An amateur effort to find missing mum Samantha Murphy is in tatters with a close friend of the family suddenly announced she was deleting a key Facebook group.
The administrator of ‘Find Samantha Murphy’ – which garnered thousands of members since the mum-of-three vanished from her home in East Ballarat on Sunday, February 4 – announced she was removing the group on Monday.
It comes after authorities scaled back the official search for Ms Murphy at the weekend.
Cin Hobbs, who runs the Facebook group said: ‘This group has served its purpose and we have been given the go ahead to delete.
‘This is a huge mission on its own as I have to remove every member… the best thing you can do for her is to help speed the process up by deleting yourself.’
The administrator of ‘Find Samantha Murphy’ – which garnered thousands of members since the mum-of-three vanished from her home in East Ballarat on Sunday, February 4 – announced she was removing the group on Monday
Samantha Murphy, 51, vanished after going for a jog after leaving her Ballarat East home on February 4
It is understood the group was deleted after personal attacks and infighting took place.
The group had more than 20,000 members last week amid the intense speculation over Ms Murphy’s disappearance and citizen efforts to find her.
Ms Hobbs wrote that she will still be ‘shouting’ for Ms Murphy’s return and left followers with a heartfelt message.
‘My message is still the same, be kind, it costs nothing, but don’t be so kind that you have nothing to give yourself for self care,’ she wrote.
‘Praying for a miracle.’
Ballarat local Ms Hobbs told news.com.au last week she made the Facebook page after a day of searching was disorganised.
The organiser said she thought it could assist in bringing information and search efforts together.
It is understood Victoria Police had been monitoring the page for information that was relevant to its investigation.
Earlier on Monday Ms Hobbs wrote that managing the Facebook search group had come at a “great cost” to herself and her family.
More to follow
