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The task of building a case against those who helped police killer Dezi Freeman during his seven months on the run is expected to face “serious obstacles”.
Detectives from Taskforce Summit are awaiting analysis from two phones found at Freeman’s bush encampment in Thologolong, after official confirmation on Wednesday that he was the man shot by specialist police.
While the mobile phone data could identify who Freeman has been in contact with, officers familiar with the technologies use as evidence, but not authorised to speak on behalf of the force, warned there would be significant challenges in mounting a successful prosecution of those involved.
“You’d have to assume he’s not using encrypted apps [such as WhatsApp and Signal], which is a big if. But even if there are records, it really only proves they had a chat not that assistance had been given,” said the officer.
He said he thought it was “pretty extraordinary” that Taskforce Summit detectives had not immediately spoken with the owner of the remote property where Freeman was hiding, Ricky Sutherland, about who had access to the site.
Another former senior officer said proof of conversations between and Freeman and any potential accomplices was “handy intelligence, but not great evidence”.
“I suspect if there was strong evidence there would already have been an arrest, but you don’t know what’s happening behind the scenes,” the officer said.
On Monday, Chief Commissioner Mike Bush repeatedly said Freeman must have been assisted by someone while on the run for 216 days.
“[It is] very important for us to understand how long he’s been here and who else was complicit in getting him here, and then caring for him or providing him with food and other things to this point,” Bush said.
“We will be speaking to anyone we suspect has assisted him to avoid detection and arrest.”
Bush insisted they would be held to account and Freeman could not have made it to the remote location and found food on his own.
Anyone convicted of harbouring or assisting Freeman faces a custodial sentence of up to 20 years. A $1 million reward had also been posted for information that led to his arrest, but police have yet to reveal how they became aware of his location and have said those details would likely remain confidential.
Investigators on Wednesday remained at the scene where Freeman died in a hail of bullets after refusing to surrender and pointing a gun at police who had been negotiating with him at his camp on the banks of the Murray River.
“Please be advised that we have now formally identified the deceased from Monday’s police shooting in Thologolong as Desmond Freeman,” police said in a statement.
They are now working backwards to establish how Freeman made his way there from the dense bushland near Mount Buffalo more than 150 kilometres away and who could have potentially assisted him.
Last month, Victoria Police was forced to concede it could not proceed with charges against Freeman’s wife Mali Freeman and a 56-year-old man from Porepunkah with obstructing their investigation.
The Office of Public Prosecutions reviewed a brief of evidence against the pair and found it was insufficient to support a conviction, which is understood to have rankled several investigators involved in the case.
The briefs against Mali Freeman and the Porepunkah man were independently reviewed by a barrister, who also determined a prosecution was unlikely.
Four days after the fatal shooting of police officers Neal Thompson and Vadim de Waart-Hottart, Mali Freeman, 42, and a 15-year-old boy were taken into custody during a raid at a separate Porepunkah home before being interviewed by police and released.
At the time, Bush confirmed the pair were the suspected gunman’s partner and son in a press conference, but did not divulge details about the basis of their arrests.
Mali Freeman subsequently released a statement, via her lawyer, urging her 56-year-old husband to surrender and for anyone harbouring him to come forward to the police.
“On behalf of my children and myself, I wish to share our deep sorrow for the loss of the lives of Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson and Senior Constable Vadim De Waart on 26 August 2025,” the 42-year-old, who has three children with Freeman, said in the statement.
“We are truly sorry for your loss, and the suffering and grief that the families, friends and colleagues of Detective Leading Senior Constable Thompson and Senior Constable De Waart are now experiencing. My children and I grieve for the loss of your loved ones.”
She insisted that she did not share her husband’s anti-authority views.
Mali Freeman learnt of her husband’s death from police officers on Monday morning, while friends told media she had previously believed he had taken his life soon after vanishing into Mount Buffalo National Park on August 26.
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