Luke Filby has complicated memories of his uncle Dezi Freeman.
“He was like an older brother for me growing up … we were pretty close in my younger days,” Mr Filby said.
“I remember him being great, awesome, kind of like a larger-than-life character when I was younger. I looked up to him greatly.”
But as Mr Filby grew older, he began to see a different side to his uncle.
“He always had this mentally ill, hidden anger about him, like this hidden anger of meltdowns,” Mr Filby told 7.30.
Dezi Freeman has been on the run since he allegedly shot two police officers dead on August 26. (Supplied)
“I can’t explain it … and he never liked healthcare professionals to ever get a proper diagnosis or help with it.
“I could see that he was aware of it and tried his best at a younger age to manage his anger.
“He was right into karate and stuff and I think that was kind of an outlet to try and contain his anger, but he could never contain it. He always failed.”
Earlier in his life, his uncle went by the name Desmond Filby, before he changed his last name to Freeman after falling out with his family.
“He changed his name then to start a new life. I guess he felt that the family abandoned him, the family did him wrong.”
Mr Filby, who has been estranged from his uncle since 2018, told 7.30 he and other family members have been left devastated by what Mr Freeman is alleged to have done on August 26, 2025.
“Such a big impact what my uncle did, destroying these families, friends, even his own family,” he said.
“He destroyed them … cowardly … didn’t even care.”
Luke Filby, pictured left, says when he was younger he used to look up to his “larger than life” uncle Dezi Freeman, pictured right. (Supplied)
Mr Freeman is accused of the shooting murders of two Victoria police officers at a rural property at Porepunkah, in the state’s alpine region.
Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart and Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson died at the scene, a third officer was injured.
“It was really hard for my mum,” Mr Filby said.
“It’s her brother, [it’s] really upsetting. She was crying, she was shocked. She’s the one that gave me the terrible news.”
Luke Filby, pictured standing at the back, describes the alleged actions of his uncle Dezi Freeman, pictured front right, as “cowardly”. (Supplied)
The incident has sparked one of the largest manhunts in Australia’s history.
On Police Remembrance Day, Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Mike Bush revealed investigators have received more than 1,400 pieces of information from the public and searched more than 40sq km.
“None of them have led to any positive leads but then we explore them and then we re-explore them to make sure we are following it properly, and I do encourage anyone who has information about where this person may be to contact us,” Commissioner Bush said.
To date, there have been no confirmed sightings and no reported breakthroughs in the case.
On Wednesday afternoon Victoria Police confirmed specialist police had converged on a property near the north-east Victorian town of Benalla, just over an hour west of Porepunkah.
“Police and specialist resources are currently in the Benalla area as part of a planned operation,” a Victoria Police spokesperson said.
“There is no immediate risk to community safety.”
‘Extreme and fanatical’ pre pandemic
Luke Filby says his uncle’s extreme views made him difficult to be around. (ABC News)
At the time of the alleged shooting, Mr Freeman was a widely-known conspiracy theorist who held anti-authority and anti-government world views, which had escalated during the COVID pandemic.
Mr Filby said he noticed his uncle’s extreme world views much earlier in life and said his rhetoric made him difficult to be around.
“[You] couldn’t visit him without him having this trauma-dumping episode and whingeing about the government and just ranting on about negative stuff and [being] really strong about his opinions,” Mr Filby told 7.30.
“You’d have to walk around [on] eggshells about bringing up your own opinions.
“His court hearings, gun laws, what the government’s plans were to do next, what he was going to do. We always took Dezi’s words as an over-exaggeration.
“He was extreme about it. He had to be extreme about it. It wasn’t about having the guns, it was about the laws, the gun laws, that kind of level.”
Ray Kompe says he introduced Dezi Freeman to remote areas in Victoria’s high country. (ABC News: Tara Whitchurch)
On the wall of Ray Kompe’s home in the Buckland Valley is a photo of a bushfire taken by Mr Freeman, his old bushwalking friend.
“That was at the time when I was a good close friend of Dezi,” Mr Kompe told 7.30.
“With Dezi, he just wouldn’t compromise, and he just had his views and he was pretty locked in, which is all very sad, but that was his personality.”
Mr Kompe told 7.30 he acted as a mentor to Mr Freeman around 20 years ago, when he introduced him to remote areas in Victoria’s high country.
“Just watching him, the way he walked in the bush, I sort of realised, this bloke is a bushman,” Mr Kompe said.
“We were great friends and then because of his fanatical ways, I just thought, ‘no, perhaps this is not really a friend for me’.”
Analysing an alleged killer
When police arrived at the Porepunkah property on August 26 to execute a warrant related to historic sexual offences, Mr Freeman was living in a bus with his wife Amalia.
Forensic psychiatrist Dr Andrew Aboud believes it is unlikely Dezi Freeman is receiving help while on the run. (ABC News: Michael Lloyd)
Forensic psychiatrist Dr Andrew Aboud, who gave evidence at the inquest of the Wieambilla police shootings in Queensland, told 7.30 he doubts Mr Freeman’s alleged actions were well thought through.
“When the police came to him that day, they came in numbers, they had a warrant, there were charges that I believe they did communicate to him, and that would’ve been very confronting for him, thinking about the implications,” Dr Aboud said.
“So I think a heightened state of fear would have essentially enveloped him and that would have caused an acute anger.
“It’s unlikely that he thought through his actions carefully.”
Despite travel restrictions being lifted to the popular tourist region, Mount Buffalo National Park remains closed to the public.
Authorities searching for Dezi Freeman in difficult terrain. (Supplied: Victoria Police)
Victoria Police says it is using every available resource to find Mr Freeman, including a $1 million reward for information which leads to his capture.
Dr Aboud told 7.30 he does not believe that others are harbouring Mr Freeman.
“While that’s possible, it’s also probably unlikely,” Dr Aboud said.
“His fundamental mistrust of others would not only include the government and police, but would also include neighbours, perhaps even people who he had frequented with.
“So I strongly suspect that he cuts a very lonely figure.”
Carlene York, former NSW police assistant commissioner, says Dezi Freeman is “obviously one step ahead” of police. (AAP: Bianca De Marchi )
In 2012 former NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Carlene York oversaw the final four months of the manhunt for one of the most wanted men in the country, double murderer Malcolm Naden, who was at large for more than six years.
She told 7.30 that despite no reported breakthroughs in the search for Mr Freeman in the past month, it’s not a sign of police failure.
“I don’t find it embarrassing at all for the police,” she said.
“They’re out there every day putting their lives at risk to find this person.
“He’s obviously one step ahead as they can be quite easily, but police won’t give up and they’ll still be going into the bush to search for him.”
Victoria Police searching for Dezi Freeman by air. To date there have been no confirmed sightings of the suspect. (Supplied: Victoria Police)
In the days following the shooting, Victoria Police deployed almost 500 officers to the high country.
A month on there are now more than 200 officers in the region.
Ms York said any decision to scale back the operation would be tough for the leadership of Victoria Police.
“It does get very difficult as the commander to make that decision,” she said.
“We had gone for four months, they’re going for one month, so I wouldn’t think they would be at that stage yet.
There are currently more than 200 Victoria Police officers searching the region for Dezi Freeman. (Supplied: Victoria Police)
“It would boost them to no end if they could get some sort of contact or evidence that he was still alive.”
Police have publicly stated they are keeping all options open in the investigation and consider Mr Freeman armed and dangerous.
Luke Filby believes his uncle may have taken his own life.
“He wouldn’t want the satisfaction of the government taking his life, for the government to take his life,” Mr Filby said.
“He wouldn’t want to give them that satisfaction.”
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