Samantha Murphy disappearance: Alleged killer Patrick Orren Stephenson appears in Victorian Supreme Court

The man police allege murdered missing Ballarat mother Samantha Murphy has returned to court just weeks after the one year anniversary of her disappearance. Patrick Orren Stephenson, 24, appeared in the Victorian Supreme Court in Melbourne on Wednesday morning as the case returned to court. Under Victorian law, details of the hearing cannot be published. Mr Stephenson was arrested and charged with murder in March last year a little over a month after the mother-of-three vanished after leaving home for a morning run on February 4. It’s alleged the 51-year-old was killed in the Mount Clear area about 6km from her Eureka St home the same day. In November, Mr Stephenson pleaded not guilty to the charge and elected to fast-track the case to the Supreme Court for trial during a brief hearing in the Ballarat Magistrates’ Court. The case was adjourned for a week by Judicial Registrar Tim Freeman and will return to court on March 6.