the phone had been discarded there.

“They started all the way on the other side of the road and worked their way up,” he told Daily Mail Australia.

‘As far as I know, one of the sniffer dogs found him. A tech dog.”

The dam location is just around the corner from the Durham Lead Nature Conservation Reserve, where search crews responded on April 12.

The police had that too at the time concentrated their search in Enfield State Park, 30km south of Ballarat and about 5km from the Durham reserve.

The Durham Nature Reserve is just south of Buninyong, where Ms Murphy’s phone was last detected by mobile phone masts at 5pm on the day she disappeared.

The location of the phone confirms the police theory. Ms Murphy’s killer is believed to have dumped the phone in the dam before entering the Durham reserve to dispose of her body.

The dam is located next to a major route from the region and close to the Durham Lead Nature Conservation Reserve

It is believed that a police dog (pictured) made the discovery at the dam

An excavator was used on Wednesday to clear blackberry bushes next to the dam

Search crews are expected to re-enter the dense terrain in the coming weeks as forensic technicians try to extract data from the muddy phone.

The phone could contain information ranging from an indication of the actual location of Ms Murphy’s death to video footage or images of her last moments alive.

While it is difficult to extract data from a frozen phone, it is not impossible given the right amount of experience and financial backing.

It is understood Victoria Police will spare no effort to get what it can from the phone, including possibly sending it overseas to international experts in the field.

Chop-off analysis 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 Dutch Forensic Institute, experts say data recovery is entirely possible.

But it is not without problems.

“It should be noted that longer immersion times cause more metal corrosion, making device repair processes much more difficult,” the article said.

“If handled properly and the correct procedures performed in a forensic laboratory, there is a good chance that the water-damaged mobile device can be returned to operating status and successful forensic data recovery can be performed.”

If the phone is a more recent model, it may even be ‘waterproof’, meaning it is hermetically sealed so it can be used in water.

But that usually doesn’t mean months in a muddy dam.

The hunt for Samantha Murphy’s body

Police divers searched the dam for Ms Murphy’s body on Wednesday

Patrick Orren Stephenson accused of murder

Whatever may or may not be recovered from the phone will likely send search crews returning to nearby brush to resume the hunt for Ms. Murphy’s body.

In April, Victoria Police brought in specialist cadaver dogs from New South Wales to conduct bush searches in the dense forest that stretches across a vast swathe of countryside.

It was the first time since the investigation began that search crews used the highly trained cadaver dogs led by NSW Police.

They are specially trained to detect human remains and corpses, even under extreme conditions.

Police on trail bikes have also been deployed to cover the wide area in the increasingly desperate search for Ms Murphy’s remains, more than eight weeks after she disappeared.

Officers had previously made unsuccessful search attempts in the Buninyong Bushland Reserve in March.

It remains unclear what new information prompted the new search on Wednesday.

Police entered dense brush in April in an area about 16 miles from where Samantha Murphy disappeared

Specialized dogs that can find bodies have been deployed to assist the search

In March, detectives charged Stephenson with Ms Murphy’s murder, claiming he killed her in Mount Clear on the day she went missing.

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.

Missing Persons Unit Detective Chief Inspector Mark Hatt has assured the community that his detectives will never stop searching for Ms Murphy’s body.

“I would like to reassure those in the Ballarat community that police remain focused on doing everything we can to return Samantha to her family,” he previously said.

Anyone with information about Ms Murphy’s disappearance is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.