Police in New Zealand is renewing the search for a fugitive father who has been fleeing with his three children since 2021.
The authorities announced Wednesday that they will be Searching and around rural communities In the Waikato region of the North Island of New Zealand, the area where Tom Phillips and his children were last seen and they are believed to hide.
Phillips and his three children, Ember, who now thought he was nine years old, Maverick, 10 years old, and Jayda, 11, fled to a remote area of Waikato just before Christmas in 2021, reports The Guardian. Phillips, who does not have the legal custody of his children, had gotten into a Fight with children's mother Shortly before disappearing with children.
Ember, Jayda and Maverick are seen in this photo without date.
Miss Marokopa Children / Facebook
According to the departure, this is not the first time that Phillips has fled to the bush with his children in tow. In September 2021, the four were reported as missing, which resulted in a massive search operation, before reappearing on their parents' farm 19 days later. The Guardian reports that he told the officers that he had taken his children to a camp trip to “Clear your head.”
Police accused him of wasting time and resources. However, when it was not shown for an appearance in the court related to charges several months later, an arrest warrant was issued.
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In a statement published on Wednesday, New Zealand police said the new search “It has not been requested by any specific sighting“But it is a continuation of the ongoing research.
However, there has been a Number of phillips sightings In the three years since it disappeared.
Last October, reports The New Zealand Herald, adolescent pig hunters Video images captured by Phillips and their three children – It is believed to be the first sighting of the three children at the same time.
The video showed the quartet dressed in camouflage and carrying large backpacks through a resistant culture land patch.
The mother of the children, who saw them for the last time in 2021, told the Herald that he was “relieved” to know that they were alive.
“I am so happy that they are all there,” he said, instantly recognizing each child. “I am very relieved to see my three babies. Everyone is alive. “
The sighting led to a three -day search, including the use of a military helicopter, but “nothing more importance“He was found, police said.
And before that, in November 2023, the police said they were caught by Phillips and another person, who is believed to be one of these children, in CCTV images trying to steal a store destroying a window.
A man thought it was Tom Phillips and one of his children, supposedly trying to enter a store in 2023.
New Zealand Police
Police said the couple, who was masked, escaped when the store's alarm system began sounding in the middle of the night.
Phillips is also accused of stealing a bank and shooting a supermarket employee in May 2023.
As its list of charges grow and remains without being detected, many New Zealanders wonder why the authorities have fought to track Phillips and their children.
“We absolutely believe that someone or some people, They are helping them“, Max Baxter, mayor of the Ithrohanga district that includes Marokopa, a rural community where Phillips and her parents were born still, journalists in October last year.
“Tom still has several followers believing that he is doing the right thing for him and his children.”
According to CNN, Phillips's mother He denied knowing his son's location In 2023 and said the family “would not like anything else” than Phillips and their grandchildren return to civilization.
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