An $80,000 reward being offered to anyone with good information on missing fugitive Tom Phillips’ whereabouts will run out in less than a week and police are asking people to come forward now.
Phillips has been missing with his three children Jayda, Ember and Maverick somewhere in the Waikato bushfor 30 months. While he’s been on the run, Phillips is alleged to have robbed a bank, shot at a supermarket worker, stolen a ute and a quad bike, and tried to break into a shop.
The children’s mother Cat made an emotional plea for Phillips to “bring my babies home” on Tuesday – the same day as Jayda’s 11th birthday. She recorded an emotional video of herself asking for anyone with information on where Phillips was hiding to tell police.
“They are just innocent children, they do not deserve the life that is being provided to them right now,” she said.
“None of this is okay. My babies deserve better. I am just a mother standing here in front of the world begging you here to help me bring my babies home.
“Please, if anybody has any information at all, call the police.”
Acting Detective Inspector Andrew Saunders said today the offer of a reward for information would run out next Tuesday.
An immunity period being offered to anyone helping Phillips hide who tipped police off was not guaranteed to continue past this date, a police spokesman told the Herald.
Saunders said: “The reward has been offered for a limited period of two weeks to encourage people who have credible, current information to come forward now, and not to leave it any longer.
“In the 10 days since the reward offer was announced on Tuesday, June 11, the video [of the children’s mother] on police Facebook has been viewed 89,000 times. It’s heartening to see so many people have engaged in our appeal to locate the Phillips children.”
He said 100 new reports on Phillips’ whereabouts had come through since police launched the fresh appeal for information. Forty of those reports were considered “worthy” and were being investigated further.
Attention on Phillips and his children has ramped up in the past week, with police issuing the reward, deploying officers to Marokopa and then Ōtorohanga, and setting up checkpoints in the hope of finding them.
Phillips first disappeared with the children on September 11, 2021. Emergency services began searching for them after his car was found abandoned on a beach. Phillips turned up almost three weeks later, on September 30.
Clockwise from top left: Tom Phillips and children Jayda, Ember and Maverick. Photo / New Zealand Police
Police charged him with wasteful deployment of police resources but he did not show up at his first court appearance on January 12, 2022. Police then issued a warrant for his arrest. He and his children officially went missing again on December 2, 2021.
