The family of a fugitive father who has been hiding for more than three years in New Zealand\u2019s rugged wilderness with his three children has pleaded with the man to come home, in some of their first public comments since he vanished.<\/p>\n
Just before Christmas 2021, Tom Phillips fled into the Waikato wilderness with his children<\/a> Ember, now 9, Maverick, 10, and Jayda, 12, following a dispute with their mother. Phillips does not have legal custody of his children.<\/p>\n \u201cI miss you, miss being part of your life and I really want to see you and the kids,\u201d said his sister Rozzi Phillips, in her first interview since he disappeared.<\/p>\n Rozzi Phillips told New Zealand journalist Paddy Gower <\/a>she hoped her public appearance would reach her brother, after other attempts to contact him through email and phone had been met with silence.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope that just maybe, maybe, he is going to see this and maybe he is going to get to see that he can come home and we are here for him and it might just be OK,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Rozzi Phillips wanted her brother to know she missed him and loved him, and his children to know she wanted to be in their lives.<\/p>\n \u201cNo day that goes by that I don\u2019t think about all four of them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Phillips\u2019 mother wrote a letter to her son, which his sister read out in the interview.<\/p>\n \u201cIt hurts every time I see photos of the children and of you, and see some of your stuff that is still here, thinking what could have been if you had not gone away,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cJayda, Maverick, Ember, I love you so much and really miss being part of your lives every day I wake up, and hope that today will be the day that you will come home.\u201d<\/p>\n Ember (left), Maverick (middle), and Jayda (right). Photograph: NZ Police<\/p>\n Rozzi Phillips spoke highly of her younger brother, revealing details of the man whose ability to evade detection has fascinated New Zealand for years.<\/p>\n He was a good brother with an \u201camazing sense of humour\u201d, she said, adding he was an excellent outdoorsman who could build, hunt and survive.<\/p>\n The vast Waikato region, where Phillips is presumed to be hiding is made up of long sweeping coastline to the west, forested terrain and farmland in the centre, limestone cave networks to the north and a smattering of small rural towns and settlements throughout.<\/p>\n Phillips comes from a farming family in Marokopa \u2013 a tiny coastal settlement of fewer than 100 people which has became inextricably linked with his story.<\/p>\n Before he disappeared, many New Zealanders would have struggled to pick it out on a map. It is a quiet, isolated settlement in the Waikato, two hours from the nearest city, Hamilton, with one long winding road in and out of the densely forested and hilly landscape.<\/p>\n map of marokopa<\/a><\/p>\n The remoteness of the landscape has frustrated police attempts to locate Phillips.<\/p>\n While there is no suggestion his family helped Phillips, the question of how he has managed to conceal himself and his three children \u2013 and survive \u2013 in the harsh terrain has led to speculation others in the community may be aiding him.<\/p>\n Phillips\u2019 sister said part of her hoped he was being helped but that she would also \u201cbe very angry\u201d with anyone who did and failed to update the family on her brother and his children\u2019s wellbeing.<\/p>\n Phillips recent lengthy disappearance was pre-empted by an earlier \u2013 albeit shorter \u2013 stint where he went bush with his children. In September 2021, the four were reported missing and his pickup truck was found abandoned along the Marokopa shoreline, resulting in a major search operation across land and sea.<\/p>\n Nineteen days later, Phillips and the children walked into his parents\u2019 farmhouse just outside Marokopa. Phillips claimed he had taken his children on an extended camping trip in dense bush in an effort to clear his head<\/a>. He was charged with wasting police time and resources.<\/p>\n But fewer than three months later, the four were reported missing again and when Phillips failed to show for a January court appearance, a warrant was issued for his arrest.<\/p>\n Tom Phillips. Photograph: NZ Police<\/p>\n Sightings of Phillips and his children over the three and a half years have been rare and fleeting. They have had little contact with society during this time \u2013 though Phillips took at least one child out of the bush in May 2023, when he allegedly committed a bank robbery in nearby Te K\u016biti<\/a>, and in November that year when he allegedly attempted to rob a small grocery store. While there were several other sightings in mid-2023<\/a> and an $80,000 reward was put up for information in June, the trail went cold.<\/p>\n Police have described Phillips as someone who \u201cdoesn\u2019t live a mainstream lifestyle\u201d, eschewing social media and limiting his use of mainstream banks. Meanwhile, his purchases of camping items and seedlings<\/a> suggested he was living off the land.<\/p>\n