By Tori Richards

Sattelite Image Shows Emerson, NJ and Area Searched.

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EMERSON, NJ (Crime Library) — Police have called off their search for missing mother Liza Murphy after spending days combing a nearby wilderness area and coming up empty.

Having nowhere else to look, authorities are hoping someone will come forward with information about what may have happened to Liza, 42, who left her suburban Emerson home on Aug. 19 without taking as much as her keys or cell phone.

Liza Murphy

"We're trying to get any other evidence we can get and pursue that," said Emerson police Chief Michael Saudino. "We feel we've completed (the search)."

Meanwhile, details about a troubled marriage have begun to emerge. Husband Joseph Murphy, 39, spoke to detectives for just and hour before obtaining an attorney and refusing to answer further questions. Four days after his wife's disappearance and the same day police searched his home and vehicles, he tried to commit suicide by jumping in front of oncoming traffic on a highway. Murphy succeeded only in breaking his pelvis and receiving internal injuries, enough to place him in a hospital's intensive care unit for a few days. He remains hospitalized.

Saudino confirmed that police were called to the Murphy home about six times during the past several years because of disturbances. According to The New Jersey Record, police referred the matter to the Division of Youth and Family Services and a case worker visited the home several times in 2002. In 2005, Liza called a suicide hot line and threatened to kill herself and was involuntarily committed to a hospital for therapy, according to court documents.

Until May of this year, "Liza Murphy told a case worker that she felt depressed and was 'uncertain' whether she was having suicidal thoughts," The Record reported.

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Contact Tori Richards  at           NewsWriter2@aol.com

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