The nearly four-year search for runaway dad Tom Phillips and his children came to a tragic end in rural Waikato early today. Neil Reid reports on the father of three’s time on the run, and the shootout that left him dead.
A volley of shots in the dark on the side of a Waikato road brought Tom Phillips’ time on the run to a deadly end this morning.
Tracked by police after an apparent ram raid of a rural farm supplies store in Piopio, the quad bike Phillips and one of his three children were on came to an abrupt halt after running over road spikes deployed by an officer.
But he didn’t give himself up peacefully as police have repeatedly called for since he vanished with children Jayda, Maverick and Ember (now aged 12, 10 and 9) in late 2021. Instead, he opened fire.
Thankfully, Phillips’ remaining two missing children were found by police shortly before night fall after earlier expressing “serious concerns” for their wellbeing.
Before the children were found, Acting Deputy Police Commissioner Jill Rogers detailed the dramatic end to the manhunt.
They were minutes that left the fugitive dad dead, and a police officer critically injured after being shot in the upper body and head with a high-powered rifle.
Around 3.20am, road spikes were deployed at the corner of Waipuna Rd and Te Anga Rd, which leads to the tiny settlement of Marokopa where Phillips is from.
The tyre-piercing spikes made the getaway vehicle inoperable. Rogers said the man believed to be Phillips then opened fire on the first police officer on the scene of the incapacitated bike.
The officer was struck in the head multiple times, critically injuring him.
“He’s immediately fallen to the ground and taken cover,” Rogers said.
“Soon after, a second patrol unit arrived and engaged the offender, and he has died at the scene.”
A formal identification process of the body is now under way, but Rogers has stated they believe the man is Phillips and say this morning’s events are “devastating news for Tom Phillips’ family”. Phillips’ sister Rozzi earlier confirmed to media her brother was dead.
The early morning gunfire brought to the end a saga where Phillips – as well as being wanted for taking his children – was wanted by police for an alleged bank robbery and discharging a firearm towards a supermarket worker, and multiple break-ins of rural Waikato businesses.
Phillips vanished with his three children just weeks before Christmas 2021.
It was the second time the fugitive father – who had a warrant out for his arrest - had fled with his kids, sparking a search for the quartet.
Police in December 2023 said they believed Phillips was armed.
Phillips and his three children first came to national prominence on September 11, 2021, after his ute was discovered in the surf at Kiritehere Beach – about 10km south of Marokopa.
A major land and sea search and rescue operation was launched, with jet skis and inflatable boats scouring the water in the area – backed up by aerial searches from helicopters and light planes – in case they had been swept out to sea.
A land search – operated out of the Marokopa Hall – featured specialist teams and volunteers on foot, along with heat-detecting drones and helicopters.
The quartet reappeared 19 days after their disappearance, returning to the Phillips’ family farm, where the runaway dad told a family member they had been living in a tent in the bush, and he had needed time out to think.
Phillips was later charged with wasting police resources.
But on December 9, 2021, a month before a scheduled court appearance, he again vanished with his three children.
His second vanishing act saw a $10,000 reward offered by some relatives of the three missing children for any information leading to their safe return.
There were repeated calls from police and local mayor Max Baxter for Phillips to hand them over.
In June 2024, police themselves offered an $80,000 reward for information leading to the safe return of Jayda, Ember and Maverick.
Marokopa – located on the western Waikato coastline - has a permanent population of around 50.
The tiny seaside community is located at the end of Marokopa Rd, a windy stretch of tarmac about an hour’s drive east from the Waitomo Caves.
For much of its distance, the narrow road is carved through lush native bush.
The few places where you can stop safely off the side of the route are gravel public car parks located near popular walking tracks; including to a waterfall and a cave network.
It’s a great spot for fishing; both casting off the beach or for taking a boat out into the surf.
Locals also love the area for its tranquillity; some have chosen it for a place to retire at; others commute daily to work on nearby farms or in Waitomo or Te Kūiti.
The common denominator of many who live in Marokopa is its tranquillity; a peace that has been broken so many times in the hunt for Phillips by aerial sweeps by the police Eagle helicopter.
Previously sedate traffic on Marokopa Rd has also been sporadically boosted by marked and unmarked police cars during a series of searches in the area.
The normal silence around the seaside community’s atmosphere was matched by many locals when approached for comment by the Herald during Phillip’s time on the run.
“Go away” was an often-repeated response.
Some who did agree to talk wouldn’t be named partly for fear of reprisals from those who supported Phillips.
One of those said during a visit to the settlement in December 2022: “We don’t really care about him and what happens to him.
“What we do care about is the health and wellbeing of those three children. Apart from their dad, they’ve been stripped of precious family time, including from their mother, for almost two years.”
Locals spoke of the many caves Phillips could be hiding in; underground networks which could help him avoid being picked up by heat-seeking sensors deployed during police helicopter flyovers.
Others were insistent the dad was being helped to avoid capture and could be staying in any number of local huts or remote farmhouses.
Former Waikato mayor Mark Amonn was among the minority, comfortable putting his face and name to an appeal for Phillips to hand himself in.
“For the sake of your kids, turn yourself in,” Amonn told the Herald while he was out dog walking near the Marokopa sand dunes.
“He has to forget about the consequences of being caught. He has to do it now before something more serious happens.
“I do feel for the kids, a lot. All they’ve got at the moment is each other. They’ve been out of education for two years.”
During the near four-year period Phillips was on the run, police have faced ongoing scrutiny about how hard they were trying to find him.
There have also been repeated calls for elite military unit the SAS be brought in to try and track him; calls that were again made last week after police said they suspected him responsible for the early-morning break-in of the Piopio Superette.
But consistently throughout the hunt for the runaway dad, police, some locals and a private investigator who carried out his own independent search for Phillips believed he received significant help to avoid detection.
Detective Senior Sergeant Andrew Saunders has previously made it clear police believed he was being helped.
“While Tom is experienced in the bush, we believe there are people helping him, and we urge those people to give us any information which may help locate Tom and the children.
“The children have other family members who are desperate to see them.
“While we appreciate there are certain loyalties held by people in small communities, this is not the time to keep them.”
So too did Wellington-based private investigator Chris Budge who told the Herald in late 2022 that given the crimes he linked to Phillips – including thefts from farms – that with the help of others, he had been almost hiding in plain sight.
He believed he and the children were on one of many farms in the region, where Phillips might be working as a farmhand and living in a “cocky’s house or a shepherd’s building ... he’s living probably a reasonably limited lifestyle”.
Budge said he had also been told Phillips had been seen on land owned by a well-known drug grower in the southern Waikato area.
Information gathered by Budge suggested someone who knew Phillips well might have known where he was hiding out when he first vanished with the kids in September 2021.
Stories had also circulated in the community that the same person had purchased a “boot load of groceries” in Taumarunui which were dropped off somewhere else, presumably to Phillips.
Not everyone Phillips has encountered has tried to help him.
That includes some who gave chase in August 2022 after he was spotted driving a ute near Kawhia that had previously been reported stolen.
Police said at the time locals recognised him and gave chase. But Phillips managed to get away.
Throughout the search, police made repeated calls for those who knew where he was hiding to tell them.
They also urged Phillips to hand the children over and give himself up. The most recent being after the dairy burglary last week.
The net finally closed on Phillips in the early hours of this morning.
At around 2.30am police were called by a member of the public to a burglary at PGG Wrightson’s Piopio yard.
The caller told police they had seen two people wearing head torches: a male also wearing farm gear and a “shorter person”.
They matched the descriptions given to previous burglaries Phillips has been linked to. They loaded items on to a quad bike and then fled.
“Based on the descriptions involved, police believed the man was likely to be Tom Phillips, resulting in additional staff, and the police Eagle helicopter, being deployed,” Rogers said.
Road spikes were laid at the intersection of Te Anga and Waipuna Rds around 3.20am.
“Several minutes later, the quad bike ran over the spikes and came to a stop shortly after,” Rogers said.
A police car – containing a sole officer – was soon on the scene.
He was shot in the head and shoulder as he got out of the vehicle.
“A second police unit was immediately on the scene, police fired at the armed man, incapacitating him,” Rogers explained.
Phillips died at the scene as police tried to give first aid.
Also found at the scene was one of Phillips’ children, with “multiple firearms” being found “on and around the quad bike”.
This morning, Rogers said the search for Phillips’ remaining two children was ongoing, saying police held “serious concerns” for them.
Thankfully, shortly after 5.50pm, she confirmed the kids had been found at a remote camp site.
“Following the incident, we have been in contact with Phillips’ family and we will be working to provide them with all available support,” Rogers said.
“We are also providing support to our staff member who was injured, and other staff at the scene.
“This has been a confronting and challenging event for them.”
As police prepared to front the media in this morning’s initial press conference in Hamilton, the mother of the three children revealed her relief that one of her trio had been found.
In a press release issued to RNZ, Cat said she was “deeply relieved” that the “ordeal” had children had endured had “come to an end”.
“They have been dearly missed every day for nearly four years, and we are looking forward to welcoming them home with love and care.”
Cat said she was “saddened by how events unfolded today”.
“Our hope has always been that the children could be returned in a peaceful and safe way for everyone involved,” she said.
“We express our deepest aroha to the police officer who was injured in the line of duty.”
Previously, in an interview with the Herald, she had described Phillips as a “criminal”.
She said her children were being used “as pawns in his game”.
“They shouldn’t have to be worrying about where they’re going to sleep that night or whether they’re going to be warm,” Cat told the Herald last October.
“It’s like every day [I’m] grieving ... the loss of three childhoods, the loss of innocence, the loss of my babies, they deserve better.”
In her statement issued shortly before 11am, Cat said family of the missing children extended their “aroha to those in the community who have been affected”.
She also expressed her “heartfelt gratitude” to those who had supported her and other family members during the children’s disappearance.
“Your compassion has sustained us.”
Cat said the priority was now the “safe return and reconnection of our tamariki”.
“They have endured a long and difficult journey, and we ask for privacy as we help them adjust and reintegrate into a stable and loving environment.”
Neil Reid is a Napier-based senior reporter who covers general news, features and sport. He joined the Herald in 2014 and has 33 years of newsroom experience. He has spent time in Marokopa during the lengthy police hunt for Tom Phillips and his children.
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