Alpine towns fear Dezi Freeman accomplices are among them
A prominent figure in the Bright community close to Dezi Freeman’s wife says if police find someone in town who helped Dezi Freeman evade capture, it would bring “another level of trauma” to those in the town.
As holidaymakers flock to the area for the Easter long weekend, people in the area are on edge after police released two men arrested without charge at separate properties in north-east Victoria on Saturday evening.
Police did not provide further information about those arrested and said investigations were ongoing, leaving locals wondering who was being questioned and whether someone they knew was helping Freeman.
Leanne Boyd, a friend of Freeman’s wife, Mali Freeman, said: “If it turns out there’s someone in Bright, it’s going to divide the town… that would be trauma on another level.”
“We hope it’s not someone we know. Because that’s more traumatic, it means someone is lying to you.”
Last Monday, it was revealed that Freeman had been hiding in a shipping container on remote bushland at Thologolong, near the border town of Walwa. After 3 hours of intervention, the police He shot and killed a 56-year-old womanHe repeatedly called for his surrender.
Freeman had been on the run since August 26 last year; He killed Detective Chief Constable Neal Thompson, 59, and Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart, 34, when he and a group of 10 officers arrived at a property in Porepunkah to execute a search warrant relating to allegations of child sexual abuse against him.
Neil Sutherland, whose brother’s property was where police found Freeman, said the release of those arrested had brought no consequences after learning the fugitive was hiding in a converted shipping container a kilometer from his property.
“If it’s proven that someone helped this man, I would consider that closure,” he said. “Since last Monday there have been only questions and no answers.”
He said his brother, who had been in Tasmania for months, was unaware that Freeman was there. Neil tried to find on a map which route Freeman might take; a trek that would be up to 100 kilometers if traversed through the bush and would likely be a three to four day trek.
“I don’t know if he stumbled upon this place by accident or if people told him about it,” Sutherland said. “I wouldn’t rule out him walking here.”
Meanwhile, Leanne Boyd hopes one outcome of the events will be mental health reform after it emerged that Freeman’s closest family persuaded him to make a mental health appointment in the weeks before he killed two officers.
“I think as angry as he seemed to be with the police, he was also afraid of the police,” he said.
“I hope there is reform in dealing with mentally ill people so there are no more police deaths and tragedies like these [last Monday].”
Father Tony Shallue at Our Lady of the Snows Catholic Church held an Easter service on Sunday and did not mention the case that has gripped the area for the past seven months.
Mali said Freeman was a member of the church but had not attended since the killing of two police officers by Freeman last year.
The effects were felt widely, he said.
“There’s no benefit to that. You start with the family, then you start with the people who knew him, then there’s the community, the business, and it’s taken too long.”
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Jackson Graham is an education correspondent for The Age. He previously worked as an explanatory reporter.Connect via email.
