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\u201cThis is not a big country we\u2019re talking about,\u201d said Lance Burdett, a former detective inspector and lead crisis negotiator for New Zealand Police. \u201cIt\u2019s very surprising that they haven\u2019t been found, particularly since the number of sightings are in a very similar area.\u201d <\/p>\n
Max Baxter, mayor of the Otorohanga district that includes Marokopa, a rural community home to fewer than 100 people, says authorities believe Phillips is receiving help. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe absolutely believe that somebody, or some people, are helping them,\u201d said Baxter. \u201cTom still has a number of supporters out there believing that he is doing the right thing for him and his children.\u201d <\/p>\n
New Zealand\u2019s North Island is home to the wild, awe-inspiring landscape that formed some of the backdrop to Peter Jackson\u2019s \u201cThe Lord of the Rings\u201d and \u201cThe Hobbit\u201d trilogies. <\/p>\n
Steep hills with sweeping views drop away into deep valleys, dotted with caves covered by a blanket of dense forest. Marokopa is the type of place where it\u2019s easy to get lost \u2013 and even easier to hide. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a reason why people live at Marokopa,\u201d said Baxter. \u201cIt\u2019s because they love the isolation. They love the fact that they\u2019re on the rugged west coast, that they can go fishing, they can hang out with like-minded people.\u201d <\/p>\n
Phillips was raised in the area and his parents still live there in the family home. In a statement provided to TVNZ last year, his mother denied any knowledge of her son\u2019s whereabouts and said the family would \u201clike nothing more\u201d than for the four to return. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s not the first time Phillips has disappeared with Ember, Maverick and Jayda. In September 2021, his car was reported <\/strong>abandoned on a beach, prompting a large police search of land and sea. <\/p>\n For three weeks, a police helicopter and drones <\/strong>scoured the coastline, while rescue teams searched on land, but just as the operation was winding down \u2013 with fears the family was lost at sea \u2013 they suddenly reappeared. <\/p>\n Phillips reportedly told police he and the children had been camping in bushland. He was later charged with wasting police resources and given a date to appear in court. <\/p>\n
But before that day came, he disappeared again with the three children. Some assumed he\u2019d \u201cgone bush\u201d again, and would later emerge \u2013 but this time, they haven\u2019t come home. <\/p>\n
Ember, Maverick and Jayda were just 5, 7 and 8, when they vanished. For more than two years, their mother kept a low profile, releasing written statements through police, appealing for help to find them. <\/p>\n
But this June, she introduced herself in an emotional video posted to Facebook. <\/p>\n
\u201cHello world,\u201d she said. \u201cMy name is Cat \u2026 I\u2019m standing here before you today, begging you for your help to bring my babies home.\u201d <\/p>\n
The eldest child, Jayda, had just turned 11. \u201cShe will be a young woman now, and she needs her mother,\u201d said Cat, who has not publicly revealed her surname. \u201cEmber is asthmatic as am I \u2026 she needs medical care that cannot be provided from the land.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI can only imagine how Maverick is coping,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n
At the time the video was released, police had just offered a reward for 80,000 New Zealand dollars ($48,000) for information leading to finding the children. It flushed out reports of sightings, but no breakthrough. <\/p>\n
The children\u2019s older sister, Jubilee Dawson, made a separate appeal in an interview last year, sharing memories of her siblings. <\/p>\n
\u201cJayda is the more outgoing one \u2026 she\u2019s definitely the most confident of the three \u2026 loves talking to everybody,\u201d Dawson told a Mata Reports documentary. \u201cMaverick is more introverted, I\u2019d say he\u2019s more shy \u2026 Ember is the youngest, and more sweet and bubbly.\u201d <\/p>\n
Dawson fears the children may now be \u201ctraumatized and scared\u201d and worries that they don\u2019t know that their family is looking for them. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe love them very much, and we are just waiting for them to come home,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Authorities are concerned that Phillips is not just hiding the children, but encouraging them to engage in criminal acts. <\/p>\n
In May 2023, two masked people held up a branch of the ANZ bank, escaping on a motorbike with cash. New Zealand Police later named Phillips as the suspect, and said he was aided by a female accomplice. Both were said to be armed. <\/p>\n
A witness told local media the accomplice was small, \u201ceven shorter than me.\u201d <\/p>\n
Phillips is now wanted for aggravated robbery, aggravated wounding and unlawfully possessing a firearm. <\/p>\n
Burdett, the former detective inspector, said if Phillips carried out the bank robbery, it suggests the fugitive father was desperate for cash. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey have to be surviving on something. You do need money. You can only live so much on the land, and particularly with three young kids,\u201d Burdett said. \u201cThey\u2019re going to be growing in three years.\u201d <\/p>\n
In November 2023, Phillips and an unnamed child are also alleged to have smashed the window of a shop at 2 a.m., before fleeing on a stolen quad bike. Phillips has also been seen on CCTV, with his face covered, buying supplies in a hardware store. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe know Tom has been sighted at retail locations across the Waikato region disguised with various masks,\u201d police said in a statement. <\/p>\n