The mum of the missing Marokopa children has recorded a video pleading with their father to 'bring her babies home'. Video / Operation Curly
The mother of three missing Marokopa children has shared a letter she claims was written to her by fugitive father Tom Phillips, in which he says, “I have a good heart and I mean well”.
Cat, mother of Jayda, Maverick and Ember Phillips, took to social media on Wednesday nightin a fresh plea for the return of her children and released a letter, which she says Phillips wrote to her.
“I have decided to share a letter written by Thomas to show that all is not as it seems,” she posted tonight.
The letter reads:
“I don’t know what to say or do to help you forgive me.
“I am not desperate to be with someone or I would have already done it. I don’t want to be with someone I want to be with you Catherine, the woman I have been in love with for over seven years.
“I can’t make you forgive me. Only you can make that choice and I know you don’t have to.
“I know if I ever give up trying to make things right I will regret it forever. I’m sorry for everything I have ever said or done to hurt you. These past nine months I have suffered everyday knowing I should have dealt with things better and knowing that I f***ed up.
A letter from Tom Phillips to Cat the mother of Jayda, Ember and Maverick Phillips.
Cat shared details of a letter from Tom Phillips to "show that all is not as it seems".
“Hindsight is great right, or not because now I know there was a better way and I have to live with that for the rest of my life.
“You have a beautiful personality and the happiest years of my life are because of you. You have brought me so much joy and I don’t feel complete without you.
“I hope you can remember the man you fell in love with and know that although I make multiple f*** ups I have a good heart and I mean well.
“I know I used to make you happy, I know I can make you happy again if you let me. We get on so well most of the time and we are an awesome couple. We have an awesome family and that’s worth fighting for.”
It is not known when the letter was sent.
Cat shared an image of the family’s last birthday celebration together for their eldest daughter Jayda, who is now 11.
In her post tonight, Cat also shared an image of the family’s last birthday celebration together for their eldest daughter Jayda, who turned 11 on Tuesday.
She said she hadn’t spoken out earlier because she didn’t think it would “help bring my babies home”.
“However, the police are now offering a substantial reward and a chance of immunity so I have taken courage to break my silence in the hope that anyone with any information will come forward,” she wrote.
“I am well aware of the hateful rumours being spread around, I only ask that you know me before you judge me.”
Cat said she, along with two sisters, grandparents, uncles, aunties and cousins of the three children are “waiting for them”.
“Please help Jayda, Maverick and Ember come home.”
‘Bring my babies home’: Mother speaks out for first time
The letter comes a day after the mother spoke publicly for the first time.
In a video message yesterday, Cat said: “I am standing here before you today begging you for your help to bring my babies home.
“They are just innocent children, they do not deserve to be treated this way. They do not deserve the life that is being provided to them right now.”
She continued: “What Thomas is doing is not okay. It is not okay to divide and conquer, it is not okay to isolate and control. It is child neglect, it is child endangerment, it is child abandonment, it is child abuse.
“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.”
She said yesterday was her daughter Jayda’s 11th birthday.
“She will be a young woman now and will need her mother.
Cat posted this image to Facebook tonight, saying it was taken in 2021, before the disappearance of children Maverick, Jayda and Ember Phillips.
“Ember is asthmatic, as am I. She needs medical care that cannot be provided from the land and I can only imagine how Maverick is coping with the hand that life has dealt him.
“Many of you say the children are fine, that they’re being well looked after. How do you know? Have you seen them or is it just bush talk?”
In a statement, police said they had received more than 100 new tip-offs since making a renewed effort last week to find the family.
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.
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.
