When Dezi Freeman fled the scene he had his eyes on God and heaven as his family cowered
For months, the people closest to Dezi Freeman – Australia’s most wanted man – have feared they would never see him again after he allegedly shot dead two policemen. This is why.
Dezi Freeman never gave up on God, his eyes on heaven when he fled the scene of the double police killings in Victoria’s High Country.
Those close to the Freeman family believe he had judged that he would never see his family again after the shootout with Victoria Police on August 26, telling wife Mali he would see her in heaven.
The top of Mt Buffalo – high above the site of the killings – was covered by a thick, wet fog early this week, a metaphor for the three-month aftermath of the shootings and the stories that are slowly emanating about Freeman’s frantic exit from the crime scene.
For months, locals have been debating Freeman’s last communications with his family, three of whom were caught in the gunfire in the Hino bus parked above the Buckland River near Porepunkah in Victoria’s northeast.
Sources familiar with his last movements said that in the process of fleeing, Freeman, 56, communicated that he would see wife Mali, 42, in heaven and that she should flee the scene, which she did along nearby Barrett Lane, with her three-year-old in her arms.
It comes as a source has also detailed to The Australian how Freeman, well before the shootout, had said that he was prepared to do anything rather than be caught by police and that if push came to stand-off, he would kill himself rather than be arrested.
“He had his own form of spirituality,’’ the friend said, adding that Freeman was “Rambo, 10 times over’’.
Next week marks three months since 10 police tried to serve a warrant on Freeman as he, his wife and two of his children were on the property outside Porepunkah, 300km northeast of Melbourne.
Police accuse him of murdering Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson, 59, and Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart, 34. A third officer was seriously injured and Freeman is accused of attempting to kill a fourth policeman, then fleeing into the thick bush that leads to the base of Mt Buffalo.
Freeman, if still alive, is an experienced bushman who could quite easily still be in a cave or old goldmine in the region, or have fled locally or interstate.
The bush is so dense and vast that a fugitive with sufficient supplies and support could remain undetected for years.
Soon after August 26, there was a strong sense among people close to Freeman that he may have killed himself, but police are mindful that this could be a strategy to trick them into the belief he is dead when he had fled the area.
The words attributed to Freeman about seeing his wife in heaven fuelled the theory that he may have killed himself.
Police are still considering every option but did not comment on what Freeman communicated after the shootings.
“As we have said from the start, we remain open to all possibilities and this has not changed,’’ a police spokesperson said.
“This is that Freeman is either dead, or he is alive and being harboured by someone or interstate.’’
The alleged murders occurred on a small farm just out of Porepunkah; Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Mike Bush attended the scene this week in a small but heavily armed convoy to examine what had happened.
The day before, police were in bush near the Buckland River less than 2km upstream from the shootings, and locals say they have been operating drones in the area.
The most likely reason for this is to determine whether Freeman shot himself soon after fleeing and that signs of his body or presence may be picked up on video.
Police have confirmed that a possible shot was heard soon after Freeman allegedly killed the police and near the property he was living on, but this report opens the way for even more speculation.
Did he kill himself with a gun, did he accidentally fire a round while running, or was he test-firing a weapon the deer hunter wasn’t used to, such as a police handgun?
If he did kill himself in the vicinity, how is it possible his body could not be found after one of Australia’s biggest-ever police operations, even though the terrain is difficult to search and wild dogs frequent the area?
Wife Mali, who Freeman met in The Philippines, is a popular local community member who has never spoken publicly about what happened on the day. The wider Freeman family also are trying to ease the pressure on his traumatised wife, who has three children and is trying to build a life after the shootings.
They lived a virtual subsistence existence on the bus, Freeman supported by a pension, and police have heavily scrutinised her version of events.
The suicide theory is complicated because, criminal psychologist Tim Watson-Munro says, Freeman appears to be a narcissist and people like him don’t normally kill themselves.
“This is a bloke who thinks he’s above it all,’’ he said, adding it would be possible he had stored food and supplies in the bush.
Watson-Munro, like police, is keeping an open mind on what has happened.
It was possible he was “so full of himself” that he wouldn’t want to end his life and that it’s possible “he’s alive somewhere”.
Victoria Police is running a well-resourced campaign to root out Freeman and anyone helping him, but the scene in and around Bright and Porepunkah is comparatively low-key compared with the weeks after the shootings.
The helicopters have gone, as have the military vehicles, although every resource is on call.
Bushwalkers are plodding through the national park and cyclists are regularly riding the 25km mountain road, all the way to the top of Mt Buffalo; locals believe that if Freeman is still in that bush, he could quite easily leave the area, and that he had time to flee three months ago.
Commissioner Bush said this week police were still no clearer on whether Freeman was dead or alive and earlier in the month said opinion was divided about what had happened.
On November 15, Bush said: “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.
“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.”
Trina Friend is a Bright adventure guide who conducts tours on the Ovens River and in the national park; the Ovens River is the focus of one (unlikely) theory espoused about
Freeman – that he kayaked down the Buckland River, which joins the Ovens, then kept going, as police in their hundreds prepared to flood the area.
Friend says there are myriad views in the area about what had happened and that while no one was making light of the situation, it was like an old-fashioned game.
“Who knows where he is?’’ she said.
“He could be anywhere. It’s called Dezi bingo.’’
