{"id":537252,"date":"2026-03-13T06:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T06:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/537252\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T06:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T06:56:09","slug":"prosecution-of-three-people-linked-to-dezi-freeman-investigation-stalls-due-to-lack-of-evidence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/537252\/","title":{"rendered":"Prosecution of three people linked to Dezi Freeman investigation stalls due to lack of evidence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Police have announced they will not proceed with charges against three people questioned as part of the broader investigation into alleged police killer and fugitive Dezi Freeman.<\/p>\n

The three people had previously been interviewed by investigators from Taskforce Summit, Victoria Police said in a media released issued on Friday.<\/p>\n

The specialist taskforce was established to lead the search for Freeman after the fatal shooting of Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson and Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart more than six months ago.<\/p>\n

The two police officers were shot and killed \u2014 and a third officer injured \u2014 as they were executing a warrant at Freeman’s Porepunkah property last August.<\/p>\n

The timeline, faces and places in Porepunkah’s police hunt<\/a><\/p>\n

Authorities are searching for alleged police shooter Dezi Freeman in the north-east Victorian town of Porepunkah. Here’s what we know about the search so far.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Freeman subsequently fled into bushland and extensive searches<\/a> alongside a $1 million dollar reward for information<\/a> have failed to reveal his whereabouts.<\/p>\n

A Victoria Police spokesperson said a 42-year-old woman and a 56-year-old man, both from Porepunkah, had since faced questioning in relation to the offence of obstructing police.<\/p>\n

A third person whose age was not provided was interviewed over an alleged attempted theft.<\/p>\n

Police said briefs of evidence were prepared against all three but a decision had been made not to proceed with prosecution.<\/p>\n

“These briefs were subsequently not authorised due to there being insufficient evidence to support a prosecution at this time,” a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

“Those briefs were independently reviewed, and the same outcome was reached.<\/p>\n

“Any further information received by police in relation to these matters will be thoroughly assessed and acted on as appropriate.”\"Half<\/p>\n

Search teams scoured the bushland surrounding Porepunkah after the August shootings. (Supplied: Victoria Police)<\/p>\n

Police said the investigation into the incident continued and the search for Freeman was ongoing.<\/p>\n

“Victoria Police, through Taskforce Summit, remains relentless in its efforts to find Freeman, using every available resource and the necessary capabilities,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

Police said a heightened presence would also continue in the local Porepunkah and Mount Buffalo National Park areas.<\/p>\n

They urged anyone who sees Freeman not to approach him but to call Triple Zero (000).<\/p>\n

Anyone with any information on his whereabouts, or who notices anything unusual within the park, should call Crime Stoppers Victoria on 1800 333 000 or www.crimestoppersvic.com.au<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police have announced they will not proceed with charges against three people questioned as part of the broader…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97244,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,72303,130878,74052,44,266436,266435,266437,91558,2024],"class_list":["post-537252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-dezi-freeman","tag-mount-buffalo-national-park","tag-neal-thompson","tag-news","tag-police-shootings","tag-porepunkah-shootings","tag-taskforce-summit","tag-vadim-de-waart-hottart","tag-victoria-police"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537252","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=537252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}