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.

Face to face … Ron and Nola Nicholson. Credit:Richard McNicoll

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.