NZ Mystery: Fugitive Father & Three Kids Spotted 1 Year On In Wild New Zealand

[Ladybbird]

Three Years In The Wild: How a Fugitive Father Has Hidden His Children For So Long

Marokopa Mystery: A year on from disappearance of Tom Phillips and three kids. Fugitive father on the run with three children in one of the worlds wildest regions

The Guardian 17 OCT 2024










Despite a sighting by pig hunters this month, Tom Phillips and his three children continue to evade New Zealand authorities

The man wore camouflage gear, a long beard protruding below a mask.His features were hidden, but when New Zealand police saw the video showing three figures walking behind him, one name came instantly to mind.



Fugitive Thomas Callam Phillips has been evading police for three years since disappearing with his children Ember, Maverick and Jayda ? now 8, 9 and 11 ? into the rugged wilderness of the countrys North Island during a bitter family split in December 2021.

At first Phillips was wanted for failing to appear in court on charges of wasting police resources but, three years on, his charge sheet has grown longer and more serious, with allegations that he robbed a bank in May 2023 with an unnamed female accomplice.

Last week's sighting is believed to be the first of all three children since 2021.

It was made by a teenager, who didn't want to be named or interviewed for this story, but his grandfather John McOviney told CNN the boy had been hunting with a friend on the family's 8,500-acre (3,439-hectare) property in Marokopa when they spotted four figures carrying backpacks who they assumed were poachers.


"The guy had a big, long beard, and the kids were all masked up, and they were carrying packs, and they weren't very keen to talk to them at all," McOviney said.


Instead, his grandson filmed them on his phone, providing the first proof of life of the missing Phillips children that their mother Cat has seen since they left.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0O0xExooPio