The hunt for 56-year-old Freeman is the largest tactical operation in Australian history and has pooled significant efforts from police forces across the country, as well as the Australian Federal Police and the army.

Police say they are using “every available resource and necessary skills” to locate Dezi Freeman and interstate police officers, as well as Australian Defence Force members, have joined the efforts. Source: AAP / Simon Dallinger

Terry Goldsworthy, an associate professor of criminology and former detective inspector with Queensland Police Service, told SBS News he can’t recall an operation with the same amount of resources coordinated to find a single offender.

“To put it in perspective, when I was in the CIB at Burleigh Heads — the Criminal Investigation Branch on the Gold Coast — if we had a murder and we were looking for someone, we might have a dedicated team of say 20 police officers looking,” Goldsworthy said.

“He is armed, he’s obviously dangerous and he’s on the run, so that’s a live threat the police need to react to.”

A ‘primal’ search

Interstate police have also provided extra resources for what Hurley said is “exhausting” work.

On Thursday, Victoria Police said they had been searching the Mount Buffalo National Park as part of their ongoing efforts to locate Freeman.

Specialist cadaver search dogs from Queensland Police have also been brought in.

Major Australian manhunts

Goldsworthy, who had some close dealings with the Bobak case years after the murders, said police still look at the case occasionally but the information trail is “extremely cold these days”.

John Bobak is accused of a double murder on the Gold Coast in 1991 and has evaded police capture. Source: AAP / Queensland Police

In 2017, father and son Gino and Mark Stocco were sentenced to 40 years in prison for a crime spree including the murder of 68-year-old Rosario Cimone in country NSW after spending the previous eight years on the run from police for property offences and other crimes.

Darko Desic, who escaped Grafton Correctional Centre in northern NSW 1992, surrendered to the police in 2021 after nearly 30 years on Sydney’s northern beaches working as a builder and handyman for cash. He was originally sentenced to a maximum of three years in 1990 for growing marijuana and drug supply.

Naden was sentenced to life imprisonment plus 40 years without parole for his crimes.

Winding down the search

Hurley said while police will not call off the search until he is found, the manhunt will be downgraded eventually but it is unclear how much it will be scaled back and how long police will keep searching with the current amount of resources.