A fresh manhunt is underway to track down those who helped Australia’s most wanted fugitive evade authorities for seven months.

Double cop-killer Dezi Freeman, 56, spent 216 days on the run before he was shot dead in a hail of bullets following a three-hour standoff with police on Monday.

Victoria Police Special Operations Group found the fugitive hiding in a shipping container on a Thologolong property, near Walwa, on the Victoria-NSW border.

The encampment is located 188km north-east of Porepunkah, where Freeman fatally shot Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson, 59, and Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart, 34, on August 26 last year before fleeing.

An investigation has been launched into those who may have helped Freeman remain on the run.

‘We don’t know at what point he left the Porepunkah area and transferred to where he was found,’ Police Commissioner Mike Bush said.

‘It’s very important for us to understand how long he’s (Freeman) been here and who else was complicit (with) getting him here.

‘And then caring for him or providing him with food and other things to this point.’

Dezi Freeman spent seven months on the run before he was tracked down and shot dead by police on Monday

Officers from Victoria Police Special Operations Group found the fugitive hiding in a shipping container on a Thologolong property

An investigation has been launched into those who may have helped Dezi Freeman remain on the run for 216 days. Pictured are police at the Thologolong on Monday

A vital part of the investigation will be tracking down and speaking to the owner of the isolated, ramshackle property where Freeman hunkered down for an unknown period.

‘We’re still trying to locate and speak with that person,’ Police Commissioner Bush said.

‘We know who that person is, but we’re yet to speak with him.’

He was unable to say whether they were known to police.

Freeman was found at Tholo Farm, which boasts on Google that ‘Cookers welcome’.

The property is owned by Rick Sutherland, who is currently believed to be on holiday in Tasmania.

Daily Mail does not suggest Mr Sutherland had any involvement with hiding Freeman or helped him to escape from Porepunkah.

His brother Neil Sutherland, who lives nearby, told reporters his brother had been in Tasmania for the last three months.

He insisted his brother was not a sovereign citizen.

Police Commissioner Mike Bush said police are yet to track down the owner of the remote property where double cop killer Dezi Freeman was found

It’s unknown how long Dezi Freeman had been hunkering down at the Thologolong  property

Read More How the top secret operation to corner Dezi Freeman at a remote riverside camp unfolded

‘He’s not like that,’ Neil said.

Police Commissioner Bush kept his cards close to his chest when asked  whether police had anyone else in their sights for helping Freeman.

‘Not at this point … Quite possibly so in the future, but not at this point,’ he said.

He warned anyone who helped Freeman faced a significant stint in jail.

‘But that’s always a matter for the presiding judge,’ Police Commissioner Bush said.

It remains unclear how long Freeman had been at the property.

‘That’s a really important question and a really important fact that our investigators will work their way through,’ Police Commissioner Bush conceded.

‘We’ll probably have to track back from this point to when he was last seen … We will work that out, we will track backwards from here to ascertain how long he’s been here and who helped him to be here.’

Dezi Freeman shot dead Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson, 59, and Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart, 34, on August 26 last year

The owner of the property where Dezi was hiding is believed to be on holiday in Tasmania

Aerial footage of the property shows multiple shipping containers, tarps, and various vehicles scattered across the site, which is a far distance from the road.

Police swarmed the property just after 5.30am on Monday and attempted to negotiate with Freeman for three hours.

Multiple bullets were fired after Freeman came at them with what is believed to be a gun from one of the officers he killed seven months earlier.

Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15692509/Dezi-Freeman-Thologolong-search-helped-fugitive.html