WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A New Zealand man who evaded authorities with his three children in remote countryside for nearly four years was shot and killed by a police officer Monday, law enforcement said.
The December 2021 disappearance of Tom Phillips and his children — now about 9, 10 and 11 — confounded investigators for years as they scoured the densely forested area where they believed the family was hiding. The family was not believed to ever have traveled far from the isolated North Island rural settlement of Marokopa where they lived, but credible sightings of them were rare.
Phillips has not been formally identified, New Zealand’s Acting Deputy Police Commissioner Jill Rogers told reporters in the city of Hamilton on Monday, but authorities believed he was the man killed. His relatives confirmed his death to local news outlets.
Police officer was shot and critically injured
A police officer was shot in the head and critically injured during a confrontation with Phillips after he robbed an agricultural supplies store early Monday morning, Rogers said. A child with Phillips at the time of the burglary was taken into custody.
The officer was undergoing surgery at a hospital. Further surgeries were expected.
Whereabouts of 2 children still unknown
The whereabouts of Phillips’ other two children was unknown and authorities held serious concerns for them, Rogers said. Detective Senior Sgt. Andrew Saunders said the child taken into custody Monday was cooperating with the authorities.
The farm supplies store targeted Monday was in a small town in the same sprawling farming region of Waikato, south of Auckland, as the settlement of about 40 people from where the family vanished. The case has fascinated New Zealanders and the authorities made regular unsuccessful appeals for information.
Sightings of Phillips were limited to CCTV footage that showed him allegedly committing crimes in the area. He was wanted for an armed bank robbery while on the run in May 2023, accompanied by one of his children, in which he reportedly shot at a member of the public.
Authorities believed Phillips had help
Phillips did not have legal custody rights for his children, Saunders told reporters in 2024. Authorities feared for the children’s safety and said they had not had access to formal education or health care since their disappearance.
Law enforcement always believed that Phillips had help concealing his family and some residents of the isolated rural area expressed support for him. A reward of 80,000 New Zealand dollars ($47,000), large by New Zealand standards, and an offer of immunity from prosecution was offered for information about the family’s whereabouts last June, but it was never paid.
Family had gone missing before
December 2021 was not the first time Phillips prompted national news headlines after disappearing with his children. The family went missing that September, launching a three-week land and sea search after Phillips’ truck was found abandoned on a wild beach near where he lived.
Authorities eventually ended the search, concluding the family might have died, before Phillips and the children emerged from dense forest where he said they had been camping. He was charged with wasting police resources and was due to appear in court in January 2022, but weeks before the scheduled date, he and the children vanished again.
The police did not immediately launch a search because Phillips, who is experienced in the outdoors, had told family he was taking the children on another trip. He never returned.
Less than a year later, with the trail cold, the authorities said Phillips and the children might have moved elsewhere in New Zealand and changed their names. But the search began again after several sightings of Phillips in 2023 in the same region where he had vanished.
He was last seen on CCTV in August this year as he robbed a grocery store in the night, accompanied by one of his children.
Children’s mother issues a statement
The children’s mother issued a statement to Radio New Zealand on Monday in which she said she was “deeply relieved” that the “ordeal” for her children had ended.
“They have been dearly missed every day for nearly four years, and we are looking forward to welcoming them home with love and care,” said the woman, who has been identified in New Zealand news outlets only by her first name, Cat.
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This story has been updated to correct the rank of police officer Saunders.
