How New Zealand is tracking down a father on the run with his three children since 2021

A video showing four figures in camouflage clothing, walking quickly through the bush. It didn’t take much more to start the raids since Saturday October 5 and dispatch a police helicopter to Marokopa, on the North Island in New Zealand. The objective of the investigators? Find Tom Phillips, this father on the run after kidnapping his three children in December 2021. Despite the resources deployed, neither the fugitive nor his children aged 8, 9 and 11 have so far been found in this wild and remote region. Franceinfo follows the thread of this extraordinary affair, reported by the New Zealand media and which captivates the country.

The disappearance was reported in December 2021

A few days before Christmas, on December 20, 2021, following an argument with his wife, Tom Phillips disappeared, taking with him his son Maverick and his two daughters, Jayda and Ember, in the thick forest that surrounds their village of Marokopa. The father, aged 34 at the time, is not his first attempt, reports the Guardian. Three months earlier, he had already accompanied his children to the bush for eighteen days without informing either their mother or their relatives, before reappearing and explaining that he had needed to “clear your head”. He is then accused of having forced the police to mobilize significant resources: drones and agents. He was scheduled to stand trial for this on January 12, 2022, but never showed up to court. It was this incident which triggered the arrest warrant and the first searches, as New Zealand radio RNZ recalls.

On March 20, 2022, Tom Phillips returned to his home to collect some belongings, according to police. He was probably not accompanied by his children. Investigators then suspect relatives of the father of helping him and even hiding him from the authorities, again according to RNZ. On December 8, 2022, a reward of 10,000 New Zealand dollars (a little over 6,000 euros) is offered by members of the extended family “for any information allowing the safe return of the three children”explains New Zealand Herald on his site. No follow-up.

The father is suspected of thefts and robberies

During 2023, New Zealand police received numerous reports from people claiming to have encountered Tom Phillips, but never with his children. In May, he allegedly robbed a bank in Te Kuiti, an hour’s drive from Marokopa, using a gun, according to local police, who issued a second arrest warrant. Photos of a suspect fleeing on a motorcycle, accompanied by a smaller person, were later released. On August 3, he was seen an hour’s drive from Marokopa driving a stolen Toyota car. But the roadblocks set up immediately did not allow his arrest. “Mr. Phillips potentially has firearms in his possession”alerts the police in his mandate, advising against any direct action against him.

On November 2, 2023, in the middle of the night, Tom Phillips allegedly attempted to break the window of a store in Piopio, still in the Waitomo region. An extract from a video surveillance camera, relayed by the Australian channel ABC, shows a masked man in boots and camouflage clothing, advancing towards the camera, spray paint in hand. Behind him, a quad bike is parked, and he is accompanied by a smaller person, also masked.

Despite these alerts, the father has not been found and the fate of his children remains uncertain. Without a serious lead, New Zealand police promised in June 2024 a temporary reward of $80,000 (nearly 45,000 euros) for any information leading to the location of Tom Phillips, as well as an offer of amnesty if the informants had helped the fugitive. Here again, the announcement did nothing.

Hunters come across a suspicious group on October 3, 2024

The investigation to trace Tom Phillips was relaunched on October 5, two days after two 16-year-olds hunting wild pigs in the hills of Marokopa saw a group of hikers behaving suspiciously. In one of the videos taken by the hunters, the silhouette of a man appears followed by three children. They all wear camouflage-patterned backpacks. The small group does not seem to respond to the calls of the screaming teenagers “Good morning” in their direction. For Inspector Andrew Saunders, interviewed by the Guardianthis report is “credible” and the police believe that this is indeed the family they are looking for.

The young hunters told the New Zealand press that they were able to chat very briefly with the children in the group. The latter would have asked in particular: “Who knows we’re here?”after being notified that they were on private property. The grandfather of one of the hunters told Stuff that the teenagers had also recognized Tom Phillips who, according to them, was carrying a weapon and had a graying beard.

Thursday, after deploying around thirty agents, the authorities paused the search for the group filmed a week earlier. To the great despair of the mother of the three children, known only by her first name, Cat. She believes that the police are not “not up to standard” research in this rugged area, where the climate can be very humid and cold. “I was hoping that they would go on the field (…) discreetly, without attracting attention like they did”she laments, cited by the New Zealand Herald.