Items of interest found in new search for missing Ballarat woman Samantha Murphy

Police said they were conducting a "targeted search" in the Ballarat area.

The 51-year-old mother of three left home in the morning of 4 February to go jogging and has not been seen since. Source: AAP / James Ross

Police have uncovered items of interest during a search in the investigation of missing mother Samantha Murphy.

Detectives from the Victoria Police Missing Persons Squad and a range of specialist police resources mounted the search on Wednesday morning.

Its location - initially kept secret - was later revealed to be south of Buninyong, with officers finding what the ABC reported was a phone.

"Detectives from the Missing Persons Squad have located some items of interest in Buninyong this morning during their search for Samantha Murphy," a Victoria Police spokeswoman said on Wednesday afternoon.

"The area has been cordoned off and those items will now be forensically tested.

"At this stage we are not providing further information about the items until that testing has been completed."

Police searching for Samantha Murphy's body in April. Source: AAP / Joel Carrett

The search was described as targeted and also involved the Australian Federal Police.

The investigation is ongoing, the police spokeswoman said.

"Further information will be provided once we are in a position to do so," she said.

"Police ask that members of the public do not attend the search at this time."

The 51-year-old was last seen leaving her home on Eureka Street to go for a run in the Canadian State Forest on the morning of 4 February.

In March, police charged 22-year-old tradesman Patrick Orren Stephenson with murdering Murphy at Mount Clear on the day she went missing. He will return to court in August.

Since February, police have launched multiple searches in bushland as part of the investigation.