A father fled with three children into the wilderness. They’ve now been spotted three years later wearing camo

Family described by witness as ‘well-prepared for the wilderness’

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

Tom Phillips and his children — Ember, 8, Maverick, 9, 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 was spotted by two young hunters at around 6.30 pm on Thursday 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 that she was “relieved” to know her children were alive and appeared to be in good health.

“I’m so happy that they’re all there. I’m so relieved to see all three of my babies. They are all alive,” she said.

Despite numerous police searches, rewards and public appeals, there had been no trace of Mr Phillips and his children until now.

File. Tom Phillips disappeared with his three children Ember, Maverick and Jayda in 2021 (New Zealand police)

In the course of their brief encounter with the hunters, one of the children reportedly asked if anyone knew they were there. “The children asked: ‘Who else knows we’re here?’ And then they just kept on walking. They were all packed up, they had big packs on. I think the father sort of kept them moving,” the New Zealand Herald quoted John McOviney, the grandfather of one of the teenage hunters who encountered the fugitive father and children, as saying.

One of the hunters quickly alerted police after spotting the family.

Police launched a search with two helicopters, one of them a military chopper with night vision, but were unable to find the family.

Still, investigators described the sighting as a “positive line of inquiry”.

File. A photo believed to be of Tom Phillips and one of his children (New Zealand police)

“Patrols began in the area on Thursday night and a search was launched the following morning,” said Detective Inspector Andrew Saunders.

“While nothing further of significance was located, investigators will now assess information gathered to determine any next steps. This is the first time all three of the children have been sighted, which is positive information, and we know that it will be reassuring for the children’s wider family.”

Mr Saunders said that he could not go into detail but wanted 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 family and we are doing all that we can to make that happen.”

File. Detective Inspector Andrew Saunders gives a media update on the search for Tom Phillips and his children in Hamilton, New Zealand, on 11 June 2024 (via AP)

An arrest warrant for Mr Phillips was issued soon after he vanished in late 2021.

He’s also wanted for allegedly robbing a bank at gunpoint in Te Kuiti in May 2023.

Mr Phillips was reportedly seen last year in a supermarket where he got into an altercation and allegedly stole a car. In November 2023, police suspect he and one of his children broke into a store and stole a bicycle.

In June this year, police offered a NZD80,000 (£37,247) reward for information leading to the safe return of the three children. It expired before they were located.

The public has now been warned not to approach Mr Phillips as he may be armed.

Tom Phillips and his children spotted by a young hunter walking in a grass field on the North Island (1News/YouTube screengrab)

The children’s mother released an emotional video earlier this year urging people to help bring her children back. “I am standing here before you today begging you for your help to bring my babies home,” she said.

“They are just innocent children, they don’t deserve to be treated this way. They do not deserve the life that is being provided to them right now.”

She later shared a letter she claimed Mr Phillips had sent her several months after his disappearance. He had a “good heart” and meant well, Mr Philips supposedly wrote.

“I don’t know what to say or do to help you forgive me,” the letter read. “I’m not desperate to be with someone or I would have already done it. I don’t want to be with someone, I want to be with you Catherine, the woman I have been in love with for over seven years. I can’t make you forgive me. Only you can make that choice and I know you don’t have to.

“I know if I ever give up trying to make things right I will regret it forever. I am sorry for everything I have ever said or done to hurt you. These past nine months I have suffered everyday knowing I should have dealt with things better and knowing that I f***ed up.”

File. A view of Marokopa township on the North Island of New Zealand where Tom Phillips and his three children lived before their disappearance (Rotorua Daily Post)

The mother told Stuff after the sighting of her children: “I just broke down, they are alive! There’s three of them there and they’re walking under their own steam, obviously carrying everything on their backs. This is the first time in nearly three years.”

She said she was worried for her daughter, Ember, who suffers from asthma. “You need a prescription to get inhalers, so either he’s neglecting her health, or somebody’s giving him inhalers,” she said.

“They have got to be getting help, whether it’s supplies left somewhere for them at a specific drop, they have got to be having help.”