Three Years in the Wilderness: How a Fugitive Father Hid His Children for So Long | New Zealand

This question has plagued New Zealand for three years and has become even more pressing in the last week.

The country is desperate to know where fugitive father Tom Phillips is and why he hasn’t been caught after three winters hiding in the rugged hinterland with his three young children.

The youngest of the three children, Ember, was five years old when she was last seen in civilization with her two siblings in December 2021. Last week Ember, Maverick and Jayda – now aged 8, 9 and 11 – were spotted together for the first time since their father took them to dense bush and farmland in Marokopa, in rural Waikato, where police believe he was supported by other people in keeping them hidden.

Phillips does not have custody of the children. They had no contact with society during this time – although Phillips took at least one child from the bush in May 2023 when he allegedly carried out an armed bank robbery in nearby Te Kūiti, and in November of the same year when he allegedly attempted a robbery of a small one Grocery store. While there were several more sightings in mid-2023 and an $80,000 reward was offered for information in June, the trail had disappeared.

The latest sighting has raised questions about how Phillips can still be on the run and whether police have given the case the attention it deserves. No one is sure how Phillips survives, and his purchases of camping supplies and saplings suggest that he lives off the land, whether in huts in the bush or other forms of makeshift shelter.

Wilderness survival

Marokopa is a tiny, windswept settlement on the west coast of New Zealand’s North Island. It is surrounded by tens of thousands of acres of dense bushland, cliffs, farmland and limestone caves.

Phillips comes from a “distinguished” family with deep agricultural roots in the Marokopa community, Stuff news agency reported. His family owns more than 500 hectares of Marokopa farmland bordering the bush, about half a day’s walk from where Phillips and the children were spotted by teenage pig hunters last Thursday. There is no indication that Phillips’ family is helping him. Phillips’ mother told the New Zealand Herald she had not seen him since 2021 and urged him to take the children home.

Those familiar with the New Zealand bush say it could live there “almost indefinitely,” feeding on herbs, wild carrots, the pith of native trees and animal meat, especially if it finds supplies and builds a shelter.

“He could have been planning this for years,” said Ash Budd, director of the New Zealand Survival Academy.

“What will affect you is the cold, your morale and whether there are injuries.”

The children’s mother and her adult children have described Phillips’ actions as tantamount to child abuse, with mother Cat telling the New Zealand Herald that Phillips used the children as pawns.

“It should have been stopped a long time ago. I can’t believe this was allowed. It’s like the system really doesn’t care,” she said. “Every step of the way no one listened to me, I was repeatedly ignored, minimized, gaslighted and yet look where we are.” She told Radio New Zealand she was subjected to online trolling for speaking out had.

Child protection agency Oranga Tamariki (the Ministry for Children) did not comment citing privacy, although Saunders had previously told Newshub that social workers were on standby. Children’s Minister Karen Chhour also declined to comment.

Police began a three-day ground and air search in Marokopa 12 hours after the last sighting, and by then Phillips was missing. Police declined to be interviewed but Det Insp Andrew Saunders said they were looking into the case. “While we cannot go into detail, we want to reassure the public that we have the resources to respond to any incoming information or reports of sightings.”

Some are calling for a military response and say the family could be found in less than two weeks. “You could get within 50 meters of them without them noticing, you could catch him when he’s separated from the kids going to get water, you could swarm them,” said Barrie Rice, a former special forces tracker. told the Guardian.

“The longer they are out there, the more dangerous it becomes.”

But others say it would be unwise to approach Phillips at night in the New Zealand bush. Stuff reporter Tony Wall has been following the case since September 2021, when Phillips abandoned his abandoned four-wheel drive in the surf, sparking a large-scale search amid fears he and the children were dead. He was accused of wasting police resources , after leaving the bush with them 18 days later. Since he arrested her again in December, he has been charged with aggravated robbery, aggravated assault and unlawful possession of a firearm.

Wall, who has written stories questioning the police response, said their caution made sense in this case. “They’re in a terrible position because they can’t just barge in – it was just at dusk when they were seen,” he said.

However, there is still some support for Phillips online and in the community, with calls to “leave him alone” and claims that he is giving his children a healthy upbringing. The locals of Marokopa were reserved, and Phillips was alternately described as a “nut” and a “good guy.”

But for those who live this reality, it takes its toll. On the phone, the deputy mayor of nearby Ōtorohanga, Annette Williams, sounded tired.

“It’s been going on for a long time, I’ve come across people who have both views, but really everyone just wants a safe outcome for the children.”

It’s even easier for her mother, Cat.

“This is our life. This is the rest of my life, for my babies,” she told Radio New Zealand. “They will forever suffer from what is happening.”