Search renewed for fugitive NZ dad, 3 kids who disappeared 3 years ago – National

Police in New Zealand are renewing the search for a fugitive dad who has been on the run with his three children since 2021.

Officials announced Wednesday they will be searching in and around rural communities in the Waikato region of New Zealand’s North Island, the area where Tom Phillips and his children were last spotted and are believed to be hiding.

Phillips and his three children — Ember, now thought to be nine, Maverick, 10, and Jayda, 11 — fled to a remote area of Waikato just before Christmas in 2021, reports The Guardian. Phillips, who does not have legal custody of his kids, had reportedly gotten into a fight with the children’s mother shortly before he disappeared with the children.

According to the outlet, this isn’t the first time Phillips has fled into the bush with his kids in tow. In September 2021, the four were reported missing, resulting in a massive search operation, before he reappeared at his parents’ farmhouse 19 days later. The Guardian reports he told officers he had taken his kids on a camping trip to “clear his head.”

Police charged him with wasting time and resources. However, when he failed to show for a court appearance relating to the charges several months later, a warrant was issued for his arrest.

In a statement published Wednesday, New Zealand police said the new search “has not been prompted by any specific sighting,” but is a continuation of the ongoing investigation.

However, there have been a number of sightings of Phillips in the three years since he vanished.

Last October, reports the New Zealand Herald, teenage pig hunters captured video footage of Phillips and his three children — believed to be the first sighting of all three kids at the same time.

The video showed the quartet all dressed in camouflage and carrying large camping backpacks across a patch of rugged farmland.

The children’s mother, who last saw them in 2021, told the Herald she was “relieved” to know they were alive.

“I’m so happy that they’re all there,” she said, instantly recognizing each child. “I’m so relieved to see all three of my babies. They’re all alive.”

The sighting led to a three-day search, including the use of a military helicopter, but “nothing further of significance” was found, police said.

And before that, in November 2023, police said they caught Phillips and another person, believed to be one of this children, on CCTV footage trying to burglarize a store by smashing out a window.

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Police said the pair, who were masked, ran off when the store’s alarm system started going off in the middle of the night.

Phillips is also accused of robbing a bank and shooting at a supermarket employee in May of 2023.

As his list of charges grows and he remains undetected, many New Zealanders wonder why authorities have struggled to track Phillips and his kids down.

“We absolutely believe that somebody, or some people, are helping them,” Max Baxter, mayor of the Otorohanga district that includes Marokopa, a rural community where Phillips was born and his parent still live, told reporters in October of last year.

“Tom still has a number of supporters out there believing that he is doing the right thing for him and his children.”

According to CNN, Phillips’ mother denied knowing her son’s location in 2023 and said the family would “like nothing more” than to have Phillips and her grandchildren return to civilization.

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