Missing Marokopa man Tom Phillips: Children’s mum speaks out

• The mother of the missing Marokopa children has recorded a video pleading with their father to bring her “babies” home.
• 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 is celebrating her 11th birthday somewhere in hiding today, 30 months on.

The mother of three children missing with their fugitive father Tom Phillips has spoken out for the first time.

“Bring my babies home,” she said.

In a video message to Phillips, mother Cat said: “I am standing here before you today begging you for your help to bring my babies home.

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

She continued: “What Thomas is doing is not okay. It is not okay to divide and conquer, it is not okay to isolate and control. It is child neglect, it is child endangerment, it is child abandonment, it is child abuse.

“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.”

She said today was her daughter Jayda’s 11th birthday.

“She will be a young woman now and will need her mother.

“Ember is asthmatic, as am I. She needs medical care that cannot be provided from the land and I can only imagine how Maverick is coping with the hand that life has dealt him.

“Many of you say the children are fine, that they’re being well looked after. How do you know? Have you seen them or is it just bush talk?”

The Phillips siblings (left to right): Ember, Jayda and Maverick and (inset, right) their mother, Cat. The three children and their father, Tom Phillips, have been missing since December 2021.

In a statement, police said they had received more than 100 new tip-offs since making a renewed effort last week to find the family.

Forty of these tip-offs were considered “worthy” and were being investigated further, acting Detective Inspector Andrew Saunders said.

”We cannot provide details while the investigation is ongoing but we are committed to getting a result as soon as possible.

”While Marokopa continues to be a focus for the ongoing investigation, inquiries are being carried out in surrounding areas including Honikiwi and Ōtorohanga and we’re appealing for anyone who has observed suspicious behaviour in these areas in recent months to please contact police.

”Our message hasn’t changed: we continue to urge anyone with credible, current information that will lead to the location and safe return of Ember, Maverick and Jayda to do the right thing and tell police what you know.”

Police offer $80,000 reward for information leading to children’s safe return

Attention on Phillips and his children has ramped up in the past week, with police issuing an $80,000 reward for information on their whereabouts, deploying officers to Marokopa and then Ōtorohanga, and setting up checkpoints in the hope of finding them.

The reward is active until next Tuesday.

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.

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.

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

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.

Phillips’ eldest daughter has her 11th birthday today. Jayda was 8 when the family went missing, her brother Maverick was 7 and her younger sister Ember was 5.

Locals in Ōtorohanga, more than an hour’s drive from Marokopa, talked to the Herald about their concerns for the children.

Tim Dimsdale, who used to work on the Phillips family farm, said: “I feel sorry for the kids. Having said that, it will be a great book or movie if they do come out.”

Hazel, who worked at Mobil Ōtorohanga, said: “For myself, I don’t give a s*** about him. It’s the kids. People say he was a good father, but if he was a good father, why did he run?

“Bring your kids home.”

Over the road at the Anglican church, the Rev Joseph Pene said he had one foot ready to go should he encounter Phillips.

“I’d give him a kick in the backside [and] I’d tell him to think about his family, and not himself … it’s heartbreaking.”

Kassa Nelson, working at a local vape shop, said: “I just hope the kids are all right. They can’t go to school, and they must be missing their mum.”

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