Police say fugitive dad Tom Phillips was unlikely to surrender easily and was prepared to put his three children in harm’s way.
They say the family was detected at various times over the last four years, but never in circumstances where police could safely intervene.
Police have this morning released further details about the Marokopa manhunt as they continue to hunt for Phillips’ accomplices.
“The vast area in which Phillips kept the children is difficult, steep terrain almost completely obscured from all angles by dense bush,” said Detective Superintendent Ross McKay.
“Police never stopped trying – thousands of hours were dedicated to the search.
“Intelligence played an important role in informing decisions and planning for possible outcomes.
“We knew Phillips had firearms and was motivated to use them.
“We also knew, based on previous actions and behavioural science analysis, that Phillips was unlikely to surrender easily and was prepared to put the children in harm’s way.
“The primary objective was locating and returning the children safely.”
The family regularly moved around and adapted their behaviour, meaning no sites were found.
“They were detected in transit on occasion but never in circumstances that allowed police to safely intervene.”
McKay said drones, supplied and operated by Airbus, flew for 111 hours over a period of two weeks in April this year.
“At various times during the operation, police specialist units such as Special Tactics Group, Armed Offenders Squad, Search and Rescue and Tactical Operations Group, were used.
“There was also support from the New Zealand Defence Force, with helicopter and ground assets.
“Other resources included geospatial imagery, thermal imagery, covert technology such as motion-activated cameras, and Airbus Flexrotor drones.”
He said the focus of the investigation, which was never fully released to the public, was to find a campsite or a supply route.
He said it was always expected that there would be multiple campsites.
He said because the hunt, dubbed Operation Curly, has now concluded, police would not be releasing any more details ahead of the subsequent and ongoing investigations and reviews.
“I hope the information released today provides some reassurance about the lengths police and its partner agencies went to in order to resolve this complex situation, as well as some clarity on the difficulties faced in achieving that safely.”
Phillips was killed in an early morning shootout with police on Te Anga Rd, west of Waitomo Caves, early on September 8.
The fugitive father shot at a police officer who confronted him after his quad bike crashed when it was spiked on a rural road. Police were alerted to a night-time theft from rural supply store PGG Wrightsons in Piopio.
Phillips’ eldest child was with him, and his other two children were found later that day at a campsite in western Waikato.
The policeman who was shot suffered serious injuries to his head and shoulder and was later flown to hospital, where he received treatment and, later, visits from both the Police Minister and the Police Commissioner.
McKay said the officer is out of hospital and his recovery is progressing.
In mid-December 2021 Phillips and his three children disappeared – for the second time in three months – from their farm in the small rural town of Marokopa, in Western Waikato.
He said they are also continuing to hunt for the accomplices they always believed Phillips had, and are following “strong lines of enquiry”.
Meanwhile, key details in the case cannot be reported yet as media lawyers continue to fight for an injunction to be lifted.
The matter returned to the High Court at Wellington last week for parties to argue over whether an injunction should be in place.
It was initially granted on Monday evening last week after lawyer Linda Clark made an urgent oral application on behalf of Tom Phillips’ mother, Julia Phillips.
Phillips made sporadic appearances across western Waikato over his four years on the run.
Most were related to crime.
The first occurred in May 2023, when Phillips robbed a bank and shot at a supermarket worker in Te Kūiti before he and an unidentified person escaped on a motorcycle, prompting police to lay several charges and issue a warrant for Phillips’ arrest.
Three months later, Phillips was seen wearing a facemask, hat and glasses, shopping at Bunnings Warehouse stores in Hamilton, before driving south of Te Awamutu and eventually getting into a fight in Kāwhia with the owner of a ute he’d pinched.
In November that year, Phillips landed in the headlines again when he allegedly stole a quad bike from a rural Waikato property and – under the cover of darkness – broke into a Piopio shop with one of his kids.
Eleven months later, teenage pig hunters filmed an armed Phillips and his kids, clad in camouflage clothing, walking in the remote Marokopa farmland.
The last sighting came just 12 days before Phillips fatal confrontation with police, when the fugitive and a child were captured overnight on CCTV breaking into a Piopio superette.
Detective Senior Sergeant Andy Saunders had told media no one should underestimate Phillips’ ruthlessness.
“Tom will pose a risk to anyone that tries to stop the way he’s living his lifestyle with his children”, said Saunders, who headed the hunt.
After his disappearance, some of the children’s relatives responded by offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to their safe return.
Ōtorohanga mayor Max Baxter also repeatedly called for Phillips to hand the youngsters over. In June last year, police offered an $80,000 reward for information leading to the safe return of the children, without success.
The kids’ mum Catherine (Cat) Christey also made a plea to Phillips, calling him a “criminal” using their children 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 … they deserve better.”