Lance Burdett: former police negotiator on Tom Phillips’ second campsite being used to gather evidence

A former police negotiator says police must've found something obvious at Tom Phillips' campsites that indicates he was getting outside help.

The Marokopa fugitive was shot dead by police on Monday, and his children are now in state care.

A second campsite in dense bush has been uncovered - about 200 metres from the first.

Lance Burdett says police are fairly sure Phillips was getting outside help, so items from the campsites will be used as evidence.

"It's fingerprinted, it's photographed, it's everything that they can do to find out - DNA testing on every item, to track down who may have been involved."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Police have discovered a second campsite in the bush where
Tom Phillips and his kids are thought to have been
hiding most recently. This camp site is two hundred meters
away from the one that was discovered yesterday. Detective Senior
Sergeant Andrew Saunders says they will use the gear at
that site to track down whoever it was who was
helping Phillips.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Given what's occurred in terms of the attempted murder of
a police officer, we think it's absolutely important that we
continued to look for those people that have been supporting
Tom Phillips and help them.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Accountab Lanspadet is a former police negotiator and investigator and
with us, Hey Lance Hiver, So are they basically going
to look at the gear that's at the campsite and
then track the origins in order to try and find
these people.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
So everything that such both locations now is evidence. Every
piece of little item with no matter what it is,
and it gets photographed and insit you measured, they might
be doing some mepping with three D maping cameras and
then it's removed and analyzed. It's it's fingerprinted. I say, yeah,
this fingerprinted it's photographed. It's everything that they can do

(01:05):
to find out, DNA testing on every item, to track
down who may have been involved.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
They say that it's quite obvious to them that there
was recent help. Now how would they know that? Would
it potentially be things like perishable food there?

Speaker 3 (01:20):
Yeah, there there'll be something there that that if they're
coming out and saying it, which is a bit unusual,
I think, because police normally keep this stuff close to
their chest. And it might be because you know, Tom's
dead and can't face consequences, but there'll still be other
people to face consequences.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
So.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
There'll be something obvious for them to come out and
say that.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
Is there anything that you noticed from the photographs?

Speaker 3 (01:47):
Well, my first thought looking at that one photograph that
everybody else has seen, is it looks like they've been
there for a little while. How had you know? We'll
look at months, you know, two, three, four, five months,
So that's what it looks like to me. They've been
there for a while. Just the way that the bush
of grunt has grown over the three, the wheels, the

(02:08):
few little things that I thought, well, that looks looks
quite substantial.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
Why would you have a camp? I mean This is
a puzzling thing. Why would you have one camp, like
a little camp, within two hundred meters of a bigger camp.

Speaker 3 (02:18):
Oh that's yeah, to escape too.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
Ah, Okay, that's far enough.

Speaker 3 (02:25):
No, but indeed's bush It probably is. But it can
also you know, it could be a place to what
they called a place of sanctuary. Somebody does come, they
just scatter and they all meet back and they're having
too that That would be my thoughts on that. But
that bearing in mind they young kids, and so you
can't have it too far away from other because they've
got to be able to find it. That would be

(02:46):
my thought on that.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
Is it possible that the I mean, as far as
we understand, the family have not yet been able to
see the children. This is the grandparents and the mother
and so on. Is it possible that they are being
kept away from the children at the moment because they
themselves suspects in terms of.

Speaker 3 (03:01):
Help Well everyone, every yeah, good point here. That's sorry
to interrupt you. Yeah, it's everyone to suspect. Everyone that's
been in the town, everyone that's been near them, all associates.
So they don't call them suspects. They call them persons
of interest. And so you you do have to treat everybody.
You can't take it on face, are you? You know
I've spoken with both parents. My gut feeling if you

(03:25):
can go with a gut, which is which you don't
go with the rule of some and policing, never go
with your gut that they aren't involved. And it was
just something that the father said and it was confidential
that made me believe that he's not involved in any way.
But in saying that we've all been doing before.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
Yeah, fair enough. Hey, Lance, really appreciate your expertise. Thanks
Lance for that former police negotiator and investigator. I'll run
you through what you can see in the photographs in
a minute. For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen
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