Wearing an oversized hoodie, my six-day old dirty hair thrown into a messy bun and my four-month-old baby in my arms… Monday, March 30 started like any other day on maternity leave for me.
I was madly trying to clean the house and get ready for a mum and bubs gym class when my Apple Watch started to vibrate with messages.
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First was WhatsApp. Then signal. It immediately caught my attention and I couldn’t believe what I was reading.
“DF found”
“We got him”
“Hunt over. Shot dead”
“DF DEAD!”
Holding my baby girl, heart pounding, I walked over to my husband who was working from home.
“I think they’ve found Dezi Freeman hiding in a containership. The SOGGIES have shot him dead,” I told him.
After quickly notifying the 7NEWS Melbourne team. I made the call to break the news exclusively on Twitter and on 7NEWS.com.au, knowing something this big wouldn’t hold for long.
Then the questions from the newsroom started — “Cass, can you cross into The Morning Show?”
Cassie covered the story heavily pregnant when it first broke and then again when Freeman was located. Credit: Supplied Covered in baby spew, I quickly transformed into whatever clothing I had nearby, shooed my husband out and FaceTimed into morning television from our living room.
I was the first journalist to break the biggest development in 216 days in what’s been described as Australia’s biggest manhunt.
But it wasn’t over.
After getting off air, my husband (who is the former assistant editor and chief of staff at the Herald Sun) came downstairs and asked me: “You’re definitely sure it’s him?”
I was.
And not long after I was on air, Victoria Police sent an email out to all media confirming the information 7NEWS had just broken to the world on television and online.
My husband then followed by saying: “Pass me Lucy, you need to finish this story off.”
The drive to Thologolong was filled with countless radio interviews and FaceTime crosses. Credit: 7NEWS In between organising a camera crew to pick me up and calling my mum to see if she could rush over to help look after the baby, all of a sudden I was in a crew car, breast pump in hand and on my way to the crime scene 4.5 hours from Melbourne.
The drive to Thologolong was filled with countless radio interviews, FaceTime crosses and text messages back and forth with contacts as I tried to gather as much information as I could.
Once my cameraman Sam Freeman (completely unrelated to Dezi) and I arrived at the scene we both hit the ground running.
The rural property meant for poor signal connection to do live crosses, but Sam managed to find a spot amongst the media frenzy and from there, it was game on.
Cassie’s four-month-old daughter watching her cross into the 7NEWS 6pm. Credit: Supplied Cassie’s cameraman Sam Freeman (no relation to Dezi). Credit: 7NEWS We didn’t stop until 10pm that night after the special bulletin hosted by Michael Usher ended.
Afterwards, Sam and I both acknowledged how intense the day was , but also reflected on how it was so incredibly rewarding for the both of us.
We were the initial crew to race to Porepunkah when news broke in August last year that three police officers had been shot, two killed.
I was heavily pregnant at the time with my daughter, Lucy.
A full circle moment after a 216-day manhunt for justice.