Detective Senior Sergeant Andy Saunders spoke to media yesterday after police revealed they believe two people captured on CCTV breaking into a Piopio business early Wednesday were fugitive dad Tom Phillips and one of his three children. Video / Michael Craig
The hunt for Tom Phillips and his three kids is capturing the interest of audiences around the world, with news of the fugitive father’s latest sighting going global.
Police yesterday released CCTV footage they believe shows Phillips and one of his kids breaking into the Piopio Superette before escaping ona quad bike early Wednesday – the first public sighting of the missing family since pig hunters filmed all four walking through Marokopa farmland 10 months ago.
Phillips has been on the run with Jayda, Maverick and Ember – now aged 12, 10 and 9 – since disappearing from the family farm in the remote south-west Waikato settlement of Marokopa in December 2021.
Wednesday’s alleged sighting not only dominated headlines across New Zealand, but captured global attention as Australian, British and US media reported on the incident.
Police release CCTV footage believed to show Marokopa man Tom Phillips and one of his children breaking in to a building in Piopio on Wednesday morning. Photo / Supplied
Several major international news organisations, including CNN, CBS, Sky News UK, BBC, The Guardian, ABC and the Sydney Morning Herald alerted their audiences to the latest in the long-running saga.
International media also reported the questions – and concerns – of police.
Detective Senior Sergeant Andy Saunders speaks to media about a potential sighting of fugutive father Tom Phillips - and one of his kids - in CCTV footage of a retail burglary in rural Waikato. Photo / Michael Craig
Police have previously said they believed Phillips had assistance from other people, but were now “considering what this burglary actually means”, the BBC reported of comments made by Detective Senior Sergeant Andy Saunders at a media conference in Hamilton yesterday.
“Does it mean that he’s potentially had a falling out with who’s helping him? Or is he just that brazen and confident that he’s quite happy to come out at night and commit a burglary?”
But the British public broadcasting giant, as with other international media, also noted the key consideration for police.
“At the heart of this are three children who have been away from their home for four years,” Saunders said.
“Their wellbeing is our main focus.”
Cat pictured with her children, from left, Maverick, Ember and Jayda Phillips before all three disappeared with their father Tom Phillips almost four years ago.
“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.”
Tom Phillips has been on the run with his three kids for almost four years.
International publications such as People Magazine similarly zeroed in on the impact of Phillips’ actions on his wider family, repeating the pleas made earlier this month by his sister Rozzi Phillips for her brother to come home.
“Maybe he’s going to see this”, she told Stuff’s Paddy Gower Has Issues show.
“And maybe he’s going to get to see that he can come home, and that we are here for him, and it might just be okay.”
Cherie Howie is an Auckland-based reporter who joined the Herald in 2011. She has been a journalist for more than 20 years and specialises in general news and features.
