Samantha Murphy: Shock twist as police make sudden switch in the hunt for ... trends now
EXCLUSIVE
Police have brought in specialist cadaver dogs from New South Wales to scour the Victorian bush at multiple locations in the hunt for missing mother Samantha Murphy.
Search crews renewed the hunt for the mum-of-three's remains on Thursday at various locations in dense scrub spanning a vast stretch of countryside.
Teams of officers focused their search within Enfield State Park, 30km south of Ballarat - but another search team was also working 25km away in thick scrub in the Durham Lead Nature Conservation Reserve.
The 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 vanished.
Specialised cadaver dogs from New South Wales have been brought in to help find the body of Samantha Murphy
A helicopter was seen flying overhead the dense woodland just before 2pm on Thursday, with search crews making their way deeper into the thick scrub.
Ms Murphy, 51, was last seen leaving her home on Eureka Street, Ballarat East, to go for a run in the Canadian State Forest on the morning of February 4.
The latest search is about 20km south of the Murphy family home and was not made public when the police first announced the renewed search on Thursday morning.
A statement said detectives would be searching Enfield State Park 30km away, but police later admitted several search sites were underway simultaneously.
Thursday was the first time search crews have used the highly-trained cadaver dogs, brought in from NSW Police, since the investigation was launched.
They are specially trained to be able to sniff out humans remains and corpses, even under extreme conditions.
Police on trail bikes have also been used to help cover the wide area of the increasingly desperate hunt for Ms Murphy's remains, more than eight weeks after she vanished.
Officers had previously made unsuccessful search efforts at Buninyong Bushland Reserve in March.
Crews scouring the area include those that specialise in missing persons, search and
