{"id":169033,"date":"2025-09-25T22:16:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T22:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/169033\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T22:16:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T22:16:10","slug":"police-search-for-alleged-porepunkah-gunman-dezi-freeman-hits-one-month-mark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/169033\/","title":{"rendered":"Police search for alleged Porepunkah gunman Dezi Freeman hits one-month mark"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former homicide detective says the search for alleged Porepunkah gunman Dezi Freeman could become unsustainable if he is not found soon.<\/p>\n

It has been one month since Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson and Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart were shot dead in north-east Victoria<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Authorities have had no confirmed sightings of Mr Freeman, despite hundreds of public tip-offs and a $1 million reward for information leading to his arrest<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Retired Victoria Police homicide detective Charlie Bezzina said the cost and resourcing of the manhunt could not continue indefinitely.<\/p>\n

“You’ve got to look at it realistically from a costing and from a resource issue,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Charlie Bezzina says there is a possibility Mr Freeman may never be found.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 (ABC News: Nicole Asher)<\/p>\n

“I think, by the end of it, it’ll be into the millions, multi-millions by the time it’s finished.”<\/p>\n

Victoria Police has vowed to maintain a strong presence in the region until Mr Freeman is found, but Mr Bezzina said that was unlikely to be sustainable.<\/p>\n

Key faces, places and moments of Freeman manhunt<\/a><\/p>\n

Authorities are searching for alleged police shooter Dezi Freeman in the north-east Victorian town of Porepunkah.<\/p>\n

He said warmer weather and increased bushfire risks would also play a part.<\/p>\n

“You can’t have the police in their full regalia at 35-degree heat in the bush,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s a welfare concern for them.<\/p>\n

“It’s always a bitter pill to swallow by making the decision of walking away from it [the search] when there’s nothing more that can be done at that particular point in time, so not a good place to be.<\/p>\n

“It could remain a mystery for the rest of our lives if no remains are found or sightings emerge.”<\/p>\n

Fugitives ‘reach out to someone they know’<\/p>\n

Alex Krstic, a former Victoria Police investigator and friend of Mr Thompson, said someone was likely to hear from Mr Freeman.<\/p>\n

“I’ve got considerable experience in hunting escapees and wanted people and normally they’ll reach out to someone they know,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Close<\/p>\n

Alex Krstic believes if Dezi Freeman is alive, Victoria Police will catch him. (Supplied: Alex Krstic)<\/p>\n

“There’s not an individual on the planet that can just wander off into the bush \u2026 indefinitely without some sort of support.”<\/p>\n

He said there were two distinct possibilities for the search.<\/p>\n

“He’s either lying low and being harboured by somebody or he could be lying in a ditch dead,” he said.<\/p>\n

“If he’s deceased, they may never find him.<\/p>\n

“If he is alive and being harboured, sooner or later \u2026 they’ll find him.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Fatally shot officer Neal Thompson loved fishing and his dog Jimmy. (Supplied: John Bird)<\/p>\n

Police plea for Freeman to surrender<\/p>\n

Victorian police have offered a “safe surrender plan” for Mr Freeman<\/a>, an offer that remains on the table.<\/p>\n

“We would encourage Mr Freeman, if he is able to see this \u2026 to think about surrendering, contact triple-0 and we will arrange a safe surrender plan for him,” Acting Deputy Commissioner Russell Barrett said.<\/p>\n

But Melbourne University criminology lecturer Liam Gillespie said it was unlikely to work.<\/p>\n

\"Dezi<\/p>\n

Dezi Freeman claims to be a “sovereign citizen”. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

“Generally speaking, a huge part of sovereign citizen ideology is that they feel as though they are being persecuted by the police, by the law and by all other forms of authority,” he said.<\/p>\n

“So, one of the problems that poses is that any attempt to engage with them or respond to them can seemingly reaffirm those narratives of persecution.”<\/p>\n

Dr Gillespie said he could not recall a case when a surrender plan had worked with a sovereign citizen.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Criminologist Liam Gillespie doubts if a surrender plan will work with Freeman. (Supplied: Liam Gillespie\u00a0)<\/p>\n

Search may end in mystery<\/p>\n

Mr Bezzina said he wasn’t surprised Mr Freeman had not been found, given his extensive bushcraft experience.<\/p>\n

He said police must first determine whether Mr Freeman was hiding in the bush before relying on public sightings.<\/p>\n

“Anything is possible. The process is slowly eliminating the obvious, starting with the bush,” he said<\/p>\n

“At some point, the line in the sand has got to be drawn where they say, ‘There’s nowhere else to search, so we’ve really got to rely now on public sightings’.<\/p>\n

“Police don’t like to fail and especially when we’ve lost two members and the wounding of a third one.<\/p>\n

“It’s a major impact, not just on Victoria Police, on the community at large because everyone will be concerned that they may come across him. And it could be anywhere, not just in that particular area.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former homicide detective says the search for alleged Porepunkah gunman Dezi Freeman could become unsustainable if he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,72435,110655,96298,110657,72303,44,6646,71351,58400,72433,8246,110656],"class_list":["post-169033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-desi-freeman","tag-desmond-filby","tag-desmond-freeman","tag-dezi-bird","tag-dezi-freeman","tag-news","tag-police-shooting","tag-porepunkah","tag-sovereign-citizen","tag-sovereign-citizens","tag-update","tag-where-is"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}