Patrick Stephenson: Man accused of murdering Samantha Murphy returns to prison after hospital visit

The man accused of murdering missing mother Samantha Murphy in regional Victoria has returned to prison after being rushed to hospital last week.

7NEWS understands 24-year-old Patrick Orren Stephenson tried to take his own life inside the Melbourne Assessment Prison on Friday.

Details on his condition remain unknown, but the state’s Justice and Community Safety Department confirmed he was returned later than day.

“A prisoner from the Melbourne Assessment Prison was transported to hospital on Friday for medical assessment,” the department said.

It comes just weeks before Stephenson is expected to return to court over the alleged murder, having been remanded in custody since his arrest in March 2024.

The mother-of-three, 51, went for a run near her Ballarat home and disappeared on February 4 , more than a month before Stephenson was arrested.

Murphy’s planned 14km run was along a route she frequented in the Canadian State Forest.

About an hour after she left home, Murphy reached the Mount Clear area on foot, according to data gathered from her phone.

This was her last known location and it is unclear what happened to her after this point.

Despite extensive searches of bushland around the area, her body has never been found.

Murphy’s credit cards, licence and iPhone were located in mud at the bottom of a dam during a May 2024 search in Buninyong, not far from her home.

On two occasions Stephenson has been escorted from prison to search areas in Ballarat.

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