Tom Phillips’ missing Marokopa kids face challenges rejoining society, psychologist says

The children of Tom Phillips would likely need a gradual and managed reintroduction to society if they are ever found.

Phillips has been evading police with his three children since December 2021.

His children, Ember, Maverick and Jayda, are now 12, 10 and 9. They were taken into the rugged wilderness in Western Waikato.

Phillips and the children were last seen in October 2024, when they were filmed by two pig hunters walking through Marokopa farmland.

Fresh footage was released today, appearing to show Phillips and one of his children after an alleged burglary.

The footage, from August 27, shows the man assumed to be Phillips, and a child, targeting a back entrance of the Piopio Superette, a shop he previously targeted in November 2023.

David Stebbing, a registered psychologist, told the Herald that because one of the children appeared to be on camera breaking into a store with Phillips, it indicates they had likely been conditioned into the life they were now living.

“It’s problematic for their views on crime,” Stebbing said of Phillips’ children.

“Children develop socially in school, watching TV, being around family.

“These kids are living in a vacuum, learning from him and not living in a community.”

Stebbing said because of one of the children’s alleged involvement in the break-in, they would likely be anti-establishment, learning this behaviour from their father who was having a significant and unchallenged influence on them.

One of his children was also allegedly caught breaking into a shop with their father in November 2023 after he allegedly stole a quad bike from a rural Waikato property.

In the long term, Stebbing argued it wouldn’t be easy to take them from their father if the children were ever found, due to Phillips being the only adult figure in their lives.

“Part of reintegrating them into society would be having them live in a safe secure setting,” Stebbing said.

There have been a handful of credible sightings of Phillips since he disappeared from the family farm in Marokopa with his children, who he does not have legal custody of, in 2021.

He allegedly robbed a bank and shot at a supermarket worker in May 2023 which prompted police to charge him with aggravated robbery, aggravated wounding and unlawfully possessing a firearm.

A more recent sighting included pig hunters seeing the family and speaking briefly to the children in October 2024.

The sighting caused Cat, the children’s mother, to speak out.

She told the Herald she wanted to know why more hadn’t been done to find her children.

There has been no success in locating the children or their father despite multiple police operations, pleas and rewards offered to find them.