Searchers endured freezing conditions at Mt Buffalo and Porepunkah. Photo / Victoria Police
Searchers endured freezing conditions at Mt Buffalo and Porepunkah. Photo / Victoria Police
New Zealand officers have joined the search for alleged Porepunkah police killer Dezi Freeman, which is now Australia’s largest-ever tactical police operation.
Hundreds of officers from Victoria, interstate, the Australian Federal Police and the army continue to search dense, rugged bushland in Victoria’s northeast for the fugitive, who has nowbeen on the run for 20 days.
Dezi Freeman. Photo: Supplied / Victoria Police
The New Zealand contingent took part in an intensive search on Friday in the immediate vicinity of Freeman’s Porepunkah property.
Acting Assistant Commissioner Penelope Gifford said NZ Police were asked to help.
“As such, 11 police staff from a specialist workgroup have been deployed to Victoria since Friday,” she said. “It is not unusual for us to support our Australian counterparts on occasion, where required.”
Acting Deputy Commissioner of Regional Operations Russell Barrett said the operation included more than 125 specialist officers.
“This included incredibly rugged areas,” he said. “They were crawling through caves, they were traversing rivers and falls, they were searching plantations and gorges.”
Freeman is accused of shooting dead Detective Senior Constable Neal Thompson and Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart at his Porepunkah property on August 26.
Police are searching small caves and mines around Porepunkah. Photo / Victoria Police
The New Zealand officers have since departed, but Barratt said the resolve to find Freeman had not wavered.
Barrett said police had searched hundreds of properties – “with and without warrant” – including abandoned houses, mineshafts, caves and huts.
He said Freeman was still considered armed and dangerous, adding the search area contained “so many places to hide”.
“This is a really highly technical search that requires absolutely specialist capabilities to undertake because of the dangers that are involved.
The search for Dezi Freeman includes steep, difficult terrain. Photo / Victoria Police
“We’re coming across animals, every step is really difficult, it’s uneven ground where you don’t have line of sight of your colleagues for a lot of the time.
“If we think about Freeman and what he’s capable of, every step must be taken really, really carefully, when you consider what might be confronting you.”
He said there were still no confirmed sightings of Freeman since the fatal shootings almost three weeks ago.
Officers search along a dirt track for the alleged gunman Dezi Freeman. Photo / Victoria Police
“I remind the Victorian community… that this is an incredibly challenging moment in Victoria Police’s history.”
Travel restrictions lifted
Authorities have now eased the travel warnings that urged people to avoid Porepunkah, Bright and the surrounding region.
Barrett said it was a difficult decision, but it was necessary to help the community return to a state of normality.
“We’re saying that people can return to that area,” he said. “Be mindful of your own safety, be vigilant, understand the environment that you’re going into, understand the warnings that we’ve already got.”
He urged anyone travelling to a holiday house to report anything unusual upon arrival.
“It’s really important for us to know immediately, if a burglary has occurred at a house that’s normally vacant.”
He said the travel warning could be reinstated, if developments with the search warranted it.
Mt Buffalo National Park remained closed, as police continued to focus their search on that area.
“We consider he may still be in the area, it’s a possibility he may be harboured or he may be dead,” Barrett said.
