![\"Dezi](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Dezi_Freeman_death_map___loop--e908107d-cec6-4de9-beb5-d5153bcbd667-1.0.0000000.jpg\")
Dezi Freeman death map \u2013 loop<\/p>\nThe final hours and minutes of Dezi Freeman\u2019s life will be analysed in painstaking, forensic detail.<\/p>\n
But for the moment, there are few independently known facts, after months of rumour and wild speculation.<\/p>\n
How did Freeman come to be holed up on an isolated property, in what\u2019s been described as half shipping container, half caravan, about 100km across some of Victoria\u2019s wildest country from where he was last seen?<\/p>\n
How had he survived for so long after shooting dead two police officers last August?<\/p>\n
Who, if anyone, had aided and abetted him? Why? How were police ultimately tipped off to where he was? And how were they certain they had their man?<\/p>\n
Police and coronial inquests will attempt to settle these, and the myriad questions that will flow. Right now, there are scant details.<\/p>\n
Police had arrived at the isolated 35-hectare Murray River Road property near Thologolong about 24 hours before they confronted Freeman in the early hours of Monday morning.<\/p>\n
They were acting on a tipoff, reportedly received last week, that Freeman had been sighted near Walwa, east of the property where he was found.<\/p>\n
Freeman was living amid a ramshackle camp, a circle of shipping containers and portable dongas, none with running water or electricity. It\u2019s unknown how he got there or when he arrived.<\/p>\n
But police are anxious to understand who knew he was there, and who was helping keep him alive and out of the hands of authorities.<\/p>\n
Dezi Freeman death map \u2013 loop<\/p>\n
No other person had been at the property for at least 24 hours but \u201cthat doesn\u2019t mean they haven\u2019t been in the past\u201d, said Mike Bush, the Victoria police chief commissioner.<\/p>\n
He said it would be \u201cvery difficult\u201d for Freeman, even with his bushcraft and experience in the mountains, to have travelled from Porepunkah to Thologolong without external assistance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will track backwards from here to work out how long he\u2019s been here, and who helped him to be here,\u201d Bush said.<\/p>\n
\u201c[It is] very important for us to understand how long he\u2019s been here and who else was complicit in getting him here, and then caring for him or providing him with food and other things to this point.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf anyone was complicit, they will be held to account.\u201d<\/p>\n
Victoria police chief commissioner Mike Bush departs after speaking to media at the scene on Monday. Photograph: James Ross\/AAP<\/p>\n
For more than 200 days \u2013 since 26 August \u2013 Freeman had proved elusive in the rugged hills of highland Victoria, mountains he knew intimately, and, police feared, was well equipped to survive.<\/p>\n
As the months dragged on, many increasingly believed that Freeman was dead, killed by his own weapon in the hours or days after he shot dead police officers Neal Thompson and Vadim De Waart-Hottart. The pair were among a group of 10 police \u2013 made up of local officers and members of the sexual offences and child abuse investigation team \u2013 serving a search warrant.<\/p>\n
But new intelligence \u2013 a tipoff, a rumoured sighting, police have not revealed its nature or source \u2013 reanimated the long-running investigation.<\/p>\n
Monday at 5.30am was the beginning of the end.<\/p>\n
Police gathered at the scene where fugitive Dezi Freeman was shot dead near Thologolong. Photograph: James Ross\/AAP<\/p>\n
In the pre-dawn darkness, after a full day surveilling the property, police say they confronted Freeman, urging him to surrender peacefully.<\/p>\n
He did not, and the ensuing standoff would last three hours.<\/p>\n
During that time, Freeman confirmed his identity \u2013 police have not said precisely how \u2013 to officers who were encouraging him to submit to arrest.<\/p>\n
Police say they have video of Freeman\u2019s last moments.<\/p>\n
He is understood, according to the police account, to have emerged from his stronghold hideout, cloaked in a blanket or doona.<\/p>\n
Surrounded by police, he dropped the covering to reveal he was carrying a weapon \u2013 believed to be the service weapon of one of the police officers he is alleged to have shot dead in August.<\/p>\n
Multiple officers opened fire. It is not known if Freeman fired back. No police were injured.<\/p>\n
Freeman died at the scene.<\/p>\n
TimelineThe Porepunkah shooting and Dezi Freeman manhuntShow<\/p>\n
26 August 2025<\/p>\n
Ten police officers, including officers from the child abuse squad, attend a property at Rayner Track in Porepunkah at about 10.30am to execute a search warrant. Two officers are killed and another wounded. A heavily armed suspect escapes into the bush alone. Police deploy specialist resources, including air and ground, to find him.<\/p>\n
27 August 2025<\/p>\n
Victoria police name the suspect as Dezi Freeman, 56. Officers killed are named as Det Leading Sen Const Neal Thompson, 59, and Sen Const Vadim De Waart-Hottart, 35.<\/p>\n
28 August 2025<\/p>\n
Officers from the Australian federal police\u2019s elite tactical team are deployed. Police urge alleged killer to ring triple zero and surrender. Police arrest wife of Dezi Freeman, 42, and another individual in a late-night raid at a Porepunkah address. They are questioned and released \u201cpending further inquiries\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
6 September 2025<\/p>\n
Police announce \u201cup to $1m\u201d reward for information on Dezi Freeman, the largest ever offered in Victoria for an arrest, and warn public not to go looking for the \u201chigh-risk\u201d fugitive.\u00a0<\/p>\n
12 September 2025<\/p>\n
More than 125 specialist officers conduct the country\u2019s \u201clargest ever tactical policing operation\u201d in the inhospitable terrain around Freeman\u2019s property, including officers seconded from all Australian states and New Zealand.\u00a0<\/p>\n
14 September 2025<\/p>\n
Authorities lift travel restrictions in the Porepunkah area to \u201callow the community to return to a state of normality\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
5 November 2025<\/p>\n
Police conduct firearms testing near Barrett Lane and Rayner Track in Porepunkah, triggered by reports of a gunshot in the vicinity on the day of the police shooting.<\/p>\n
2 February 2026<\/p>\n
Police begin five-day search in Victorian high country for Freeman, and conduct further firearms testing as part of their investigation. Police say they are exploring three scenarios in relation to Freeman: that he died near Mount Buffalo by self-harm or misadventure; that he escaped the area and was being harboured; or that he\u00a0escaped the area and had survived without help.\u00a0<\/p>\n
13 March 2026<\/p>\n
Victoria police say they do not have sufficient evidence to proceed with charges against three people (including Freeman\u2019s wife) as part of the broader investigation into the fatal Porepunkah police shootings.<\/p>\n
30 March 2026<\/p>\n
Police shoot dead a man after a seven-month manhunt. The Victorian police commissioner, Mike Bush, says the shooting had ended the hunt for Freeman, but would not confirm the man\u2019s identity, saying the Victorian coroner was en route to conduct a formal identification process.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n
Bush said he had seen video of Freeman\u2019s final confrontation with police.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is quite clear to us now that the deceased was given every opportunity to resolve this peacefully and did not take that option. I have seen a video of the deceased leaving the building and presenting a firearm at our offices. That action took away any discretion our officers had to resolve this peacefully.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe tried everything possible, every tactical option that we have, to encourage the deceased to end this in a safe and peaceful manner. They weren\u2019t taken.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bush said officers would respect and assist the coronial process, as well as an investigation by Professional Standards, standard process for any police shooting.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything I know at this moment tells me the shooting was justified,\u201d he said. \u201cThere was an opportunity for him to surrender peacefully, which he did not.\u201d<\/p>\n
The man shot dead by police on Monday morning at a lonely property by the Murray River has not been formally identified. That will come in the next 24 to 48 hours.<\/p>\n
But the chief commissioner believes police have, finally, got their man.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe it\u2019s Dezi.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The final hours and minutes of Dezi Freeman\u2019s life will be analysed in painstaking, forensic detail. But for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-574157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574157","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=574157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}