It’s been five weeks since Dezi Freeman allegedly slaughtered two police officers in cold blood before he vanished into the wilderness and has never been seen again.

Victoria Police have thrown everything they have at the search, including 450 personnel, elite tactical forces, the military and a record $1million bounty on his head.

But the fugitive 56-year-old sovereign citizen is still on the run, sparking an explosion of wild conspiracy theories on his current whereabouts.

He fled into the bush wilderness around Porepunkah in the Victorian High Country after gunning down detective Neal Thompson and senior constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart, and injuring a third officer on August 26.

Not a single trace has been seen of him since.

Now speculation is running riot on what might have happened to him.

LIVING WILD 

Police still believe he is most likely in the immediate area as they continue their huge air and ground search for him.

His own family seem to believe he is too, with his adult son admitting he thinks he’s acting out his Hollywood fantasy of living wild like his movie hero, Rambo.

Sylvester Stallone’s 1982 First Blood blockbuster about a Vietnam veteran war hero on the run in the wilderness was Freeman’s all-time favourite movie.

Koah Freeman revealed that his father easily has the bush skills to survive in the wild despite the harsh weather and treacherous rough conditions.

‘I’m not sure if you have ever seen the movie Rambo, especially the first Rambo movie, it’s like that, but ten times the capacity,’ he told media.

‘The Mount Buffalo National Park is his second home. He’s been there since he was 16, just going hiking in places no man has ever stepped foot in.’ 

KAYAKED TO SAFETY 

Freeman had previously posted a video of himself kayaking down the nearby Buckland River which runs through the property where the shooting took place.

Some believe he may have made a beeline for his kayak as soon as the shooting took place and instantly fled the area, down the river, never to be seen again.

When the Daily Mail revealed details of his video and possible escape route, police search teams immediately switched to the river, but again without any success.

FLED OVERSEAS 

The wildest theory is that he somehow managed to make it out of the area in the confusion and chaos after the deadly ambush.

Online conspiracy theorists believe he could easily have been smuggled out of the current search zone, either immediately or even days later.

Despite hundreds of cops being rushed into the area in the wake of the shooting, traffic was driving in and out of the area unchecked by police roadblocks.

A sympathetic local could easily has hidden him in their boot or even their backseat and driven out the area to the coast.

Several other sovereign citizens in Australia have access to yachts and sea-going motor boats which could have transported him to Papua New Guinea or beyond.

One posted online that he believed Freeman now was living among mountain tribespeople in Papua New Guinea.

Another believed he may have managed to paddle in a canoe across to New Zealand.

‘Dezi made plans to paddle across the Tasman (to New Zealand) on the same day as the gunfight,’ they said. ‘It took him two weeks to make the journey.’ 

THE GREAT ESCAPE 

The other theory is he managed to flee cross-country on a dirt bike through the bush, like Steve McQueen in the World War II movie The Great Escape.

Some believe he could now be interstate and anywhere in the country. 

In the early days of Freeman’s evasion, one local suggested he could be ‘somewhere in New South Wales or on a beach in Queensland by now’. 

While Freeman is said to know the Mt Buffalo region better than anyone, a tranche of pictures unearthed by Daily Mail last week showed he was also familiar with the rainforests of northern Australia. 

Posting a picture of himself shirtless and canoeing in a river, a much younger, long-haired Freeman wrote, ‘When I lived wild and free in the boondy’.

The collection of images did nothing to dispel his ‘man of the land’ enigma – he was also seen holding a deadly tiger snake, balancing on a tree branch over a gorge, and delivering a spiritual incantation while wearing a loincloth and body paint in front of a campfire.

DOOMSDAY BUNKER

Others suspect the survivalist may have prepared a doomsday bunker hidden in the bush near his property, stocked with enough food and water to keep him going for months.

Freeman was deeply religious who had spoken of his fears about a Satanic end of days being imminent after the death of the last Pope, and would have been prepared.

He could safely be in his underground bunker undetectable by aerial police thermal imaging for weeks, without ever once having to come up for air or supplies.

He could also be hiding out in one of the many local disused mineshafts, tunnels, or caves, some of which are only accessible by diving underwater.

Locals have stressed Freeman is also a renowned and highly-skilled diver. 

HIDING AT NEARBY HOMES

Sympathisers in the large local sovereign citizen/anti-authority community are also suspected to have been hiding or supporting Freeman while he’s on the run.

Police have made high-profile raids on several key figures in the network of supporters – but have found no trace of Freeman anywhere. 

ALREADY DEAD – OR SOON TO BE

Some, including his son and wife, believe he may already be dead, possibly having taken his own life soon after the shootout when the consequences of his actions became clear.

‘At this stage, I think he’s probably deceased,’ Koah admitted. ‘I haven’t got any explanation for that, but at this stage, to have no trace, it’s a bit unbelievable.’ 

Others have also spoken of the fears that Freeman will want to go out in a blaze of glory in another deadly showdown with police – again mimicking the end of Rambo.

Many High Country locals cultivated a fearsome reputation for Freeman – one even claimed he could shoot with absolute precision at a distance of 200m.

It has prompted comparisons with nineteenth-century High Country bushranger and anti-hero, Ned Kelly – who also died in a hail of police bullets.

One thing is certain: as the search for Australia’s most wanted man continues, so too will the wild conspiracies.