THE fugitive is lying low in a remote bush camp, waiting out the bad weather. That's the official line from police hunting Malcolm Naden. He hasn't been seen by human eyes in more than a month, they claim.
Locals living on the rugged slopes of the Barrington Tops tell a different story. They say Naden remains the constant visitor, gliding between homes like a ghost.
In the past three weeks, it is claimed, he took shelter underneath a house at a property, Pindari Tops near Nowendoc. A couple and their children slept above, unaware the state's most wanted man was breathing quietly beneath them. They showed a forced door and footprints to investigators from the 60-strong Strike Force Durkin.
Another man, Brendan Kellett, came face-to-face with Naden through his kitchen window at Nowendoc at 2pm on January 7. Naden, wearing a stolen cap and Drizabone coat, fled into the bush. Mr Kellett, who had just made himself a coffee, ''nearly shat himself'' as he locked stares with the suspected killer, a neighbour says. The day before that, over the hill on Thunderbolt's Way at Nowendoc, Nola Nicholson saw Naden standing in a gully below her property, she told The Sun-Herald yesterday. He slipped away into the bush. Naden has evaded police for 2426 days, more than 6½ years. If not caught in the next 22 days, he will outdo Captain Thunderbolt - the bushranger who stalked the same area until 1870 - for time on the run.
After the break-in at Pindari Tops, which is owned by the Upton Pastoral Company but overseen by manager Mick Young, a hut was broken into at Glenrock around the middle of January. Ten days ago it was reported that Naden had forced his way into a hut at Curricabark, further south. Locals believe he is now cutting a path south from Nowendoc and is in the area bordering the Ellerston pastoral station owned by the Packer family.
Police heading the manhunt confirmed yesterday they had received reports he was in the Tomalla Tops near Ellerston. But police have not confirmed any of these sightings. The last official sighting of Naden was in December, when two police officers chased him out of a Niangla holiday home.
Police believe Naden has been able to monitor their pursuit using the internet. They are ''disturbed'' by his other uses of the internet. During his 14 hours in Mr Norbury's house, he accessed 451 pornographic websites. They included bestiality and incest. Naden, with a $250,000 bounty on his head, is wanted over the murder of Kristy Scholes in Dubbo and the disappearance of his cousin Lateesha Nolan, both in 2005, and the sexual assault of a teenage girl.
Ron Nicholson, whose wife, Nola, says she saw Naden on January 6, believes the fugitive is little troubled by the scores of officers on his tail.
''He seems to be heading south but I expect, like in other years, he will be back up here in Nowendoc again,'' he said. ''He will either do a big u-turn and head this way or he will continue towards the coast towards Buladelah or Wauchope.''
Some residents say Naden has been seen being driven in a battered old Ford Falcon on remote roads. But Assistant Commissioner Carlene York, who leads the manhunt, cautions against believing every sighting is Naden. ''We don't believe people are assisting him,'' she told The Sun-Herald. ''He doesn't need human interaction and he steals mainly from empty houses.''
It is two months since the Police Commissioner, Andrew Scipione, said Naden would soon be in custody. On Thursday, in an interview with The Sun-Herald, he said: ''We'll go as long as we can. It's a balancing act in terms of resources. There is also issues for the people working in such terrible conditions.''
