Updated ,first published
Sitting on a dusty wooden table inside a shipping container are two vitamin bottles – one of odourless wild fish oil, the other magnesium.
Next to that sits a box of tissues, an empty container of sliced peaches, a bottle of methylated spirits, a small notepad, a pen, and salt and pepper shakers. A brown couch sits across from the generators, with a pair of dirty ugg boots left next to it. This is the room where police killer Dezi Freeman spent his final days.
The footage from inside the hideout was published last week by YouTube channel The Chaos Chronicles.
In a statement on Monday evening, Victoria Police confirmed they were investigating a report of trespass at the property on April 16.
“Investigators are aware of a video posted online in relation to the trespass and are investigating the circumstances,” they said.
A self-described sovereign citizen, Freeman, 56, went on the run in August last year after shooting dead Victoria Police officers Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson and Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart in Porepunkah. The officers had gone to the property as part of a group of 10 to carry out a search warrant in relation to historic child sexual abuse allegations against him when Freeman opened fire.
A man known for his ability to survive in the wild, Freeman then fled into the bush, sparking one of the biggest manhunts in the state’s history.
For more than 200 days, he was a wanted fugitive. Many believed him to be dead until he was lured out of his hideout 150 kilometres away seven months on. The property’s owner, Richard Sutherland, said he had no connection to Freeman and had been unaware the wanted man was living at his property. Sutherland, who has been living in Tasmania for months, is not suspected of any involvement.
After hours of unsuccessful police negotiations, Freeman emerged from the Thologolong hideout wrapped in a blanket, before he opened fire with a weapon he had stolen from one of the slain officers. Police responded, killing him at the site.
Chief Commissioner Mike Bush confirmed the news of Freeman’s death and said the victims’ families were the first to be told of the deadly outcome.
In a video published last Thursday, the YouTuber said he had gone to the Thologolong property in north-east Victoria to fly his drone over the camp. The plan, he said, had been to abide by the law and stay 120 metres above the site.
But after the drone crashed, he said that he and a cameraman had entered the private property to retrieve it. Once there, they decided to venture into the shipping container, before continuing to explore the rest of the property.
Footage captured from inside the container also shows a bright yellow Esky sitting next to a generator and a battery set-up, connected to an outdoor solar panel. On the floor is a portable heater.
At the other end, two shirts are hanging from a shelf. Old, dirty pillows are piled nearby, with a blue unzipped sleeping bag thrown over another shelf. A rolled-up red carpet stuffed with a ripped map also rests against the pile. A folded newspaper has been left on the floor. It is unclear exactly which publication the tenant had been reading.
“Oh my God, I can’t breathe in here,” the YouTuber said, climbing over the rubbish. “The chemicals … This is what they used to get Dezi out.”
Then: “I can’t not. This is why we came here”, before venturing further into the container.
“No one’s bringing you this kind of Dezi Freeman coverage. What about that?”
Outside, in what looks to be a makeshift kitchen, are two chairs, two pairs of sunglasses and patches of carpet. On a fold-out table sits a cooktop and two saucepans, scissors and a knife. Piles of other miscellaneous objects, including cardboard boxes, a ladder and sheets of plastic also litter the ground.
Just a few metres away from the shipping container, sits an upturned boat laced with bullet holes from the stand-off between Freeman and police in the early hours of March 30. Next to that, tarps, buckets filled with water and a rusty wheelbarrow.
To date, three videos in the so-called series have been published and amassed over 80,000 views collectively.
The police investigation into the video remains ongoing.
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