\u201cThere was a negotiation which commenced with the children, and that proceeded, and they came out,\u201d Detective Senior Sergeant Andrew Saunders said.<\/p>\n
Sign up to The Nightly’s newsletters.<\/p>\n
Get the first look at the digital newspaper, curated daily stories and breaking headlines delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n
By continuing you agree to our Terms<\/a> and Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Police Commissioner Richard Chambers had previously said police negotiators traversed through steep and uneven terrain to locate the children.<\/p>\n According to the outlet, the negotiators had to \u201cpersuade\u201d the young boy to \u201cdrop the gun\u201d.<\/p>\n Phillips\u2019 eldest daughter, Jayda, who was with her father at the time of the gruesome police shootout, provided police with \u201ccrucial\u201d information that allowed them to narrow their search boundary, and eventually find Maverick and nine-year-old Ember.<\/p>\n Police confirmed it was Jayda who alerted them to the presence of guns at the campsite.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had information to say a firearm was present, and there was,\u201d Mr Chambers said.<\/p>\n While Jayda did not physically guide police through the bush, she advised police on the best way to talk to her brother and sister.<\/p>\n \u201cWe kept her not far away, but far enough away that her safety wasn\u2019t compromised,\u2019 Mr Chambers said.<\/p>\n Police described the hideout as extremely difficult to access.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a very grim, dimly lit area, surrounded by dense bush,\u201d Det. Sen. Serg. Saunders told reporters.<\/p>\n Photos released by police show a dirty and cramped hideout, containing a tent, a cooktop and a gas bottle.<\/p>\n Authorities do not believe this was the primary location where Phillips and the children had been living since they vanished into the bush in September 2021.<\/p>\n \u201cBased on the way it\u2019s been set up, and other information we\u2019ve received, we don\u2019t believe it\u2019s been the main place they\u2019ve been living for the last four years,\u201d Det. Sen. Serg. Saunders said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe they\u2019ve moved here a number of months ago.\u201d<\/p>\n All three children are now in the care of Oranga Tamariki, a government department in New Zealand responsible for the well-being of children.<\/p>\n They are yet to be reunited with their mother.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of Tom Phillips\u2019 children was reportedly armed when police negotiators approached their makeshift bush campsite on Monday.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134428,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40,1720],"class_list":["post-134427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0a38cae387cb21d7f88b70cb534844782b68abd1.jpg\")
The site has been described by police as \u2018grim\u2019 and \u2018dimly lit\u2019. Credit: NZ Police![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/55f7bbdafb2a9fae2a6e08ae4288b4d91877997b.jpg\")
New photos have emerged of the ‘grim’ and ‘dimly lit’ main campsite used by fugitive Tom Phillips and his three children. Credit: NZ Police<\/p>\n