{"id":169241,"date":"2025-12-05T09:27:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T09:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/169241\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T09:27:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T09:27:10","slug":"victoria-police-launch-search-for-dezi-freemans-body","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/169241\/","title":{"rendered":"Victoria Police launch search for Dezi Freeman’s body"},"content":{"rendered":"

Police have shifted their search efforts to locating the body of alleged police killer Dezi Freeman after spending days meticulously combing through rural bushland.<\/p>\n

Freeman, who also goes by Desmond Filby, has been on the run after allegedly shooting dead police officers Neal Thompson and Vadim de Waart-Hottart while they served a warrant at his home in Porepunkah, about 300km northeast of Melbourne.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of police have been involved in the manhunt, with more than 400 officers deployed in the hours and days after the killings on August 26.<\/p>\n

Police confirmed on Friday that specialist resources, including the dog squad, NSW cadaver dogs, and the drone unit, had been deployed for a targeted search of Mount Buffalo National Park.<\/p>\n

\"Dezi<\/p>\n

Dezi Freeman, 56, remains on the run after allegedly shooting dead two police officers. (Source: Getty)<\/p>\n

The area was previously searched with the aim to locate Freeman, however teams have since focused their search on locating and identifying his body.<\/p>\n

Teams searched thick bush and heavy terrain, conducting line searches and clearing caves over a five-day period.<\/p>\n

No trace of Freeman has been located, police said.<\/p>\n

Assistant Commissioner Martin O’Brien says the force remained committed to doing everything possible to find Freeman.<\/p>\n

“The devastating loss of Neal and Vadim has struck at the heart of Victoria Police and had an enormous impact on the Porepunkah community,” he said.<\/p>\n

Detective Senior Constable Thompson, 59, was just a week away from retiring, while Senior Constable de Waart-Hottart, 34, was on temporary assignment to the area.<\/p>\n

\"Detective<\/p>\n

Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson, left, and Senior Constable Vadim De Waart-Hottart. (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n

Since August 26, specialist resources, including interstate and international crews, have scoured dense bushland, including large parts of the Mount Buffalo National Park, for Freeman.<\/p>\n

The park has since reopened, with staff patrols continuing.<\/p>\n

Detectives have investigated more than 1950 pieces of intelligence, including information received from the public.<\/p>\n

People in the area have been advised to remain vigilant and not approach the fugitive, who is considered armed and dangerous.<\/p>\n

Victoria Police have offered a AU$1 million and the possibility of indemnity for information leading to his capture, the largest reward in the state’s history for facilitating an arrest.<\/p>\n

“I want to reaffirm to the community that Victoria Police remains committed to doing everything we can \u2013 using every available resource and the necessary capabilities \u2013 to locate Desmond Freeman,” O’Brien said.<\/p>\n

“We will continue to conduct targeted searches such as this one based on intelligence. We will maintain a presence in the community, and we are determined we will see this to resolution.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police have shifted their search efforts to locating the body of alleged police killer Dezi Freeman after spending…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169242,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[85,67,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-169241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-australia","tag-crime-and-justice","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}