Overview
- Victoria Police arrested a man and a woman described as associates of Freeman as part of the investigation into who helped him after he fled Porepunkah.
- Freeman, formally identified by police, died after a three-hour standoff at a Thologolong shipping container on Monday when specialist officers used an armoured vehicle and stun grenades.
- Detectives are analysing two recovered mobile phones and items from the hideout, including roof vents, cooking gear, chairs and a bullet-marked boat, to learn who contacted or supplied him.
- Officers and prosecutors caution that chat logs or call records may show contact but not provable assistance, and earlier reviews by the Office of Public Prosecutions found insufficient evidence to charge his wife or a Porepunkah man.
- Police are working backwards along the 150-plus kilometre route to Thologolong and plan to question anyone suspected of harbouring him, including the property’s owner who has been in Tasmania, with penalties of up to 20 years for aiding a fugitive.