The police in New Zealand renew the search for a fugitive Dad who has been on the run with his three children since 2021.
Officials announced Wednesday that they would be Research in and around rural communities In the Waikato region, northern island of New Zealand, the region where Tom Phillips And her children were spotted for the last time and hide.
Phillips and her three children – Ember, now considered new, Maverick, 10, and Jayda, 11 – fled in a remote region of Waikato just before Christmas in 2021, reports The Guardian. Phillips, who does not have legal custody of his children, would have entered a fight with the mother of children Shortly before disappearing with children.
Ember, Jayda and Maverick are seen in this un dated photo.
Missing Marokopa Children / Facebook
Depending on the point of sale, this is not the first time that Phillips has run away in the bush with his children in a trailer. In September 2021, the four was missing, leading to a massive research operation, before reappearing on his parents’ farm 19 days later. The Guardian reports that he told the police that he had taken his children in camping “Sprill your head.”
Police accused him of wasting time and resources. However, when he did not show an appearance for an appearance relating to the accusations several months later, a mandate was issued for his arrest.
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In a statement published on Wednesday, New Zealand police said the new search “was not invited to any specific observation“, But is a continuation of the current investigation.
However, there was a Number of phillips observations Over the three years since he disappeared.
Last October, reports the New Zealand Herald, pig hunters for teenagers Captured video sequences of Phillips and its three children – According to the first observation of the three children at the same time.
The video showed the quartet all dressed in camouflage and carrying large camping bags on a plot of rugged agricultural land.
The mother of the children, who saw them for the last time in 2021, told Herald that she was “relieved” to know that they were alive.
“I am so happy that they are all there,” she said, instantly recognizing each child. “I am so relieved to see my three babies. They are all alive.
Observation led to a three -day search, including the use of a military helicopter, but “Nothing more important“Was found,” said the police.
And before that, in November 2023, police said they caught Phillips and another person, who would be one of these children, on video surveillance images trying to rob a store while crushing a window.
A man considered Tom Phillips and one of his children, who would have tried to enter a store in 2023.
New Zealand police
The police said that the pair, which was masked, fled when the store’s alarm system began to leave in the middle of the night.
Phillips is also accused of having stolen a bank and shooting a supermarket employee in May 2023.
As his list of accusations develops and remains not detected, many New Zealanders wonder why the authorities have struggled to follow Phillips and his children.
“We absolutely believe that someone, or some people, help them“, Max Baxter, mayor of the Otorohanga district who includes Marokopa, a rural community where Phillips was born and that his parents still live, journalists in October last year.
“Tom always has a number of supporters believing that he is doing the right thing for him and his children.”
According to CNN, Phillips’ mother denied knowing the location of his son In 2023 and said that the family “would like nothing more” than bringing Phillips and their grandchildren back to civilization.
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