Dezi Freeman’s sister says she is ‘ashamed and angry’ of fugitive’s actions
Dezi Freeman’s sister has condemned her brother’s actions after he was ki*led by police in a tense standoff following seven months on the run.
The fugitive d**d in a hail of bullets early on Monday when police swooped on his hideout at a rural property in Thologolong, in Victoria’s north east, marking a dramatic end to the biggest mahunt in Victoria’s history.
In an interview with ABC’s 7.30, Freeman’s sibling – who does not want to be identified – said she is “ashamed and angry” of her brother and struggles to understand how he could murder two police officers.
“I cannot comprehend how he could sacrifice being a father and husband to become Australia’s most wanted fugitive,” she said.
“I was shocked to learn that he had weapons and was armed, and that events played out the way they did in front of his wife and children, putting them at risk and how traumatic that would have been for them to witness.
“Dez has wreaked havoc and evil to so many, and for what?”
Freeman contacted his sister just three days before the sh**ting in Porepunkah with photos of his youngest son, she said.
But the pair had been estranged.
“We were not close,” she said, adding that her late parents would have been “horrified” at the events which led to Freeman’s d**th.
She told 7.30 that she was “ashamed and angry”, and said her brother was “no hero”.
Dez has wreaked havoc and evil to so many, and for what?” she said.
She also described Freeman’s wife Amalia and children as “beautiful people”.
Freeman spent seven months in hiding after ki**ing police officers Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson and Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart in Porepunkah on August 26.
The double police ki**er d**d in a volley of gunfire on Monday about 8.30am following a three-hour stand-off.
Police are now investigating whether Freeman had any help evading capture during his time on the run.
“We will be speaking to anybody who we suspect may have assisted him to avoid detection or arrest,” Victoria’s Police Commissioner Mike Bush said after Freeman’s d**th.
He pledged to bring charges against anybody complicit in Freeman’s flight.
Siblings estranged
Dezi Freeman was shot dead on Monday at 8:30am after a three-hour stand-off with Victoria Police’s specialist operations group at an isolated property at Thologolong on the NSW-Victoria border.
In the weeks after Freeman ki**ed two police officers in Victoria’s high country, sparking Australia’s largest manhunt in recent history, there was conjecture as to whether he was alive or d**d.
Since September, 7.30 has been in touch with Freeman’s estranged sister, who has remained anonymous to protect her family’s privacy.
She has remained silent since her brother opened fi*e on a group of police officers in Porepunkah in late August 2025, but since his d**th, she has agreed to make public her statements to 7.30.
In October, she told 7.30: “I was hoping my estranged brother would have been found or apprehended in the aftermath of the sh**tings and have been quite terrified and extremely anxious that he is still at large, now knowing the level of violence that he is capable of.”
Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson and Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart were k**led; a third officer was also sh*t but survived.
“It must be extremely distressing for them, and I do not want to add to their trauma,” she said at the time about the victim’s families.
She told 7.30 she did not know her brother’s home address, and on the few occasions she was in Victoria’s high country, she did not contact him.
“We were not close.”
‘They Opened F*re Without Mercy’: Dezi Freeman’s Widow Erupts In Fury As She Brands Police
As Dezi Freeman’s loved ones try to piece back together their shattered lives, one haunting question continues to torment them after his violent d**th.
Why – when police spent three hours negotiating with the fugitive at the remote Walwa property on Monday – was no one from his family called in to help?
‘Obviously, asking them for help was never part of the police plan, because they would’ve had to have been picked up ahead of time and prepared for it.
‘You can’t just land that sort of responsibility on someone out of the blue.’
Up to eight officers from Victoria Police’s Special Operations Group returned fire after Freeman sh*t at them twice, bringing to an end Australia’s largest ever tactical police operation.
Those closest to Freeman won’t know whether the d**dly standoff could have ended differently.
They are left with only questions, like whether a single phone call to his wife, son or brother may have been enough to break the d**dlock.
In fact, Freeman’s close friend, Bruce Evans, who claimed he was in almost daily contact with the ki*ler before he went on the run, had even previously volunteered to help with any future negotiations.
The specific details of active police negotiations are generally kept confidential for public safety reasons, however, Australian policing protocols do refer to engaging family members during crisis situations.