Overview

• More than 450 officers, specialist teams, helicopters and drones are scouring Victoria’s high country in blizzard-like conditions and heavy rain.
• Police relocated their forward command from Feathertop Winery to a government facility in Ovens to better support ongoing operations.
• Investigators charged a 61-year-old Bright man with possessing an imitation firearm and a drug of dependence after seizing guns and cannabis on Friday; he was bailed to appear at Myrtleford Magistrates’ Court on 3 October.
• Freeman, accused of killing Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson, 59, and Senior Constable Vadim De Waart, 35, fled into bushland and is believed to be heavily armed with bush survival experience and sovereign-citizen beliefs.
• Several reported sightings remain unconfirmed, and police urge people to avoid traveling through Porepunkah, use alternate routes via Happy Valley Road and the Kiewa Valley Highway, and call 000 rather than approach him.