Missing Marokopa man Tom Phillips: Police reward offer for information set to expire

• Police have ratcheted up their search for fugitive Tom Phillips and his three children, deploying extra officers to Marokopa and Ōtorohanga and setting up checkpoints.
• Police are offering an $80,000 reward for good information on their whereabouts. It was announced last week and is active until next Tuesday.
• Phillips has been missing since skipping a court appearance in December 2021. His eldest daughter Jayda celebrated her 11th birthday somewhere in hiding this week, 30 months on.

An $80,000 reward being offered to anyone with good information on missing fugitive Tom Phillips’ whereabouts will run out in less than a week and police are asking people to come forward now.

Phillips has been missing with his three children Jayda, Ember and Maverick somewhere in the Waikato bush for 30 months. While he’s been on the run, Phillips is alleged to have robbed a bank, shot at a supermarket worker, stolen a ute and a quad bike, and tried to break into a shop.

The children’s mother Cat made an emotional plea for Phillips to “bring my babies home” on Tuesday – the same day as Jayda’s 11th birthday. She recorded an emotional video of herself asking for anyone with information on where Phillips was hiding to tell police.

She also gave media a letter she received from Phillips while on the run in which he professed his love for her and said, “I have a good heart, and I mean well”.

“They are just innocent children, they do not deserve the life that is being provided to them right now,” she said.

“None of this is okay. My babies deserve better. I am just a mother standing here in front of the world begging you here to help me bring my babies home.

“Please, if anybody has any information at all, call the police.”

Acting Detective Inspector Andrew Saunders said today the offer of a reward for information would run out next Tuesday.

An immunity period being offered to anyone helping Phillips hide who tipped police off was not guaranteed to continue past this date, a police spokesman told the Herald.

Saunders said: “The reward has been offered for a limited period of two weeks to encourage people who have credible, current information to come forward now, and not to leave it any longer.

“In the 10 days since the reward offer was announced on Tuesday, June 11, the video [of the children’s mother] on police Facebook has been viewed 89,000 times. It’s heartening to see so many people have engaged in our appeal to locate the Phillips children.”

He said 100 new reports on Phillips’ whereabouts had come through since police launched the fresh appeal for information. Forty of those reports were considered “worthy” and were being investigated further.

Attention on Phillips and his children has ramped up in the past week, with police issuing the reward, deploying officers to Marokopa and then Ōtorohanga, and setting up checkpoints in the hope of finding them.

Two weeks ago, an anonymous woman claimed to have spotted Phillips and his three children at the Okoroire Hot Springs Hotel, a two-hour drive from Marokopa.

Phillips first disappeared with the children on September 11, 2021. Emergency services began searching for them after his car was found abandoned on a beach. Phillips turned up almost three weeks later, on September 30.

Clockwise from top left: Tom Phillips and children Jayda, Ember and Maverick. Photo / New Zealand Police

Police charged him with wasteful deployment of police resources but he did not show up at his first court appearance on January 12, 2022. Police then issued a warrant for his arrest. He and his children officially went missing again on December 2, 2021.

Phillips evaded the attention of police for 19 months before he was seen shopping while wearing a disguise, allegedly stole a car and then got into a fight with a member of the public last August.

Police then accused him of robbing a bank last May.

The latest incident saw him allegedly steal a bike with one of his children and smash a storefront on November 2.

Raphael Franks is an Auckland-based reporter who covers breaking news. He joined the Herald as a Te Rito cadet in 2022.