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The manhunt for alleged High Country police killer Dezi Freeman is being complicated by the unknown number of potential hiding places dotting the landscape around Porepunkah, a legacy of the small alpine town’s mining history.
As police posted a $1 million reward on Saturday for the capture of the fugitive, who is believed to be heavily armed, a former friend of Freeman’s said that nobody knew how many abandoned mine shafts, known as “adits”, had been left in the area after the 1850s gold rush.
Inside one of the many abandoned mine shafts that dot the countryside around Porepunkah.Credit: Jason South
Ray Kompe, who said he taught Freeman bushcraft decades ago, said on Friday that it was possible the fugitive was hiding down a mineshaft, presenting the hundreds of police officers hunting the self-styled “sovereign citizen” with a serious problem.
Detective Inspector Dean Thomas, announcing the reward on Saturday, said armed police scouring the area around Freeman’s last known whereabouts were searching potential hideouts.
“They are being searched, we continue to clear the mineshafts and caves with our experts,” he said.
But Thomas, who heads the homicide squad, said that there had been no confirmed sightings of Freeman since he allegedly gunned down three police officers, killing two and injuring a third, after they arrived to search a property where he was staying outside Porepunkah on August 26.
More than 450 officers are searching Victoria’s High Country for Freeman, who allegedly blasted Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson, 59, with a home-made shotgun through the door of a bus he was living in near Porepunkah.
The father of three then allegedly opened a window of the bus and shot Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart, 34, who also died at the scene.
Another detective wounded in the attack is understood to have hidden under the bus for up to an hour, until paramedics arrived.
Thomas said police did not know whether Freeman was dead “as a result of self harm”, hiding in thick bushland near Mount Buffalo, being sheltered by sympathisers, or had fled the area altogether.
Kompe suggested that Freeman might be holed up in one of the old mines.
“If you look up at night here [in the High Country], you’ll see a million stars but equally, that’s not enough in number of all the old mines around here – the old adits,” he said.
“And it’s quite possible that Dezi’s maybe down an adit.”
Heavily armed police with sniffer dogs searched Kompe’s house in the Buckland Valley on Thursday looking for Freeman, but left without any obvious progress.
Police believe Freeman may have stockpiled provisions in the bush before the alleged shooting.
Bruce Evans, a friend of fugitive Dezi Freeman.Credit: Jason South
But Freeman’s close friend, Bruce Evans, who bonded with the accused gunman over their shared opposition to public health measures during the COVID-19 pandemic, said he doubted that the alleged police-killer had a cache of supplies hidden in the mountains.
“He’s never really discussed that sort of thing with me, like hidden bunkers and all that sort of crap,” Evans said. “I don’t believe he’s got any because to do that sort of thing, you gotta have a bit of a bit of money, and he was on welfare for the last couple of years.”
Jim Whitehead, a former search and rescue specialist with the Queensland Police, said officers may choose to wait for Freeman to emerge from the bush to seek food or shelter, “but it really depends on how much forethought Mr Freeman gave into this sort of situation”.
If Freeman was still hiding in bushland, Whitehead said the already difficult search was “compounded when you have an unresponsive target” who is armed.
The potential danger posed by Freeman prompted police to warn would-be bounty hunters not to join the search in the hope of claiming the $1 million reward.
The force denied on Saturday that the reward, the largest ever offered by the state for an arrest, was an act of desperation as the massive manhunt entered its 12th day.
Thomas said the reward, unusually, would be paid for information leading to the arrest of Freeman – also known as Desmond Filby – rather than helping secure his conviction, as is normally the case with police rewards.
But Thomas warned the public against trying to join the search.
“I strongly oppose anybody doing that,” Thomas said.
“He has already killed two police members and seriously wounded a third, his propensity for using violence has been shown.
“We have highly skilled specialist police officers out there in the bushland.
“They are armed, and we don’t want people being out there in that area for our police officers to perhaps mistake them for being Freeman and finding themselves in a situation where they have been confronted by our officers.”
The detective said the reward could potentially be claimed without the informant having to give evidence against Freeman in a trial.
“There is no doubt that $1 million is a significant amount of money for anybody, and it will have lifelong changes to people’s circumstances,” Thomas said.
“We are hoping that this reward will be enough for those that may have information that have decided not to come forward before, to now come forward.”
Anyone with any information about Freeman’s whereabouts is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit a confidential report online at www.crimestoppersvic.com.au.
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