Dezi Freeman: Inquest into deaths of officers Neal Thompson, Vadim de Waart-Hottart launched

Inquests into the deaths of fugitive Dezi Freeman and the two police officers he shot dead are set to begin.

Freeman led police on one of the nation’s largest manhunts after he killed Neal Thompson and Vadim de Waart-Hottart, who were among a team of officers serving a warrant at his home in the Victorian High Country in August 2025.

The seven-month search for the 56-year-old ended when he died in a hail of police bullets on a remote property in Thologolong, near Walwa on the Victoria-NSW border on March 30.

State Coroner Liberty Sanger will hold directions hearings for the cases of the police officers on Monday morning before turning her attention to Freeman’s case in the afternoon.

It is expected the dates and the scope of the inquests will be set and the witnesses to be called to give evidence will be decided.

The coroner will examine the three deaths in detail to establish who died, how they died and what could be done to prevent future deaths, Queensland University of Technology forensic criminologist Claire Ferguson has said.

“They’ll have a full reconstruction of what actually occurred, and that might be establishing people’s exact positioning in the scenes and forensic evidence,” Dr Ferguson told AAP.

Speculation has been rife over how Freeman came to be in Thologolong, about 150km from Porepunkah, where he fatally shot the officers.

That could also form part of the investigation.

Footage showed Freeman wrapped in a blanket when he emerged from the shipping container, which appeared to be a makeshift campsite, before pulling a gun from underneath and pointing it at police.

It is not known if he had fired the gun before multiple officers shot him dead, but Police Commissioner Mike Bush has maintained the shooting was justified.

Whether that video will be shown to the public will depend on the coroner weighing up the benefits of transparency and accountability and the probative value of people seeing police shoot someone, Bond University criminologist Terry Goldsworthy said.

Investigators had been exploring the possibility Freeman received help from others in evading police for 216 days, with Mr Bush saying it would have been very difficult for him to get to where he was without assistance.

Child sexual abuse allegations levelled against Freeman will be investigated to inform the coroner on the police’s initial decision to attend his property, but a finding of guilt won’t be made, Dr Goldsworthy said.

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