{"id":14360,"date":"2025-09-10T17:42:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T17:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/14360\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T17:42:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T17:42:08","slug":"tom-phillips-how-the-fugitive-father-and-children-lived-in-bush-for-almost-four-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/14360\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Phillips: How the fugitive father and children lived in bush for almost four years"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Herald photographer on the scene spotted the quad bike being removed from the area by police. It had been loaded up with multiple crucial items for surviving in the bush<\/a>, including livestock feed and gumboots.<\/p>\n

Michael Atkinson, a former Australian Defence Force pilot who has appeared on Alone Australia, said a quad bike wouldn\u2019t be that hard to keep going, especially with the parts Phillips appeared to have available.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe quad bike used by Tom Phillips as a getaway vehicle before he engaged in a shootout with police, loaded with stolen goods. Photo \/ Hayden Woodward<\/p>\n

Atkinson said the vehicle would help him to \u201cservice different areas\u201d, and it\u2019s possible the father of three had animals somewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes sense not to have them next to your living area because it would be easier for you to be located.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnimals have a larger footprint, you can smell them, they tend to eat out grass, so they would be more visible via an aerial search.\u201d<\/p>\n

Atkinson also suggested the quad would be useful for hunting, allowing Phillips to conserve energy and access a wide area to hunt and fish. The grain found on the vehicle could be used as an effective bait for game.<\/p>\n

A second quadbike was found in the dense Waikato bush at the makeshift campsite.<\/p>\n

Photos of the camp where police found the two youngest Phillips children painted a grim picture of their daily reality<\/a> within rubbish and tarps. A gun was found with them.<\/p>\n

The makeshift camp was found by specialist police, about 2km from where Phillips died.<\/p>\n

Police also found a second campsite<\/a> with a makeshift kitchen with a propane camping stove and gas canister, a roll of chicken wire and empty bottles of iced coffee.<\/p>\n

Atkinson told the Herald the camp was designed to be hard to find from the air because much of the camouflage was on top of the shelter.<\/p>\n

\"PhotographsPhotographs reveal the campsite where Tom Phillips\u2019 children were found after his death. Photo \/ NZ Police<\/p>\n

\u201c[The camp] is on a steep hillside, that\u2019s not a very comfortable place to camp, but if you want to avoid being found, it\u2019s the best place to camp because people naturally walk along creek lines and ridge lines. <\/p>\n

\u201cNo one likes to walk on the side of a ridge line, so that\u2019s the best place to be. So he\u2019s taken a hit, I would say, on the comfort of his camp by picking a place that gets frequented a lot less, and that\u2019s why it\u2019s on a steep hillside.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re doing an aerial search, you tend to focus on things like ridge lines and creeks. You don\u2019t tend to just look on a random, run-of-the-mill, slopey piece of ground. You can see … he\u2019s been smart and left a lot of green vegetation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police Commissioner Richard Chambers said Phillips had not been at this site for any considerable time; instead, police believe he was moving around during the years he spent on the run.<\/p>\n

\"BarrieBarrie Rice suggested these camps were used as temporary stops between journeys. Photo \/ NZ Police<\/p>\n

Former SAS commando Barrie \u201cBaz\u201d Rice said the photos seemed to show \u201csatellite\u201d camps, used like huts on the trail for resting while carrying the hauls of stolen goods.<\/p>\n

Sitting closer to the road, the temporary rest stops have also allowed the quad bikes to be stashed somewhere, so large trails would not lead to a permanent location.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat would have left huge signs … but that main camp would not be too far away from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MaizeMaize and barley were strapped to the quad. Photo \/ Hayden Woodward<\/p>\n

The photos supplied by police revealed details of the harsh conditions the young children were forced to live in.<\/p>\n

Multiple wheels, a jerry can, multiple Sprite cans and large glass bottles are scattered within the makeshift site.<\/p>\n

\"TomTom Phillips was shot and killed by police after he critically wounded an officer. One of his children was with him. Photo \/ Mike Scott<\/p>\n

Mechanical parts are also visible.<\/p>\n

Another image shows what looks to be a path carved near the site within the dense bushland.<\/p>\n

Chambers said the campsite was \u201cprobably one of many\u201d that Phillips would have used in the bush, and they would be continuing to hunt for further camps today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Herald photographer on the scene spotted the quad bike being removed from the area by police. It…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14361,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[15408,95,16651,16653,1061,156,2209,2082,3011,11782,16655,221,5606,78,296,1357,409,111,16652,139,69,10936,16654,13181,11745,9348,223,8229,5134,1530],"class_list":["post-14360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-almost","tag-and","tag-bush","tag-campsites","tag-children","tag-entertainment","tag-father","tag-for","tag-four","tag-fugitive","tag-glimpse","tag-how","tag-images","tag-in","tag-into","tag-lived","tag-movies","tag-new-zealand","tag-newly","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-phillips","tag-provide","tag-released","tag-rugged","tag-survived","tag-the","tag-they","tag-tom","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}