Victoria police launch new search for fugitive Dezi Freeman based on intelligence derived from ‘gunshot’ | Australia news
A major new search has been launched to find fugitive Dezi Freeman or her remains, almost two months after investigators completed their final effort to find her.
More than 100 officers and volunteers will search for the man near the area searched in December, more than five months after two officers were fatally shot on Freeman’s property.
Victoria police said the new five-day search was based on “intelligence from information obtained by police regarding gunshots heard shortly after the fatal incident at Freeman’s Rayner Track property.”
Freeman was freed after allegedly shooting dead police officers Det Sen Const Neal Thompson and Sen Const Vadim de Waart-Hottart while serving a search warrant at his home in the small Victorian town of Porepunkah in late August.
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More than 400 police officers were deployed in the days following the murders, but no trace of the 56-year-old, who was last seen fleeing into dense bush in the mountain region shortly after the shooting, was found.
The new search is planned to last five days and will focus on an area of thick bush and rugged terrain in the Mount Buffalo national park, about 300km north of Melbourne, close to a similar search conducted in December.
Police said detectives conducted a series of firearms tests in the area as part of their investigation, which led to new searches like the one in December.
There was nothing to indicate that a specific person helped Freeman, but police said it was a possibility. A NSW police cadaver dog will also be used in the search, but police said they did not assume Freeman was dead.
Detective Inspector Adam Tilley, who has a task force focused on finding the man, said: “Locating Freeman remains our number one priority and the extensive and systematic searches carried out over the last five months are testament to this.
“The same three possibilities are still open to us: Freeman is either dead, being housed, or leaving the area and surviving on his own.
“There is currently no intelligence that would lead us away from these possibilities or make any scenario more likely, so we must keep an open mind.
“I want to reaffirm that Victoria Police is committed to doing everything we can to locate Desmond Freeman.”
Thompson, 59, was just a week away from retirement when he was killed, while De Waart-Hottart, 34, was on temporary duty in the area.
In December, investigators said they were shifting their search efforts to finding the body of the self-described “sovereign citizen.” However, five days of efforts to comb the bush with cadaver dogs and drones turned up nothing.
Foot teams also carried out line searches and cleared caves in difficult terrain.
Detectives on Task Force Summit, created in October, investigated thousands of pieces of intelligence, including numerous tips from the public.
People in the area were advised to be careful and not approach the fugitive, who is considered armed and dangerous, if they see him.
Victoria police have offered a $1 million reward and the possibility of compensation for information leading to his capture; This is the largest reward in state history for facilitating an arrest.
