Father and children spotted.after years in the wilderness

Tom Phillips disappeared in 2021 with two daughters and son

- MAROOSHA MUZAFFAR

A fugitive father and his three children who had not been seen in three years have been spotted in the New Zealand wilderness by pig hunters.

Tom Phillips and his two daughters and son – Ember, eight, Maverick, nine, and Jayda, 11 – were seen walking in a grass field near Marokopa town on the country’s North Island.

They were wearing camouflage clothing and carrying backpacks. One witness described them as seeming “well prepared for the wilderness”. The family were spotted by two young hunters and discreetly recorded on a mobile phone camera, marking the first confirmed sighting of all four since they disappeared in December 2021.

Mr Phillips fled with his children after a dispute with their mother nearly three years ago. He did not have legal custody of the children and violated a custody order by taking them to an “unknown location”. It is believed the children have had no outside contact since.

Their mother, identified only as Catherine, told the New Zealand Herald: “I’m so happy that they’re all there. I’m so relieved to see all three of my babies. They are all alive.”

Despite numerous police searches, rewards and public appeals, there had been no trace of Mr Phillips and his children until now. In the course of their brief encounter with the hunters, one of the children reportedly asked if anyone knew they were there.