Death knock: From mountain murders to a massive manhunt

It was a quiet, wintry Tuesday in Victoria’s alpine region, the crowds of weekend skiers and bushwalkers long gone, when police set out for an isolated property at the base of Mount Buffalo.

Just after 10.30am on August 26, officers pulled up to a vast property on the outskirts of the small township of Porepunkah to execute a search warrant.

What followed was not a routine arrest, and within minutes of their arrival, two officers were shot dead. The sudden violence instantly triggered a massive police manhunt, one that began in the dense mountain bushland and has since tracked 100 kilometres west to an isolated hamlet near Benalla.

The fatal search warrant

With 10 officers enlisted, this wasn’t being treated like an ordinary search warrant.

According to Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Mike Bush, a robust risk assessment had taken place and the officers were armed.

The team was made up of local officers and members of the sexual offences and child abuse team.

One of the killed officers was selected for the job because they’d had previous dealings with their target: sovereign citizen Dezi Freeman.

Police travelled down the single-lane, bitumen Rayner Track, surrounded by towering trees, that leads to the entrance to the 50-hectare property.

The road ends where the long dirt driveway begins. A sign warns: “No through road. Private property. No public access.” Much of the property is covered by the dense bushland of Mount Buffalo, wrapping around a cleared area with a main residential building, several shacks and vehicles.

The steeply sloping property features a large, high-gabled house with a red roof. Satellite pictures show a compound with various outbuildings and vehicles scattered around a cleared area.

Freeman, a 56-year-old known for his anti-government views and hatred of police, had been living in a bus with his family on the “off-grid” property, along with several others.

Local detective Neal Thompson, 59, was the first to knock, according to police sources.

Freeman then allegedly launched his ambush, shooting Thompson dead through the door of the bus.

The father-of-three is alleged to have then opened a window of the bus and ambushed 35-year-old Senior Constable Vadim de Waart.

Another detective wounded in the exchange is understood to have hidden under the vehicle for up to an hour, until paramedics arrived.

A neighbour reported hearing a volley of up to 20 gunshots.

Freeman seized handguns and ammunition from the dying officers before fleeing into dense bushland and according to the chief commissioner.

He was pursued and shot at, Bush said, but managed to get away unwounded.

The seven uninjured officers would remain at the site for hours.

They worked to contain the property and were forced to carry the bodies of their slain colleagues from the active search scene.

The emergency response

The seven officers had to hunker down, Bush said. “We didn’t know exactly where our suspect was. We had to keep them safe, get specialist [resources] into the area to extract them in a safe way.”

About 11am, scores of police converged on the property.

Some used the Rayner Track entrance while others came from across a neighbour’s land, to the east, in a “pincer move” tactic.

Heavily armed members of the Special Operations Group arrived by helicopter from Melbourne before midday.

The injured officer was flown by air ambulance to The Alfred hospital, where he underwent surgery and remains in a stable condition.

Bush said no firearms were recovered from the property, leading police to believe Freeman had fled with them.

Police sources not authorised to speak publicly said Freeman was now thought to be armed with a homemade shotgun, a rifle and at least one handgun stolen from a slain officer.

The mammoth manhunt

The murders triggered the start of a major police operation. The town of Porepunkah, which has about 1000 residents and is located seven kilometres north-west of Bright, was plunged into lockdown and roads were blocked.

Ninety students at the primary school were forced to stay indoors while the Alpine Shire Council closed its facilities and cancelled that night’s meeting.

A Leonardo AW139 helicopter equipped with an infrared camera, which can detect thermal energy in darkness, was deployed.

Hundreds of officers were swung onto the operation, including more than 100 focused on the search itself.

It is more than a month since the search began, and there have still been no confirmed sightings of Freeman.

Early on, some police were stationed at the scene of the shootout while others searched Mount Buffalo National Park.

At the time, Bush said Freeman had intimate knowledge of the area’s thick wilderness and was well versed in “bushcraft” – or outdoor survival skills – a factor that would give him an edge over law enforcement.

“We have experts – the best in the country – there, doing everything we can to find that suspect,” Bush said.

It’s estimated that an experienced bushman could travel 10-15 kilometres a day through the dense terrain.

Porepunkah residents received texts warning them to stay home.

“There is an active, armed offender in the general area of Porepunkah,” the message read. “Victoria Police request you stay at home and avoid unnecessary travel.”

Feathertop Winery, on the edge of town, was set up as a base for police, with trucks, helicopters, armoured vehicles and ambulances moving in and out of the area.

A no-fly zone was established over Porepunkah, preventing aircraft and drones from being flown where police were operating.

Over the constant hum of a helicopter, rounds of loud bangs were heard coming from the Rayner Track property on Wednesday where police were operating. It was unclear what caused the sounds.

More bangs were heard near the property on Thursday, with police continuing the search by air and on foot.

On the Thursday after the shooting, Superintendent Brett Kahan used a police press conference to deliver a message directly to the fugitive: “If Dezi Freeman is watching this, ring triple zero and we will support a surrender plan. That option is open to him, absolutely.”

Acting deputy commissioner Russell Barrett said the force would throw everything it had at the search. “That’s our purpose, and we will not rest until it occurs.”

While Victoria Police mourns the loss of two of its own, the manhunt continues.

Police announced in late September that they had scaled back the operation to 200 officers.

On October 1, five weeks and one day after Thompson and De Waart-Hottart died, officers swept a farming area called Goomalibee, north of Benalla and around 100km west of Porepunkah, as part of the search for Freeman.

– with Grant McArthur, Melissa Cunningham, Cameron Houston, Carla Jaeger and Alexander Darling