Fugitive cop killer Dezi Freeman’s whereabouts still a mystery three months on
Chief Commissioner Mike Bush has said police still have no answers as to whether cop killer Dezi Freeman is dead, has escaped or is being harboured — three months after the manhunt for the fugitive began.
Chief Commissioner Mike Bush says there is no definitive answer to what has happened to fugitive cop killer Dezi Freeman.
Almost three months after the tragic confrontation at Porepunkah, Mr Bush said the possibilities remained open that Freeman was dead or had escaped and was being harboured.
“It’s quite interesting as you talk to the staff that are involved in that operation – everyone has a different view and they are the people closest to it,” he said.
“We don’t know whether he’s still alive or we don’t know whether he’s out of the area and looked after by other people. That’s why we posted a $1m reward.”
Mr Bush told reporters on Saturday that several hundred police were still in the area looking for answers.
“We are determined to continue that operation and resource it until we have a resolution,” he said.
“I really encourage anyone who knows where he may be — if he is still alive — to contact us and bring this to a conclusion.”
There has not been a great deal for Taskforce Summit police to work with in terms of clues that are publicly known.
The Herald Sun understands Freeman had not used his phone since the shootings and that there had been no confirmed sightings.
There had been no evidence uncovered linking him to campsites and searches of hundreds of homes and other structures has turned up nothing to say they had been used as a hide-out.
Warrants carried out on associates and sympathisers are believed to have found nothing to say had been with them since the events of August 26.
There have been indications that police believe there is a strong chance the body of Freeman is in the Porepunkah area.
The test-firing of gunshots has been conducted in various locations in an attempt to match the sound of a single retort heard about 20 minutes after Freeman fled the scene.
That would indicate a belief he had taken his own life but investigators cannot afford to confine themselves to that theory.
The development came on the back of cadaver dogs being deployed in October, another pointer to police believing that Freeman being dead is a real possibility.
Freeman shot and killed senior constables Neal Thompson and Vadim de Waart-Hottart at a property on Rayner Track in Porepunkah.
He wounded another officer and a fourth colleague was lucky to survive when the gun failed to discharge after being pointed and fired.
The officers were among 10 who were at the property to serve a warrant as part of a child sexual assault allegation.
Originally published as Fugitive cop killer Dezi Freeman’s whereabouts still a mystery three months on
