WELLINGTON, New Zealand — New Zealand authorities on Tuesday offered a reward and immunity from prosecution to anyone who can help in the search for three children missing since their father disappeared with them from a remote rural community more than two years ago.
The December 2021 disappearance of Tom Phillips and his children, now ages 8, 9 and 10, has confused investigators. They are not believed to have ever traveled very far from the remote rural settlement where they lived, but there have been no credible sightings of the family for months.
Police officers gathered in the town of Marokopa, population 69, to search for new clues in a case that has fascinated the country of 5 million people.
Phillips is accused of committing an armed bank robbery while on the run in May 2023. He allegedly shot a member of the public and fled on a motorcycle with a passenger who investigators believe was one of his children. Phillips no longer has legal custody rights to his children, Acting Detective Inspector Andrew Saunders said at a news conference in the town of Hamilton, south of Auckland, on Tuesday.
“These are not the actions of a good father,” Saunders said. The children have not had access to formal education or medical care since they disappeared, he added, and police are concerned “for the well-being of the children who have been living in isolation for the past two and a half years, without connection to others.” “.
Saunders said a reward of NZ$80,000 ($49,000) – a considerable amount by New Zealand standards – and an offer of immunity from prosecution is aimed at people who already know the family’s whereabouts. Authorities have long said they believe Phillips received help hiding her family from her.
The reward, approved by the New Zealand Police Commissioner, expires in two weeks, Saunders said.
“We don’t want them to wait months and months to decide,” he said. “Come and tell us where the children are.”
This is not the first time Phillips has made national news headlines after disappearing with her children. The family disappeared in September 2021, sparking a three-week land and sea search after Phillips’ truck was found abandoned on a wild beach near where she lived. Authorities eventually ended the search, concluding that the family may have been killed, before Phillips and her children emerged from the dense woods where she said they had been camping.
He was accused of wasting police resources and was due to appear in court in January 2022, but weeks before the scheduled date, he and the children disappeared again. Police did not immediately launch a search because Phillips, who has outdoor experience, had told the family he would take the children on another trip. He never returned.
Less than a year later, with no leads left, authorities said Phillips and the children may have moved to another part of New Zealand and changed their names. But the search resumed after several sightings of Phillips in 2023 in the same region where she had disappeared, including an alleged bank robbery.
The children’s mother was happy to have been offered the reward, Saunders said. A family spokesperson could not be reached for comment.
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