Tom Phillips: Fugitive dad and children spotted in countryside years after going missing
A father and his three children who have been missing for three years have been spotted walking through a rural area of New Zealand.
Police said officers had launched a major search following the “credible sighting” of Tom Phillips, along with his two daughters and son.
They were seen hiking through a bush area near Marokopa on the country’s North Island.
Phillips, along with Jayda, 11, Maverick, nine, and Ember, eight, were spotted from a distance by a 16-year-old pig hunter, according to local media.
They were wearing camouflage gear and large camping backpacks – while the fugitive father was also reportedly seen holding a gun.
The foursome have been missing since December 2021, when police say Phillips took his children to an “unknown location”.
The children’s mother Cat said she was overjoyed by the sighting but also “overwhelmed” – as she called on Phillips to hand himself in to the police.
She told the New Zealand Herald newspaper: “It doesn’t get any easier… It’s been nearly three years.
“It was like Christmas come early and I really thought they would be coming home this time.”
The children’s mother Cat said the response to the sighting had been too slow. Pic: New Zealand Police
However, after Phillips and the children were spotted on Thursday, police are yet to locate them despite deploying a military helicopter and other resources.
Cat hit out at the official response to the sighting, describing it as “lacking”.
She added: “More should have been done, instantly… How can there not be more effort put in?
“It’s a confirmed sighting and yet nothing has come of it.”
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Earlier this summer police offered $80,000 (£37,000) for information about the missing family members, although the deadline for the reward has now expired.
Since 2021 there have been numerous sightings, including in November 2023 when a suspect thought to be Phillips was caught on CCTV stealing a quad bike from outside a rural home.
Police also suspect he was involved in an armed robbery of a bank in Te Kuiti in May 2023, with officers later issuing a warrant for his arrest.
Tom Phillips. Pic: New Zealand Police
Detective Inspector Andrew Saunders said: “While we cannot go into detail, we want to reassure the public that we have the resources in place to respond to any information or reports of sightings that come in.
“Our focus is very much on the safe return of Jayda, Maverick and Ember to their whānau [family] and we are doing all that we can to make that happen.”
Israel has approved a plan to capture all of the Gaza Strip and remain there for an unspecified length of time, Israeli officials say.
According to Reuters, the plan includes distributing aid, though supplies will not be let in yet.
The Israeli official told the agency that the newly approved offensive plan would move Gaza’s civilian population southward and keep humanitarian aid from falling into Hamas’s hands.
On Sunday, the United Nations rejected what it said was a new plan for aid to be distributed in what it described as Israeli hubs.
Israeli cabinet ministers approved plans for the new offensive on Monday morning, hours after it was announced that tens of thousands of reserve soldiers are being called up.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far failed to achieve his goal of destroying Hamas or returning all the hostages, despite more than a year of brutal war in Gaza.
Palestinian children struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, Gaza. Pic: AP
Officials say the plan will help with these war aims but it would also push hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to southern Gaza, exacerbating an already dire humanitarian crisis.
They said the plan included the “capturing of the strip and the holding of territories”.
It would also try to prevent Hamas from distributing humanitarian aid, which Israel says strengthens the group’s rule in Gaza.
The UN rejected the plan, saying it would leave large parts of the population, including the most vulnerable, without supplies.
It said it “appears designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic – as part of a military strategy”.
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More than 52,000 Palestinians have been killed since the IDF launched its ground offensive in the densely-populated territory, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
It followed the deadly Hamas attacks on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and saw around 250 people taken hostage.
A fragile ceasefire that saw a pause in the fighting and the exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners collapsed earlier this year.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to retaliate against the Houthis and their Iranian “masters” after the group launched a missile attack on the country’s main international airport.
A missile fired by the group from Yemen landed near Ben Gurion Airport, causing panic among passengers in the terminal building.
“Attacks by the Houthis emanate from Iran,” Mr Netanyahu wrote on X. “Israel will respond to the Houthi attack against our main airport AND, at a time and place of our choosing, to their Iranian terror masters.”
Israeli police officers investigate the missile crater. Pic: Reuters
The missile impact left a plume of smoke and briefly halted flights and commuter traffic at the airport. Some international carriers have cancelled flights to and from Tel Aviv for several days.
Four people were lightly wounded, paramedic service Magen David Adom said.
Air raid sirens went off across Israel and footage showed passengers yelling and rushing for cover.
The attack came hours before senior Israeli cabinet ministers were set to vote on whether to intensify the country’s military operations in the Gaza Strip, and as the army began calling up thousands of reserves in anticipation of a wider operation in the enclave.
Houthi military spokesperson Brigadier General Yahya Saree said the group fired a hypersonic ballistic missile at the airport.
Iran’s defence minister later told a state TV broadcaster that if the country was attacked by the US or Israel, it would target their bases, interests and forces where necessary.
Israel’s military said several attempts to intercept the missile were unsuccessful.
Air, road and rail traffic were halted after the attack, police said, though it resumed around an hour later.
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Yemen’s Houthis have been firing missiles at Israel since its war with Hamas in Gaza began on 7 October 2023, and while most have been intercepted, some have penetrated the country’s missile defence systems and caused damage.
Israel has previously struck the group in Yemen in retaliation and the US and UK have also launched strikes after the Houthis began attacking international shipping, saying it was in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war with Hamas.
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