Already and this is this is the Daily This is the DALYI os oh, now it makes sense. Good morning and welcome to the Daily ODS. It's Tuesday, the ninth of September.
I'm Lucy Tassel, I'm Sam Gozlowski.
New Zealand police have shot and killed a man who had been on the run with his three young children for almost four years. Tom Phillips disappeared in December twenty twenty one with his kids, then aged eight, six and five, leaving their mother and his family behind. In today's episode, we'll explain what we know about how Phillips and his children stayed hidden for so long and his final fatal collision with police. But first a quick word from our sponsor.
So Lucy. As you mentioned at the top, this story has been ongoing since late twenty twenty one, and we've covered it before here at TDA. When Tom Phillips and his children were spotted last year, I think we did a video on it.
Yes.
For those who aren't familiar, though, take us right back to the beginning a couple of years ago where this story started.
So this actually really starts in September twenty twenty one. That's when Tom Phillips and his three kids, named Jada, Maverick, and Ember first disappeared together. At the time, the kids were aged eight, six and five, so pretty little kids. Yeah. They were missing for seventeen days in New Zealand's Waikato region, which is on the west coast of the North Island.
Tom's ute was found on a remote beach more than an hour from the nearest petrol station, and it was like on the beach, like physically on the sand below the tideline facing the waves. The group was gone so long that searchers were actually called off, and the family told media at the time they were considering the worst case scenario. They thought there was a strong possibility that all of them had been actually washed out to see but then all of them showed up again, completely unharmed.
So Tom and all three kids they walked into the family farmhouse owned by Tom's parents seventeen days after they had.
Disappeared, and that must have been quite a shock to the family. It was a national news story. Were there any repercussions for Tom based on the fact that the family had gone missing for almost three weeks and then just turned up again.
Yeah, So in terms of like physically, everyone was totally fine. Apparently Tom had a lot of experience in living in the bush and that he'd also taken some food with them. In terms of legal repercussions, he was charged with wasting police resources in relation to the search and told to appear in court the following January. And then it's hard to pin down exactly the timeline of events, partly because
some information hasn't been made public to the media. But we know that at some point in the ensuing month, Tom didn't have legal custody of his children anymore. But just to beically, I have to be vague. There's only so much that we can say, but just that by December twenty twenty one, he didn't have legal custody of his children. And then it was that month, December twenty twenty one, that he and his kids disappeared for the second time.
Right, so, he was due to face court on those charges about wasting police resources. He didn't show up for the court date, and that was that second disappearance. Is that the disappearance that we've been talking about until today.
Yes, So on the ninth of December twenty twenty one, Tom and his kids left the family farmhouse and disappeared
into the Western Waikato region. A week later, there was a Facebook post that began circulating saying that the kids were missing again and the family wanted them back police at that time, so December twenty twenty one, they actually said they weren't concerned because they are now just two months out or three months out from a previous disappearance where everyone was totally fine, and they now know that
this guy has experience living in the bush. And they said at the time that he hadn't broken any court restrictions and that he told his family where he was going. But then when he didn't show up to the court appearance which was scheduled for January twenty twenty two, they issue and arrest warrant and then the family reported the kids and Phillips missing in mid January twenty twenty two, and they've been basically missing until now.
Wow, that's three and a half years of being reported missing. But we knew though that Tom and his children were still alive all of this time, because, as I mentioned earlier, there was this sighting of them last year that we covered. What can you tell me about that sighting?
Yeah, So TDA followers may remember the footage that we saw was from a video put together by our journalist Atola Rock. That citing in particular was special because it was the first time that Tom and all three kids were seen together. So it was in October twenty four and the kids and Tom were seen by pig hunters in the region who initially didn't recognize them. They started filming them because they thought they were poachers and they
wanted legal repercussions. They told media at the time. They remembered that Tom Phillips was holding a gun, that he was silent, they said. They told the kids that they were on private property. They asked, does anyone know you're on this private property? The eldest kid said no, just you guys, right.
So they actually spoke to the family, yes, just very briefly.
The confirmed sighting led to a three day search in the area that didn't turn anything up. So I mentioned that sighting was special because that was all of them together for the first time, But that wasn't the only sighting that we have from the last couple of years.
Interesting, so there were other sightings in that three year period.
Yeah, so I'm relying here on a timeline from the New Zealand publication stuff, so they've noted a number of possible sightings over the years. Police believe Phillips was the perpetrator of a number of armed robberies, successful or attempted, all in and around the Waikato region. Sometimes he had one of the kids with him, sometimes not. In June twenty twenty four, police actually posted an eighty thousand dollars reward as well as potential criminal immunity if anyone who
had been helping him came forward. No one came forward that we know of, Like, I don't think this reward was ever handed out, Like people gave information, but nothing that was enough to trigger that. And then so then after that then we have the spotting, like the sighting by the people who thought they were poaches. And then it was around then that we started to get like a lot of kind of more media coverage of this. So that month October twenty twenty four, police shared a
lot of information that hadn't previously been public. So they said they believed Tom had taken his kids as part of a custody dispute which had come after the seventeen day disappearance. They told the New Zealand Herald that officially speaking, the New Zealand Government Child Protection Agency had custody of the children, although they weren't around, so it was sort
of just in law. And they also said they were aware of the fact that there were people helping him stay hidden who were not cooperating with police.
So I think there's a few aspects to this story here. I mean, one clearly is the child protection aspect. But then there was this spate of robberies which I could only assume were for food and materials and that kind of thing. Yeah, so there were crimes being committed as well, and so this kind of bubbled along for a couple of years. Were there any other developments in this case though, that led up to this recent confrontation in major development?
Yeah, so, Actually two weeks ago, two or three weeks ago, Tom Phillips's sister, Rossie, gave an interview to New Zealand journalist Patty Gower and she read a letter from their mother, her and Tom's mother, the kid's grandmother.
Tom, I feel really said that you thought you had to do this, not considering how much we love you and can support you. Jada Merrick and Nimba I love you so much and really must being part of your lives. Every day I wake up and hope that today will be the day that you will come home.
So this was only a couple of weeks ago. This was on the nineteenth of August. I don't think it's likely, however, that Tom actually saw this, given that we believe he's been basically in the bush all this time, and also given the reason why we're talking about this story now, which is that he has had this confrontation with police that's led to his death.
So talk to me about that confrontation. It was a big news story here in Australia when we woke up yesterday morning, right yes, So.
At around two thirty am on Monday, police responded to reports of a break in at a shop in the royal town of Poor Pio in the northwest of the North Island. Witnesses said a man and another person, possibly a child, had left the scene on a quad bike. Police said they made a guess or they figured out which road the pair were going to be driving down. They laid down road spikes which stopped the quad bike.
Phillips then got off the quad bike and opened fire with a high powered rifle, shooting one officer in the head before other police fatally shot him and he died at the scene. The police officer is in hospital in a critical condition, and the person with Phillips was one of his children who's now been taken into custody.
Wow, okay, So why don't we talk through the response from police, because I think, as you're pointing out, that's quite limited information that we really know about, yeah, where he's been for the last three years or so, but also even which of his three children were with him, So what do we know from police.
At a media conference following that confrontation, Acting Deputy Commissioner Jill Rogers said the incident was quote the outcome that
nobody wanted. The children's mother, who is known as Cat in local media, said, while she is quote saddened by how the events unfolded, she is relieved that it's come to an end, and late yesterday afternoon, New Zealand Police held a short press conference to announce that they had actually found the other two children, with only about an hour of daylight left for search teams, so it was really right under the wire. Deputy Commissioner Rogers said her
team quote felt great relief in discovering the kids. As you can imagine, temperatures were set to drop to freezing that night. I mean, I imagine they've experienced that before in the years that they've been in the wild, but still want to spare the kids another night. She said the children had been found at a campsite and that they were well and uninjured, but will be getting medical checks.
Lucy, I think a lot of people listening would be thinking about some of the parallels with the current situation in Victoria where Victorian and police are still searching for Desi Freeman, who allegedly killed two police officers on a rural property a couple of weeks ago. Yeah, it is interesting how there's some really strong parallels here in terms of these major searches in bushland with people very experienced
at outdoor survival skills. Yeah, and as we've seen in New Zealand, that could go on for years.
It could, It absolutely could. There's interesting parallels with there's also interesting differences. New Zealand police don't believe Tom Phillips had any kind of ideological motivation for going on the run or for an acting violence that we know of, although of course now he's dead, so we won't necessarily ever know what his true motivations were. We can only speculate, but yes, it certainly shows that you can keep hiding for a long time if you have the means too.
Thanks for that, Lucy, a really interesting story from across the Ditch, and thank you for joining us on the Daily os today. We'll be back in the afternoon those headlines. Until then, have a wonderful day. My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda Bunjelung Calcuttin woman from Gadighl Country. The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and torrest Rate island and nations.
We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries, both past and present.