A former neighbour of the suspected Porepunkah gunman said he used to hunt for deer nearby, had an intimate knowledge of Mount Buffalo and used to spy on her, including with drones.
Loretta Quinn lived next to Dezi Freeman in Myrtleford, on the opposite side of Mount Buffalo to the site of the fatal shooting, between 2017 and 2019.
She told Guardian Australia that Freeman used her block to access the Mount Buffalo national park, which he had done frequently without issue when her property was vacant.
Quinn said that while she initially allowed Freeman to continue using her land for accessing the park, the relationship became acrimonious because of how often he traversed the property.
“He really put our nose out of joint … he was walking through all the time constantly,” she said.
“It got to the point where I’d turn around and he would be standing there filming me.
“He had a drone that would come across, too, and he set up a little plastic cover, on the corner of the property, like a chicken coop and he would standing there spying on you too, looking who was coming and going.”
She told Freeman he could no longer use the property, sparking a conflict between the neighbours that lasted until, she said, Freeman’s landlord forced him and his family to leave.
Quinn said she took out an intervention order against Freeman in mid-2019, a claim supported by court records seen by Guardian Australia.
The court records show Freeman was charged with breaching a personal safety intervention order in Myrtleford on 21 June 2019, but the charge was later withdrawn.
The court records do not state who the order related to, but Quinn said Freeman had been charged with breaching the order she had taken out against him at that time.
One of the encounters her family had with Freeman on the property was captured on her son’s mobile phone and posted to social media by Quinn’s daughter after the shooting this week.
In it, Freeman, wearing what appears to be a camera strapped to his chest, but also using a mobile phone to film, claims he is not trespassing.
Quinn said she knew Freeman used guns to hunt deer with his wife, and had seen them hang the carcasses on a veranda at the back of the property, but had never seen him carrying a firearm.
To hunt, he went where he always went: into the national park, which Quinn said he knew exceptionally well given he didn’t work and lived off the land to eat.
“It’s full bush, you can’t walk through it once you’re in,” she said.
“There’s a track you can ride on, with horses, but that’s it.
“He knows it, but it’s full on.”
Quinn said Freeman would be familiar with the location of mines or caves that could provide shelter.
“There’s caves everywhere, and mines everywhere, from when they used to gold mine. He would have it all set up.
“He really knows that country well, they’re not exaggerating.”
Quinn is uneasy, sitting locked inside the large barn-style shed she lives in, desperately hoping her old neighbour doesn’t pay a visit.
“Hopefully they catch him soon.”
