Key Points
- Dezi Freeman is accused of killing two police officers at a property in Porepunkah on Tuesday.
- His whereabouts remain unknown, with police conducting a significant search.
- He is believed to be a sovereign citizen, an ideology that rejects government authority and the rule of law.
The hunt for Dezi Freeman, the fugitive accused of killing two police officers earlier this week, will resume on Saturday as hundreds of police officers continue to scour the wilderness of Victoria's high country.
Freeman, 56, has been on the run since Tuesday when he fled into bushland following a fatal confrontation at a property in Porepunkah, about 300km north-east of Melbourne.
He is accused of killing detective leading senior constable Neal Thompson, 59, and senior constable Vadim De Waart, 35.
Tough conditions have impacted search efforts with thunderstorms, lashings of rain and hail battering the rural town.
Temperatures were predicted to plunge as low as 5C in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Damaging winds, blizzard-like conditions and snow were predicted down to levels of just 700 metres.
The rain is set to ease by daybreak, and officers will resume scouring mines, caves and dugouts in and around the small rural town.
Victoria Police chief commissioner Mike Bush said more than 450 police officers have been deployed to Porepunkah as part of the search.
Freeman's 42-year-old wife Mali and 15-year-old son were arrested on Thursday night following an operation at an address in Chandler Court near the town's centre, before they were interviewed and released.
"There may or may not be charges that follow," Bush said.
Police helicopters and drones have been circling the area for days in the hope of catching a sign of the fugitive's whereabouts.
Freeman had become 'withdrawn', friend says
Concerned friend Marlie Thomas said Freeman had become more withdrawn in the days before the fatal shootings.
She attends the local Our Lady of Snows Catholic church — alongside Freeman and his wife — which will remain closed this weekend.
"We knew he was withdrawing a little bit," she told the Australian Associated Press.
"We said, 'We've got to keep a closer eye on him.'"
Freeman, who has bush survival experience, was last seen wearing dark green tracksuit pants, a dark green rain jacket, brown Blundstone boots and reading glasses, police said.
He is believed to be a sovereign citizen, an ideology that rejects government authority and whose followers believe the rule of law doesn't apply to them, and who disassociate from society.
