More than 100 police officers have descended on the Mount Buffalo National Park for a five-day search for missing fugitive Dezi Freeman, as authorities raise efforts to find the man accused of killing two police officers more than five months ago.
Specialist units, air support and a cadaver dog will join the targeted search which police say was driven by intelligence linked to a gunshot heard shortly after the fatal ambush at Freeman’s Rayner Track property in August.
In November, The Age revealed that police had carried out acoustic testing in bushland near the Buckland River to try to pinpoint where the single shot – heard about 20 minutes after the ambush – may have been fired.
In December, police spent five days combing nearly one square kilometre of dense bushland and caves, with this week’s search moving to adjoining terrain.
The investigation is being led by the Victoria Police Homicide Squad following the murders of Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson and Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart, who were shot dead while executing a search warrant at Freeman’s Rayner Track property on August 26.
The two officers were fatally shot. A third officer was also shot in the lower body and seriously injured, and continues to recover.
Detectives have examined more than 2000 pieces of intelligence, including tips from the public, in the hunt for Freeman, but police have been unable to locate him.
Investigators will provide an update on the search at 11am on Monday.
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