Police renew search for Tom Phillips and children in Marokopa area

Police are searching for Tom Phillips and his three children Ember, Maverick, and Jayda, who have been missing from Marokopa since December 2021. Photo / NZME

• Police have launched a new operation searching for Tom Phillips and his three children near Marokopa.
• Phillips and the children, missing since December 2021, were last seen in camouflage with backpacks.
• The operation hasn’t been prompted by a fresh sighting, but is a “continuation of the investigation”.

Police have launched a fresh operation in the search of Tom Phillips and his three children.

Detective Inspector Andy Saunders said they would be “present” in the wider Marokopa over the next few days.

“Officers will be conducting inquiries north of Marokopa, in and around Te Waitere and Te Maika.”

He said the operation had not been prompted by a new sighting but was “simply a continuation of the ongoing investigation”.

Phillips has been missing with his children Jayda, Ember and Maverick since December 2021.

Ember would now be aged 9, Maverick 10, and Jayda 11.

Police poured cold water on a possible sighting of Tom Phillips last month after a report of four people in camouflage clothes sitting in a layby on State Highway 4 in the King Country, south of Te Kūiti.

It came after police said an October sighting of Phillips and his three children in bush west of Coutts Rd in Marokopa was “credible”.

Phillips and his three children were most recently seen after teenage pig hunters captured footage of the quartet dressed in camouflage and carrying large backpacks across rugged farmland.

Fugitive dad Tom Phillips and his three children were spotted tramping in the Marokopa bush. Photo / Supplied

“This is the first time all three of the children have been sighted, which is positive information, and we know it will be reassuring for the children’s wider family,” police said at the time.

The sighting led to a three-day search, including the use of a military helicopter, but “nothing further of significance” was found, police said.

Before the sighting, police alleged Tom Phillips was seen on November 2, 2023, on CCTV after an attempted burglary at a Piopio store.

Security footage from the shop showed a masked pair, believed to be Phillips and one of his children, smashing the front glass and fleeing north after the alarm was set off about 2am.

He is also accused of robbing a bank and shooting at a supermarket worker in Te Kūiti in May 2023.

Phillips vanished for the first time with his three young children on September 11, 2021.

The family returned home three weeks later, but on December 9 an arrest warrant was issued for Phillips after he failed to appear before court.

In a video message last year, the children’s mother 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.”