‘Dezi just loved the bush’: Former friend says fugitive knows how to navigate alpine terrain

1 week ago 4

Ray Kompe says he taught Dezi Freeman bushcraft and believes the accused police killer has a resolve that could be aiding his life on the run.

On Friday, heavily armed police and sniffer dogs visited Kompe’s remote property in the Buckland Valley as they continue to eliminate areas around Porepunkah from their search zone.

Ray Kompe, with dog Luna, on his Buckland Valley property, where police searched for Dezi Freeman.

Kompe, a former friend of the fugitive, said the search – led by officers with assault rifles – was intimidating, “but [I’ve got] nothing to hide so why worry?”

He said he taught Freeman how to navigate the cumbersome terrain of Mount Buffalo National Park, where the search for the self-proclaimed sovereign citizen has been focused since the August 26 shooting which killed two officers and wounded a third.

“Dezi, he just loved the bush, and I was probably a catalyst for all of that,” Kompe said.

“I was the one [to teach him] bush bashing, basically taking your own route, because I was an avid bushwalker myself.”

Heavily armed police search Kompe’s property on Friday.

Kompe said Freeman had no bushcraft skills when they first met, when Kompe took him on remote hiking trips up Mount Buffalo. Kompe said this was formative in Freeman’s knowledge of the area, which might have aided him in evading police.

“He loved [Mount] Buffalo and I took him up there, and it was a great epiphany for him, in as much as that love became more intense and he took up photography, and his photos were fantastic,” Kompe said.

“We used to do a lot of crazy walks like that but then he sort of got into the wrong crowd, I suppose.”

Kompe said Freeman was “a bloke with a lot of resolve and [when] he puts his mind to something there’s just no holding him back”.

Eventually, the sovereign citizen’s radicalisation brought an end to their friendship about a decade ago.

Kompe believes Freeman could still be hiding out in the rugged wilderness and that he’d likely become very proficient at getting around in the bush.

“There’s a lot of hiding places,” he said.

The ongoing search around the Alpine towns of Porepunkah and Bright is becoming a tiring routine for locals.

While the area would usually be bustling with tourists, this week the main streets are largely deserted.

Dark clouds hang over the town, and an electronic sign at the entrance to Mount Buffalo National Park blinks as it announces the park’s closure.

A police information van is parked near the Bright clock tower where two flags hang at half-mast and the trees are tied with blue ribbons as a show of support for slain officers Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson and Senior Constable Vadim De Waart-Hottart.

Most shops and restaurants are still open, just the customers are absent, as police have warned against non-essential travel to the region.

Leanne Boyd, owner of the Cherry Walk Cafe in Bright, said people were adhering to the rules and staying away.

“There’s some degree of melancholy hanging over Bright,” she said. “We are all a bit sad about this.”

Boyd would usually have six staff working but has cut down to three and said she had lost 80 per cent of her trade since August 26.

In that time Boyd estimates she has lost $16,000; by Monday that figure will be $22,000.

The information van police have based in Bright as the search for Freeman continues.

“We cannot pay our GST, there’ll be people that can’t pay their power bills because of this,” she said. “This is a disaster, and it is becoming an economic catastrophe.”

But Boyd supports the police approach and feels safe in her home town.

“We have just gone about our business, opened the cafe and tried to continue on as much as normal as possible,” she said.

Frank Martinez, chef and restaurateur at Sol e Luna in Bright, shuts every winter and reopens in September, but said this year’s reopening would be delayed.

“Just every day, the town is just getting quieter and quieter and quieter and quieter,” he said. “I can’t afford to [open] because I know we won’t get the numbers”.

Martinez said the region survives on tourism and the bumper snow season should have made for a busy trading period.

“The town’s a ghost town,” he said. “We’ve got school holidays coming up, and who knows how long it’s going to go for, no one knows, there’s something like 450 police up there.”

There was not a single customer in the store at Porepunkah Ski Hire on Friday, but owner Ben Kaye said he was reluctant to speak about the impact on his business while the police search was still underway.

Ben Kaye, the owner of Porepunkah Ski Hire, says it has been a quiet week.

Bright Ski Centre is also empty and staff said it was much quieter than usual.

“The hill is still quite busy, but we’re quite down here, so they must all be going around [Bright],” said Monique, who declined to provide her surname.

State MP Tim McCurdy is worried about the impact on the region as the manhunt for Freeman stretches out.

He wrote to Premier Jacinta Allan and Treasurer Jaclyn Symes requesting an economic relief package for the area and said he hadn’t received a response.

‘There’s some degree of melancholy hanging over Bright. We are all a bit sad about this.’

Leanne Boyd, Bright cafe owner

“People are starting to get agitated, business in particular,” the Nationals MP said. “It’s purely a tourist area, there’s nothing else that really takes place in Bright apart from tourism.”

Mental health support has been increased, and a team of three counsellors are stationed at the Punkah Pantry restaurant in Porepunkah.

“It feels a bit eerie sometimes,” McCurdy said. “Everyone’s just a little off balance, really.

“It’s amazing how people’s mental health improves if you can see some cash coming in.

Blue ribbons in trees in Bright as a mark of respect to police.

“It’s the anxiety about not knowing: is this going to finish tonight, tomorrow, next week, next month or longer?”

A spokeswoman for the Victorian government said it was working with the Alpine Shire Council and businesses to understand the impacts on the community.

“Our government stands with the community of Porepunkah who are now carrying the weight of this horrific incident and with Victoria Police and the emergency services who are still responding to this unthinkable crime,” the spokeswoman said.

On Friday morning, Boyd’s customers were mainly locals.

“It is a tight-knit community in a lot of ways,” she said. “I hope this doesn’t divide people.”

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