Chris Budge: Private investigator on Marokopa children

Police have confirmed that a sighting of missing man Tom Philips and his three children was credible. 

Philips and his children Ember, Maverick, and Jayda have been missing since December 2021, and this is the first time all four of them have been seen together. 

Chris Budge is a private investigator looking for the missing family and he spoke with Jack Tame about the latest updates. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Police have confirmed a reported sighting of missing man Tom
Phillips and his three children in the Muddle Karpa area
last week is indeed credible. Phillips and his children, Ember,
Maverick and Jada have been missing for almost three years.
This is the first time that all three children have
been cited with their dad, the first time they've been
seen together since twenty twenty two. But police searchers over

(00:20):
the weekend turned up nothing more of significance. Chris Budge
is the private investigator still trying to find the family
enders with us now Calder Chris Gooday, Jack? How significant
is this development?

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Oh, I think it's pretty good. There's three things to
pick up from this one. Firstly, as you mentioned that
the kids have been seen, and there's been a lot
of speculation of where they may or may not be,
but it's really great that they've been cited. The second
one being is that the police have responded. I understand
from the media that's been is that the police responded
with motor vehicles on the Thursday and then we're able

(00:53):
to follow up with helicopter's on the Friday. Certainly, the
community people that I spoke to on set today we're
well aware of the police were around the third one though,
as I guess, the sad one is that there are
still people helping Tom. Tom has been moving around an
open site in vehicles, whether during the dark or during

(01:15):
the day. So I think with a normal escape and
evasion concept is that he's gone to ground or he's
got a safe hole and he's just been sitting there
for the two or three days for us to die down.
Police will then head back and you know, at the
end of the three D operation is there he'll now
pop out and go to wherever he has been hiding.
But as an overall, I think it's great that the

(01:35):
kids have been seen. The police are reacting, but he
got out smartness.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
Yeah, what do we know from this report about the
kids state of health? You know, they look all right.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
Well, I can only speculate on what the reports are,
but if they were seen in the open walking around,
that's a good sign. I understand they were seen around
him at seven pm, so it's still daylight so that day.
Are all good signs. There were certainly towards the end
of last year there was speculation that the two girls

(02:06):
who had gone down to Gloria of ail and it
was only the young fellow that was with his dad
for the photo around around the dairy that we saw.
We believe the sun was there. But it's good that
we can you've actually seen the three and hopefully the
wider family going to take that is a good sign.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
Yeah, that sounds like a wild piece of speculation. So
what would you like to see police do to try
and make more progress on this.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
I think the catch we've got is that there's a
lot of other stuff happening around the area. They've now
got sightings that people are at least safe, but also
that they've seen so I think the way through this
is continued intelligence, proactive approach in regards to response. So
everything that's credible, and I think it's the first time

(02:51):
police have used that word credible, which is a really
great word to use. And it's good that they're still
on the pack. So keep doing the good work. Community. Please,
if you see them, let the police know immediately by
one on one, and I think they're going to be
found by somebody accidentally seeing them, as in this case
on Thursday.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
Very good. Thanks for your time, Chris, I appreciate it.
There's private investigator Chris Budge For more from Heather Duplessy
Allen Drive.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
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