Police in Latest Zealand are renewing the seek for a fugitive dad who has been on the run along with his three children since 2021.
Officials announced Wednesday they can be searching in and around rural communities within the Waikato region of Latest Zealand’s North Island, the realm where Tom Phillips and his children were last spotted and are believed to be hiding.
Phillips and his three children — Ember, now regarded as nine, Maverick, 10, and Jayda, 11 — fled to a distant area of Waikato just before Christmas in 2021, reports The Guardian. Phillips, who doesn’t have legal custody of his kids, had reportedly gotten right into a fight with the youngsters’s mother shortly before he disappeared with the youngsters.
Ember, Jayda and Maverick are seen on this undated photo.
Missing Marokopa Children / Facebook
In response to the outlet, this isn’t the primary time Phillips has fled into the bush along with his kids in tow. In September 2021, the 4 were reported missing, leading to a large 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. Nevertheless, when he failed to indicate for a court appearance regarding the costs several months later, a warrant was issued for his arrest.
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In a press release published Wednesday, Latest Zealand police said the brand new search “has not been prompted by any specific sighting,” but is a continuation of the continued investigation.
Nevertheless, there have been a variety of sightings of Phillips within the three years since he vanished.
Last October, reports the Latest Zealand Herald, teenage pig hunters captured video footage of Phillips and his three children — believed to be the primary sighting of all three kids at the identical time.
The video showed the quartet all wearing camouflage and carrying large camping backpacks across a patch of rugged farmland.
The kids’s mother, who last saw them in 2021, told the Herald she was “relieved” to know they were alive.
“I’m so completely happy that they’re all there,” she said, immediately 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 using a military helicopter, but “nothing further of significance” was found, police said.
And before that, in November 2023, police said they caught Phillips and one other person, believed to be considered one of this children, on CCTV footage attempting to burglarize a store by smashing out a window.
A person regarded as Tom Phillips and considered one of his children, allegedly attempting to interrupt right into a store in 2023.
Latest Zealand Police
Police said the pair, who were masked, ran off when the shop’s alarm system began going off in the midst of the night.
Phillips can also be accused of robbing a bank and shooting at a supermarket worker in May of 2023.
As his list of charges grows and he stays undetected, many Latest Zealanders wonder why authorities have struggled to trace Phillips and his kids down.
“We absolutely consider that any individual, or some people, are helping them,” Max Baxter, mayor of the Otorohanga district that features Marokopa, a rural community where Phillips was born and his parent still live, told reporters in October of last 12 months.
“Tom still has a lot of supporters on the market believing that he’s doing the proper thing for him and his children.”
In response 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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