Fugitive Father Missing with His 3 Kids Since 2021 Filmed Hiking: Reports

A New Zealand father on the run with his three children has been filmed for the first time since they went missing three years ago.

Tom Phillips was seen with his children Jayda, 11, Maverick, 9, and Ember, 8, on New Zealand’s remote North Island on the evening of Monday, Oct. 7, according to the New Zealand Police.

Footage captured by pig hunters who encountered the family in the area published by various news outlets, shows a man believed to be Philips leading three masked children along the grassy farmland while wearing matching camouflage outfits and carrying backpacks. 

The sighting comes after Philips fled with his children in September 2021, before returning to his remote farm in Marokopva (approximately 310 miles north of Wellington) nineteen days later. He then went missing with the children again in December 2021, according to the New Zealand police. 

“Thursday’s sighting of Tom Phillips has opened a positive line of enquiry that’s now being looked into by the investigation team,” New Zealand Police said in a news release, published on Tuesday, Oct. 8.

“Investigators received information about 7:00 p.m. on Thursday that Tom had been seen in bush area west of Coutts Road in Marokopa with Jayda, Maverick and Ember. This was a credible sighting, and Police believe it was indeed Tom and his children.”

“Patrols began in the area on Thursday night and a search was launched the following morning.”

The children’s mother Cat hasn’t seen them since 2021. She shared her reaction to the sighting, per The New Zealand Herald, “I’m so happy that they’re all there. I’m so relieved to see all three of my babies. They’re all alive.”

Phillips’ mother Julia added to the outlet, “[We] love for them to come home. We were relieved to see the children alive and well. We thought they would be but you never know.”

John McOviney, the grandfather of one of the teenage pig hunters who filmed Phillips and his children, told 1News that his relative said to them “What are you doing here? Who are you? Does anybody else know you’re here?”

“The kid said ‘only you’, and then they just kept walking,” McOviney added, before saying that his grandson described Phillips as having a big beard and appeared to be “bush savvy.” He was also carrying a gun.

“I think he thought they were actually in quite good health,” continued McOviney

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There have been several reports of Phillips since he went missing — including alleged robberies he’s believed to be carried out in the Waikato region. 

In September 2023, an arrest warrant was issued over an alleged armed robbery at a bank in the remote village of Te Kuiti in May of that year. Police allege that Phillips made his getaway on a black farm-style motorbike.

New Zealand Police are urging the public to continue to pass on any information they know regarding the whereabouts of Phillips and his children as the hunt for them continues.