Marokopa fugitive father Tom Phillips: Former police inspector wants to negotiate end to family’s three-year disappearance

Police are searching for Tom Phillips and his three children Ember, Maverick, and Jayda, who have been missing from Marokopa since December 2021. Photo / NZME

Former police inspector Lance Burdett has offered to help negotiate an ending to the years-long hunt for Tom Phillips and his three children, missing in the Bush around Marokopa.

The former police negotiator told the Herald: “It’s one father to another trying to resolve what’s become a deadlock. That’s the line I’m going down.”

Phillips and his kids, Jayda, 11, Maverick, 9, and Ember, 8, have captured not only the attention of police, but people around the world – most recently last month after teenage pig hunters captured footage of the quartet, dressed in camouflage and carrying large backpacks across rugged farmland.

Former Police negotiator Lance Burdett says he would love a chance to negotiate an ending to the years-long hunt for Tom Phillips and his three children. Photo / Todd Eyre

After a three-day search, including the use of a military helicopter, police said “nothing further of significance” was found and the search was called off.

Police have pointed the finger at Phillips for several crimes, including a bank robbery and firearms incident.

Many have questioned why the missing family have still not been found, with some calling for the military to be brought in to find Phillips and his three children.

Burdett told One News a skilled and neutral negotiator could approach whoever in the Marakopa community was helping Phillips.

“It’s somebody with a delicate touch.”

The former negotiator said it would be beneficial to have someone who had been through a lot, like himself, and who would understand what it was like to come back to the real world.

“It’s not about me, it’s about getting a safe ending,” Burdett told the Herald.

“It seems like some people say I am doing this for the highlights. That’s not what this is about. I’ve got plenty of other things to do.

”That’s the only way it’s going to be resolved.”

Waitomo District mayor John Robertson told 1News there had been no indications that Phillips wanted to come out of the bush and surrender.

“If someone with some mana could help bring this to an end, that would be the best solution we could get,” he said.

Last month’s bombshell sighting was the first of Phillips and all three children since they disappeared in December 2021.

Phillips has remained on the run despite pleas from Jayda, Maverick and Ember’s mum Cat, an increased police presence around Marokopa in June, and the now expired offer of an $80,000 reward for information leading to the family’s safe return.

An arrest warrant was first issued for Phillips on December 9, 2021, after he failed to appear before court on a charge of wasting police resources.

The charge was laid after the then-34-year-old vanished with his kids from a beach near Marokopa in September 2021 – the discovery of his ute on the shoreline sparking a major land and sea search – before returning almost three weeks later, saying he needed “time out”.

Since the latest disappearance, Phillips is alleged to have been involved in several crimes, including robbing an ANZ bank and shooting at a supermarket worker in Te Kūiti in May last year – leading police to charge him with aggravated robbery, aggravated wounding and unlawfully possessing a firearm.

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