On Monday, at a press conference in the even smaller high country locality of Thologolong, where Freeman had been shot dead hours earlier, the chief commissioner of Victoria<\/a> police, Mike Bush, told a waiting throng of reporters that police believe the 56-year-old must have had help to survive for seven months in the bush.<\/p>\n It\u2019s 100km overland through impossibly rugged country from where Freeman disappeared <\/a>in Porepunkah to where he was found in Thologolong. Much of the alps have been on fire all summer. There has been snow and severe storms. The resulting manhunt was one of the biggest in Australian history, involving hundreds of police officers and help from the army. And yet one man, on foot, got away.<\/p>\n He must have had help, police say.<\/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 told reporters. \u201cIf anyone was complicit, they will be held to account.\u201d<\/p>\n Sitting in the middle of a park in Myrtleford as the sun beats down, Sarah* \u2013 a friend of Freeman\u2019s who only spoke on the condition her real name was not used \u2013 told Guardian Australia what she told police officers when they came knocking several months ago.<\/p>\n \u201c[Detectives] came to interview me twice,\u201d she says. \u201cI live on 100 acres \u2026 they never searched it.\u201d<\/p>\n When the police asked if she would tell them if she saw him, she says, she answered honestly.<\/p>\n \u201cMy answer was no,\u201d she says. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t call them.\u201d<\/p>\n Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n She says that if she had seen Freeman, she would have given \u201ca great big hug\u201d and told him \u201cthat we love him\u201d before asking him to ask God the right thing to do.<\/p>\n \u201cNow that is not telling Dezi to hand himself in. I can tell you that right now,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of people\u201d in the area would not have called the police, she says. He had friends and allies \u2013 many of whom, including Sarah, share his pseudo law beliefs, which mean they do not accept the authority of the state.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat they\u2019re saying now [that he is dead] is bullshit,\u201d she says. \u201cA lot of people are of the same opinion.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople that knew him, would say a lot of things. He knew the mountains, knew them like the back of his hands.\u201d<\/p>\n Mount Buffalo national park behind the Porepunkah property where Dezi Freeman lived. Photograph: Ellen Smith\/The GuardianPorepunkah is in north-east Victoria, which is Ned Kelly country. Photograph: Ellen Smith\/The Guardian<\/p>\n The state coroner formally confirmed Freeman\u2019s death on Wednesday.<\/p>\n Freeman and Sarah belonged to the same circles, believed the same things. Both believed Covid was a hoax and opposed the lockdowns \u2013 she was with him when he was arrested outside Myrtleford magistrates court in 2021, when anti-lockdown activists pursued a treason charge against the then premier Daniel Andrews. The case was later struck out by the court<\/a>.<\/p>\n This too is a conspiracy, she believes. \u201cSame as with Covid, what we saw and what was real are two different things.\u201d<\/p>\n The conversation loops around, touching on Freeman then back to the views they shared, views that have proliferated online. Sarah doesn\u2019t believe the constitution is legal or that viruses exist. She didn\u2019t get the Covid vaccine, and she sees the government and law enforcement as illegitimate corporations. These views weren\u2019t just shared with Freeman but a large community in the area. This community looks out for one another, she says. People \u201cwho know Dezi, know he\u2019s a great bloke and will say so\u201d.<\/p>\n Others knew Freeman before his descent into those beliefs, and find it hard to reconcile the man they once knew with his later actions. Writer Beth Knights, who lives in Bright, knew Freeman in the 1990s when they would attend Rainbow Gatherings \u2013 off-grid events where hundreds of people come together to build a village and live together for a week or several months.<\/p>\n She says the events are \u201cnot a breeding ground for extremist ideologies\u201d but \u201coptimists and idealists cooking food around a campfire together, ultimately\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was a good human, as far as I had the capacity to tell at that time,\u201d she says. \u201cBut he obviously just went further and further into a place that I don\u2019t relate to.\u201d<\/p>\n Kelly country<\/p>\n Ten police officers arrived at the Porepunkah property where Freeman and his family were living at 10.30 on 26 August 2025 to serve a search warrant. They were a mix of local officers and members of the sexual offences and child abuse investigation team. Among them were Det Leading Sen Const Neal Thompson, 59, a local police officer on the verge of retirement who had past dealings with Freeman and was reckoned to know how to handle him, and Const Vadim De Waart-Hottart, 35, who was new to the area. Both Thompson and Waart-Hottart were shot dead.<\/p>\n It was the worst shooting of police in regional Victoria since the Kelly gang shot dead three police officers at Stringybark Creek in 1878.<\/p>\n The bushranger Ned Kelly comes up with surprising frequency when discussing Freeman. North-east Victoria is Kelly country; the freeway turnoff for the Snow Road, which leads to Porepunkah, is just past Glenrowan, where Kelly held his last stand. Allusions to Kelly are in the water up here.<\/p>\n Rayner Track in Porepunkah where Dezi Freeman lived. Photograph: Ellen Smith\/The Guardian<\/p>\n![\"Dezi](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1920.jpg\")
Dezi Freeman shot dead by police after seven-month manhunt \u2013 video<\/p>\n