AAA<\/p>\n
One of the first times Dezi Freeman ran from police, his friend Bruce Evans tried to negotiate on the phone between him and the local cops.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019d gone through a tunnel on foot and popped up on the other side of the freeway, and they couldn\u2019t catch him, so I offered to help de-escalate things,\u201d recalls Evans, who was also facing charges at the time for breaching COVID restrictions.<\/p>\n
They had been standing \u201cback to back without masks\u201d, part of a regular protest in the regional town of Benalla during pandemic lockdowns, and Evans was confident they had a solid legal case. \u201cInstead, Dezi did a runner,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen he called me, he was hiding under a pile of leaves. I kept asking him, \u2018Why did you run?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Years later, on August 26, 2025, when Freeman gunned down police serving a warrant on him and then disappeared into the wilderness of Porepunkah, Evans was no longer shocked. Freeman\u2019s hatred of police and \u201cthe system\u201d had boiled over by then, beyond his fights with them at protests and in court, Evans says.<\/p>\n
The last text Freeman sent him \u2013 just days before the August shooting \u2013 declared that he no longer cared if he was caught driving without a licence. \u201cThey can shoot me,\u201d Freeman had told Evans.<\/p>\n
Like many of Freeman\u2019s friends, Evans doesn\u2019t believe \u201cthe official story\u201d of the shooting and the extraordinary seven-month manhunt that followed, ending in a shootout and Dezi\u2019s death last week<\/a> at a remote property near Walwa \u2013 more than 100 kilometres from where he vanished into the Porepunkah forest.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I know he shot those police,\u201d says Evans.<\/p>\n A memorial, papered with children\u2019s drawings, has sprung up inside the nearby Wangaratta police station for the two officers Freeman shot dead: Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson and Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart.<\/p>\n They were among 10 officers who approached Freeman and his family that day in August at the renovated bus where they had been living off-grid to serve a search warrant on Freeman over child sexual offences. A third officer was seriously injured in the confrontation, and a female sergeant also narrowly escaped when the gun Freeman turned on her jammed and didn\u2019t fire.<\/p>\n In the shadow of Mount Buffalo, where Freeman vanished with two stolen police guns, locals who were raided during the early manhunt say they are now wary police will come knocking again, as authorities search for those who might have offered him aid.<\/p>\n Until surprise intelligence from someone close to the fugitive<\/a> arrived last month, police had come to believe that Freeman was dead. Surveillance was silent, and exhaustive searches of the bush had turned up nothing. Now detectives are certain he had help on the run<\/a> \u2013 associates bringing him supplies or aiding his travel through treacherous terrain that had recently been hit by fires and snow.<\/p>\n Last weekend, two of Freeman\u2019s associates were arrested in the area, though they have since been released without charge. As a flurry of holidaymakers descended on the tourist towns of Bright and Porepunkah, locals were quick to say they had spotted more undercover police in town as well. You can tell by their clothes, some told this masthead. Police dress too well to be your average tourist, and their haircuts are too smart. (An observation that quickly ruled this reporter out of suspicions.)<\/p>\n Still, those who knew Freeman, say it\u2019s not surprising that the experienced bushman evaded police for so long. Former bikie and local blacksmith Stephen Mallett was part of the same \u201cprepper\u201d group as Freeman, who train to survive in the bush and are known to leave \u201cfeeder trails\u201d \u2013 stashes of supplies \u2013 along prepared routes.<\/p>\n Here in the state\u2019s alpine north-east, the scrub is thick and unforgiving, Mallett says \u2013 it\u2019s almost impossible to stray from the path unless you know the land, or you end up \u201cup to your neck in blackberries\u201d.<\/p>\n Police sources say it\u2019s just as difficult to run physical surveillance of properties bordered by forest.<\/p>\n For bushmen like Freeman and Mallett, those wilds are full of hidden shelters and shortcuts too \u2013 including waterfalls and abandoned huts \u2013 much of which went unsearched by the army of police who descended on Mount Buffalo during the manhunt, locals told this masthead.<\/p>\n \u201cThey went looking the wrong way,\u201d says Mallett, who was raided by police early on at his home in Bright but cleared of involvement in helping Freeman evade authorities. \u201cI always thought he\u2019d go north, probably in a kayak, up the Murray River, and there they found him, up near the border. He ran rings around them.\u201d<\/p>\n Jim Rech, a former friend of Freeman\u2019s from the area, recalls years earlier Freeman pointing out key spots on Mount Buffalo \u2013 higher ground with \u201c360-degree views\u201d where Freeman suggested he had already hidden strategic stashes of supplies, should he ever need them.<\/p>\n \u201cDezi didn\u2019t want to ever be caged. And he knew everything about that mountain,\u201d says Rech, who was also raided repeatedly but found not to be helping Freeman. \u201cHe was prepared in his head. He was going to be gone where they\u2019d never find him or go down fighting.<\/p>\n \u201cHis two favourite movies were Rambo and Dances with Wolves. But it\u2019s been so hard on [his wife] Mali and his kids. I wish he\u2019d thought more about that. I tried to warn him [he was] taking things too far.\u201d<\/p>\n Many of those close to Freeman spoke of his recent stand-offs with child protection services, some of whom had surrounded the remote Porepunkah property where he was living before the August shooting, over concerns about homeschooling arrangements of his children.<\/p>\n Former friends cited his long-standing problem with female police officers, in particular, who he had thought \u201cshould be submissive\u201d, as well as previous patterns<\/a> of erratic behaviour that had forced him to move on from other off-grid communities.<\/p>\n A risk assessment determined specialist officers weren\u2019t needed that day in August to serve the warrant on Freeman \u2013 though such a trained squad would later handle the storming of his hideout near Walwa.<\/p>\n Even after the shooting \u2013 which followed the killing of two police officers<\/a> and a neighbour by a family of conspiracy theorists in Wieambilla, Queensland, in 2022 \u2013 associates of Freeman insist the sovereign citizen movement<\/a> isn\u2019t dangerous.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not like we\u2019re running an organised militia up here,\u201d says Mallett, though he admits some, including himself, are \u201cprepping for the event of civil war\u201d.<\/p>\n Mallet, Evans and Rech were among more than 100 people raided by police during the manhunt around Porepunkah, and say distrust in police there has never been higher.<\/p>\n \u201cI snub my nose at all authorities, though, even sovereign citizens. I\u2019m an outlaw biker,\u201d says Mallett. But after a tactical squad descended on his house, Mallett says he nearly left town in shame.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought they might shoot my dogs,\u201d he says. \u201cIt shook me. And I didn\u2019t want people scared to run into me in town. Instead, I became like a local hero, everyone wanted to say hi.\u201d<\/p>\n Just don\u2019t call Freeman a \u201csovereign citizen\u201d here. Many locals baulk at the term, calling it an oxymoron. Some accuse the media of missing the real story, even as they decline to \u201cdivulge details\u201d, at times citing unspecified \u201clegal advice\u201d or unproven conspiracy theories.<\/p>\n But then it can also be hard to tell when they are being serious.<\/p>\n Evans admits he\u2019ll slip joke answers in even when speaking to police, always with a twinkle in his eye. A favourite gag when speaking to this masthead about Freeman is pausing to \u201cask the guy hiding in my shed\u201d for his opinion. He gives his profession as a pole dancer with poorly attended shows.<\/p>\n But there is a genuine sadness about him when he considers how his friend\u2019s war with police finally ended.<\/p>\n![\"Bruce](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/84eac687bec840089fd5966133aa8235fcda4db2.jpeg\")
Bruce Evans, a friend of Dezi Freeman.Jason South<\/p>\n![\"Mallet\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/af52631449b5122577bcb30599cbe591d83fb768.jpeg\")
Mallet\u2019s property was raided by police not long after Freeman killed two police officers in Porepunkah.Eddie Jim<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/8c29a2b5cfea9936542a216aedc16d6848ad5907.jpeg\")
The town of Bright is drawing tourists again as autumn begins.Eddie Jim<\/p>\n![\"In](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/94dd3e65e6bb9c625f6ea3f1ebeb302b440f67b6.jpeg\")
In the late 1990s, Freeman (right) was part of hippie festivals known as Rainbow Gatherings, which are centred on community, sustainability and living off grid.Beth Knights<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/fa827dee7c6009fb283a4062736087d7511d97d1.jpeg\")
A gate, manned by solar-powered video surveillance, bars access to the property where Freeman shot dead two police officers in August.Eddie Jim<\/p>\n![\"Mallet](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/73d6d6e9809e91292acfde7c8fb6ba216394dfc9.jpeg\")
Mallet says he was concerned tactical police could shoot his dogs during a raid on his Bright home early in the Freeman manhunt.Eddie JimRelated Article![\"Dezi](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/d3c776a6364d7135f992e06baf5fd286240a903374d7d1386e7f3057cb50bb4f.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/d08f13d1284b413363e657a2bf1e4bb496460c34.jpeg\")
A memorial for Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson and Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart inside Wangaratta police station. Joe Armao<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/a5eef07ac5a6fa366384c8b9817ea5e66bf85086.jpeg\")
The path to the Bright Court House and police station, where Taskforce Summit detectives were embedded for the Freeman manhunt.Eddie Jim<\/p>\n