Fugitive father and three kids seen after years of hiding in remote New Zealand area

He disappeared in December 2021, kidnapping his children of whom he did not have custody: now a group of boys would have seen Tom Phillips together with the children

After almost three years in hiding, a fugitive father and his three children have been found living deep in New Zealand wilderness. Tom Phillips vanished in December 2021 with his children, Jayda, Maverick, and Ember, then aged 11, 9, and 8, respectively, following a falling-out with the children’s mother, Cat, who had legal custody.

Until a recent sighting in the Waikato region, no solid information had turned up regarding their whereabouts since their disappearance. A spotting happened when a group of pig hunters was out-looking, one of them a 16-year-old teenager, who caught sight of the family in a very remote rural area and briefly captured the scene on a phone.

All four were camouflaged and wore huge heavy packs; Phillips was seen to be packing a handgun. The kids, keeping their distance from the strangers, asked the hunters if anyone else knew they were there, then quickly turned and disappeared into the vegetation with their father.

Phillips was already known to authorities

The police have declared the sighting to be credible, characterized as a “positive lead.” The area was subsequently heli-blanched the entire succeeding weekend, but no sign of the family was found. New Zealand authorities persist in their search to make sure the children are returned safely to their mother, who called the development emotionally relieving, knowing her children were still alive.

Phillips was a man already known to the police because of a spate of other criminal activities, which included theft and robbery. In 2023, he was charged with aggravated robbery for threatening a store clerk with a gun. Since then, he has remained on the run, and a $50,000 USD bounty is placed on whoever can show information about his capture.

Investigators believe that at least part of that time, Phillips and the kids lived in total isolation, with sporadic aid from outside sources. Authorities have pleaded with anyone who knows anything to help them by withholding any form of support to the fugitive. Meanwhile, the children’s mother asks only that the kids come home safe and sound.