Inquests into the deaths of fugitive Dezi Freeman and the two police officers he killed are set to begin.

Freeman led police on one of the nation’s largest manhunts after he shot dead Neal Thompson and Vadim de Waart-Hottart, who were among a team of officers serving a warrant at his home in the Victorian High Country in August 2025.

Freeman, 56, allegedly attempted to kill a fourth police officer, who has not been named, pointing his gun at the officer and pulling the trigger, however the firearm did not go off.

Despite extensive searches and hundreds of resources, no trace of Freeman was found for over seven months, with a $1 million reward offered for information leading to his arrest.

On March 30, the search for the 56-year-old eventually led police to a remote property in Thologolong, near Walwa on the Victoria-NSW border.

Freeman was killed in a hail of police bullets after he reportedly pulled a weapon on officers.

State Coroner Liberty Sanger will hold directions hearings for the cases of the police officers on Monday morning before turning her attention to Freeman’s case in the afternoon.

It is expected the dates and the scope of the inquests will be set and the witnesses to be called to give evidence will be decided.

The coroner will examine the three deaths in detail to establish who died, how they died and what could be done to prevent future deaths, Queensland University of Technology forensic criminologist Claire Ferguson has said.

“They’ll have a full reconstruction of what actually occurred, and that might be establishing people’s exact positioning in the scenes and forensic evidence,” Ferguson told AAP.

Speculation has been rife over how Freeman came to be in Thologolong, about 150km from Porepunkah, where he fatally shot the officers.

That could also form part of the investigation.

Footage showed Freeman wrapped in a blanket when he emerged from the shipping container, which appeared to be a makeshift campsite, before pulling a gun from underneath and pointing it at police.

It is not known if he had fired the gun before multiple officers shot him dead, but Police Commissioner Mike Bush has maintained the shooting was justified.

Whether that video will be shown to the public will depend on the coroner weighing up the benefits of transparency and accountability and the probative value of people seeing police shoot someone, Bond University criminologist Terry Goldsworthy said.

Investigators had been exploring the possibility Freeman received help from others in evading police for 216 days, with Bush saying it would have been very difficult for him to get to where he was without assistance.

Child sexual abuse allegations levelled against Freeman will be investigated to inform the coroner on the police’s initial decision to attend his property, but a finding of guilt won’t be made, Goldsworthy said.