By AIDAN KNIGHT and LIAM DURKIN
POLICE spent the days between Christmas and New Year in hot pursuit, after a manhunt unfolded across the Latrobe Valley.
A string of incidents saw a 34-year-old male evade officers for a number of days, following aggravated burglaries and carjacking’s.
The chase began in Hazelwood South on Sunday, December 28, and ended when the man crashed into the front fence of a Trafalgar property on the last day of the year.
Along the way, terrified locals had their cars stolen, while the trail of destruction saw debris flung from parked cars, road signs upended and a police officer injured.
The manhunt became the most talked about event at local New Year’s Eve parties, providing an unforgettable-for-all-the-wrong reasons end to 2025.
It all started when the man, who has been identified as a Mr Darren Reid, approached a woman on Firmins Lane in Hazelwood South on Sunday, December 28, demanding the keys to her vehicle, which he then promptly stole. This occurred at 11.10am on the Sunday morning, before the same vehicle was located at a Princes Highway service station in Traralgon East two days later (Tuesday, December 30).
Police made an attempt to intercept around 4.15am that morning, but the offender allegedly rammed a police car before making an escape in the stolen vehicle, which was later found dumped in Glengarry at 5am, on Castleknock Drive.
From there, Reid broke into the nearby home of Melissa Frances and Ashley Spowart, using an axe to force entry by shattering a glass sliding door by their eight year-old daughter’s bedroom.
Ms Frances described the couple’s rush to her daughter’s room after hearing her scream, only to be threatened by the axe-wielding offender. “He appeared willing to use the axe if needed,” the horrified Glengarry mother said.
Mr Spowart spoke to the Express about the traumatic event, and how confronting it was to wake up to “a man in the house, holding an axe across his chest with two hands, screaming at us to get car keys.”
In a moment of terror, Mr Spowart complied.
“He kept screaming at me not to be a hero and to just get the car key … at that point, we had no idea if he was alone and no idea if there were other people. Couldn’t really process it all, to be honest, it happened that fast.”
The man made off with the keys and fled in the family’s black Subaru Impreza, only to be tracked by officers to Moe-Rawson Road in Moondarra, where the vehicle was abandoned and fled into nearby bushland.
Police Air Wing and Dog Squads provided assistance at this time to try and sniff out the man repeatedly evading arrest, which went on for the rest of the day. Police advised residents that the Moe-Rawson Rd was closed in both direction while they conducted their search, and to seek alternative routes.
The police “were there really fast, were very good”, Mr Spowart said. “They stayed and looked after everything through the process”.
The aftermath has been difficult, but the family has found support after only moving in little more than a month ago.
“It’s been really overwhelming how many people have been contacting us, just saying anything at all they can do to help. We’ve been in this house for three weeks … but instantly, the community’s been amazing … offering complete stranger support, which has been fantastic.”
Thankfully, none of the family was physically harmed during the confrontation.
The Subaru was later found with spiked tires, crashed into a tree.
The following day (Wednesday, December 31), the offender resurfaced in Churchill, driving a red Mitsubishi Outlander stolen from a woman in Tanjil South.
Undercover police pursued, chasing the offender through the streets of Morwell, as he successfully evaded spike strips deployed along Vary Street and Vincent Rd.
From there, Reid merged onto the Princes Highway heading towards Warragul, before spike strips were deployed yet again on School Rd, Trafalgar where the driver then barrelled through a blockade, ramming both a parked police car and a single officer. The injured officer was transported to hospital with major lower-body injuries after receiving citizen assistance from a local nurse.
The chase continued until the vehicle crashed into the front brick wall of a Trafalgar residence on the corner of Church St and Anzac Rd.
Reid had been travelling at speeds close to 180kmph while pursued, at times also on the wrong side of the road.
He fled the scene into a backyard close by, where he was placed in custody.
Officers apprehended Reid around 9.38am on December 31. He was taken to hospital for evaluation for a short period before being placed in remand and subsequently charged.
The Express spoke to Ted Dorling, the owner of the house whose front fence was flattened, on the day of the incident.
“We had a lot of police in the next street,” he reported.
Mr Dorling received a call informing him of the car damaging his property while at the local community garden, where he’d been since 8am that morning.
When he first arrived at the scene, he was pleased to at least see his house was untouched by the impact.
“We’ll get our daughter working on it with the insurance to get the fence fixed, but it’s not like it’s going to affect the security of the place,” he said.
Mr Dorling has lived at the residence for more than 20 years, and cares for his wife, who suffers from dementia. To have this happen on his front doorstep on the last day of the year posed yet another challenge to overcome.
Despite that, Mr Dorling remained optimistic.
“Nothing you can do about it, being a truckie (before retirement), you see it all the time.”
“I was in Traralgon (yesterday) when they were chasing him. I was pulled up at a booze bus (completing a breath test), and while I was there, they got a call that they found this guy, and he was on the run at the time, so they took off.
“They (police on the scene) tell me he’s pinched six cars in a week, so he’s done pretty well.”
Anzac Rd was reopened to the public by 2pm that day.
The car in Mr Dorling’s yard belonged to 29-year-old Moe resident Amy Smith.
The mother-of-two simply described the situation as “pretty full-on”.
The young family had been swimming at the Tanjil South property of Ms Smith’s parents around 5pm on Tuesday, December 30 when she suddenly saw her car drive out of the driveway.
None of the family ever sighted the man, and pieced together the situation on their own.
“We thought ‘okay, it has to be this guy that they’ve been trying to find through the bush’,” Ms Smith said.
“So he’d cut through the bush and onto my parents’ property, and come across their house.”
Ms Smith frantically called triple zero, and informed everyone they knew in the area to keep an eye out and follow the car.
“Everyone chipped in to try and help out,” she said.
The keys had been in the ignition when stolen, and there was a quarter of a tank of fuel in the vehicle.
Leaving keys in cars is common on farming properties, and given Ms Smith’s parents’ house is some four kilometres off the main road, there appeared to be no apparent danger.
Police believe it was a blessing in disguise the keys were in the ignition, as Reid would have likely assaulted someone on the scene to have them handed over.
After promptly posting on Facebook about the theft, Ms Smith started receiving an influx of messages from people in the community informing her red Mitsubishi had been sighted in Moe, driving on the wrong side of the road and on footpaths.
Shortly after taking the car, the offender was seen stealing food from Moe IGA, where he was filmed by CCTV.
This footage was the first Ms Smith had seen of the man. She was relieved to receive a call the next day (Wednesday, December 31) saying her car had been seized by police, and Reid arrested, and while her car may be undriveable, “I’m glad he didn’t hurt more people.”
Before the crash at Trafalgar, Ms Smith had seen the car pass her near Morwell McDonald’s when driving her husband to work in his car earlier that morning, an experience she described as “shocking”.
“Hopefully he gets a decent punishment,” Ms Smith said to the Express.
The final day of the pursuit allegedly began after the offender was reported for a petrol drive-off at 8.20am, according to police.
Reid, who was of no fixed arrested, was quickly charged with a rap sheet of 66 charges, before making a court appearance the following Friday (December 2), via video link.
Latrobe Valley Magistrates decided he is to be remanded in custody until April 7 for a committal mention.
MOE resident Amy Smith, whose car was stolen during the frantic news year’s eve pursuit, has praised the efforts of local police.
The mother-of-two cut a remarkably calm figure when interviewed by the Express just hours after her car crashed into the front yard of a Trafalgar property.
Thankfully her children, above all else, were saved any possible further harm.
“She realises they’re alright so that’s the main thing,” Ms Smith’s grandmother, Margaret Parton said.
“The children are okay, (they) could’ve been in the car, so that’s more important. You can replace a car, but two little children’s … not good.”
Ms Smith, who works as a primary school teacher, faced the added challenge of needing to keep her kids distracted during the ordeal, further highlighting her resilience.
Ms Parton lives not far from where the car crashed through a concrete wall on the corner of Anzac Road and Church Street, Trafalgar.
While she didn’t hear the crash, Ms Parton quickly figured the car would have belonged to her granddaughter, after following developments on social media and through the family phone chat.
Ms Parton said she was glad Amy didn’t see the car totalled.
“It was quite sad to see it, it was a nice car, had many rides in it,” she said.
Ms Smith now faces the long road dealing with insurance, but has found community generosity in spades from friends offering to lend her a vehicle.
She will however need new car seats for her young ones.
