Thomas Phillips has been missing since last year with his three young children, Jayda, Ember and Maverick Phillips. Photo / File
Thomas Phillips has been missing since last year with his three young children, Jayda, Ember and Maverick Phillips. Photo / File
The family of three missing Marokopa children have raised $5027 to be given as a reward for information about their location or that of their wanted father Tom Phillips.
Phillips is on the run from police, having earlier disappeared with his three children - Jayda, Maverick and Ember - in December last year.
Police issued a warrant for his arrest after he failed failed to appear in Te Kūiti District Court in January on a charge of wasting police time.
The search for Phillips has drawn nationwide attention ever since and raised widespread fear for the children.
Storm Dawson, an elder sister of the children, set up the fundraising page in a bid to try and end the protracted search.
“We have worked closely alongside the police throughout this investigation, and completely understand the complications it would create if they were to fund a reward, which is why we need to source it ourselves,” she said on the Givealittle page.
The fundraiser closed yesterday, having raised $5027 of its $10,000 goal. More than 90 donors contributed over four weeks.
Dawson said the money will go towards a reward for information leading to the safe return of the 3 children.
“Any remaining funds will be donated to parties that helped in the missing persons search last September,” she said.
Phillips first disappeared with the children last September, when his ute was found on Kiritehere Beach with water lapping at its tyres, sparking fears the family could have been washed out to sea.
Emergency service teams and members of the local community and iwi spent 17 days looking for him before he and his children turned up at his parents’ home on September 28.
People wait outside Te Kuiti District Court for Tom Phillips to appear at his first court hearing. Photo / Mike Scott
Phillips then disappeared with the children again last December and has barely been sighted since, causing distress to the children’s mother and siblings.
In a Facebook post last month on the “Missing Marokopa Children” page, a separate older sister made an emotional plea for her siblings to be brought home.
“What’s happening is an adults’ game and something I wish my siblings were removed from in the beginning,” she wrote.
“They’re being hidden and they’re living like fugitives. All they’re learning is to hide and if that’s what they’re shown love to be, they’re going to be three traumatised individuals in the future.”
She said Phillips could be granted an amnesty “for all I care, but bring my siblings home”.
“I remember watching the kids running and hiding under beds when it was time to go home. ‘I want to stay with you mummy’. I imagine them asking for their mother now, wondering why they haven’t seen her or any other family for so long,” she wrote.
