September 8, 2025 • 12 mins
New Zealand police have shot and killed a man who had been on the run with his three young children for almost four years. Tom Phillips disappeared in December 2021 with his kids, then aged eight, six, and five, leaving their mother and his extended family behind. In today’s episode, we’ll explain what we know about how Phillips and his children stayed hidden for so long, and his final, fatal collision with police.
Hosts: Lucy Tassell and Sam Koslowski
Producer: Orla Maher
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Already and this is this is the Daily This is
the DALYI os oh, now it makes sense. Good morning
and welcome to the Daily ODS. It's Tuesday, the ninth
of September.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I'm Lucy Tassel, I'm Sam Gozlowski.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
New Zealand police have shot and killed a man who
had been on the run with his three young children
for almost four years. Tom Phillips disappeared in December twenty
twenty one with his kids, then aged eight, six and five,
leaving their mother and his family behind. In today's episode,
we'll explain what we know about how Phillips and his
children stayed hidden for so long and his final fatal
(00:44):
collision with police. But first a quick word from our sponsor.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
So Lucy. As you mentioned at the top, this story
has been ongoing since late twenty twenty one, and we've
covered it before here at TDA. When Tom Phillips and
his children were spotted last year, I think we did
a video on it.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
For those who aren't familiar, though, take us right back
to the beginning a couple of years ago where this
story started.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
So this actually really starts in September twenty twenty one.
That's when Tom Phillips and his three kids, named Jada, Maverick,
and Ember first disappeared together. At the time, the kids
were aged eight, six and five, so pretty little kids. Yeah.
They were missing for seventeen days in New Zealand's Waikato region,
(01:32):
which is on the west coast of the North Island.
Tom's ute was found on a remote beach more than
an hour from the nearest petrol station, and it was
like on the beach, like physically on the sand below
the tideline facing the waves. The group was gone so
long that searchers were actually called off, and the family
(01:53):
told media at the time they were considering the worst
case scenario. They thought there was a strong possibility that
all of them had been actually washed out to see
but then all of them showed up again, completely unharmed.
So Tom and all three kids they walked into the
family farmhouse owned by Tom's parents seventeen days after they had.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Disappeared, and that must have been quite a shock to
the family. It was a national news story. Were there
any repercussions for Tom based on the fact that the
family had gone missing for almost three weeks and then
just turned up again.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Yeah, So in terms of like physically, everyone was totally fine.
Apparently Tom had a lot of experience in living in
the bush and that he'd also taken some food with them.
In terms of legal repercussions, he was charged with wasting
police resources in relation to the search and told to
appear in court the following January. And then it's hard
(02:49):
to pin down exactly the timeline of events, partly because
some information hasn't been made public to the media. But
we know that at some point in the ensuing month,
Tom didn't have legal custody of his children anymore. But
just to beically, I have to be vague. There's only
so much that we can say, but just that by
(03:11):
December twenty twenty one, he didn't have legal custody of
his children. And then it was that month, December twenty
twenty one, that he and his kids disappeared for the
second time.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Right, so, he was due to face court on those
charges about wasting police resources. He didn't show up for
the court date, and that was that second disappearance. Is
that the disappearance that we've been talking about until today.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Yes, So on the ninth of December twenty twenty one,
Tom and his kids left the family farmhouse and disappeared
into the Western Waikato region. A week later, there was
a Facebook post that began circulating saying that the kids
were missing again and the family wanted them back police
at that time, so December twenty twenty one, they actually
(03:53):
said they weren't concerned because they are now just two
months out or three months out from a previous disappearance
where everyone was totally fine, and they now know that
this guy has experience living in the bush. And they
said at the time that he hadn't broken any court
restrictions and that he told his family where he was going.
But then when he didn't show up to the court
(04:14):
appearance which was scheduled for January twenty twenty two, they
issue and arrest warrant and then the family reported the
kids and Phillips missing in mid January twenty twenty two,
and they've been basically missing until now.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Wow, that's three and a half years of being reported missing.
But we knew though that Tom and his children were
still alive all of this time, because, as I mentioned earlier,
there was this sighting of them last year that we covered.
What can you tell me about that sighting?
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Yeah, So TDA followers may remember the footage that we
saw was from a video put together by our journalist
Atola Rock. That citing in particular was special because it
was the first time that Tom and all three kids
were seen together. So it was in October twenty four
and the kids and Tom were seen by pig hunters
(05:04):
in the region who initially didn't recognize them. They started
filming them because they thought they were poachers and they
wanted legal repercussions. They told media at the time. They
remembered that Tom Phillips was holding a gun, that he
was silent, they said. They told the kids that they
were on private property. They asked, does anyone know you're
(05:28):
on this private property? The eldest kid said no, just
you guys, right.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
So they actually spoke to the family, yes, just very briefly.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
The confirmed sighting led to a three day search in
the area that didn't turn anything up. So I mentioned
that sighting was special because that was all of them
together for the first time, But that wasn't the only
sighting that we have from the last couple of years.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Interesting, so there were other sightings in that three year period.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Yeah, so I'm relying here on a timeline from the
New Zealand publication stuff, so they've noted a number of
possible sightings over the years. Police believe Phillips was the
perpetrator of a number of armed robberies, successful or attempted,
all in and around the Waikato region. Sometimes he had
one of the kids with him, sometimes not. In June
(06:16):
twenty twenty four, police actually posted an eighty thousand dollars
reward as well as potential criminal immunity if anyone who
had been helping him came forward. No one came forward
that we know of, Like, I don't think this reward
was ever handed out, Like people gave information, but nothing
that was enough to trigger that. And then so then
(06:36):
after that then we have the spotting, like the sighting
by the people who thought they were poaches. And then
it was around then that we started to get like
a lot of kind of more media coverage of this.
So that month October twenty twenty four, police shared a
lot of information that hadn't previously been public. So they
(06:56):
said they believed Tom had taken his kids as part
of a custody dispute which had come after the seventeen
day disappearance. They told the New Zealand Herald that officially speaking,
the New Zealand Government Child Protection Agency had custody of
the children, although they weren't around, so it was sort
of just in law. And they also said they were
(07:17):
aware of the fact that there were people helping him
stay hidden who were not cooperating with police.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
So I think there's a few aspects to this story here.
I mean, one clearly is the child protection aspect. But
then there was this spate of robberies which I could
only assume were for food and materials and that kind
of thing. Yeah, so there were crimes being committed as well,
and so this kind of bubbled along for a couple
of years. Were there any other developments in this case though,
(07:45):
that led up to this recent confrontation in major development?
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Yeah, so, Actually two weeks ago, two or three weeks ago,
Tom Phillips's sister, Rossie, gave an interview to New Zealand
journalist Patty Gower and she read a letter from their mother,
her and Tom's mother, the kid's grandmother.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Tom, I feel really said that you thought you had
to do this, not considering how much we love you
and can support you. Jada Merrick and Nimba I love
you so much and really must being part of your lives.
Every day I wake up and hope that today will
(08:25):
be the day that you will come home.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
So this was only a couple of weeks ago. This
was on the nineteenth of August. I don't think it's likely, however,
that Tom actually saw this, given that we believe he's
been basically in the bush all this time, and also
given the reason why we're talking about this story now,
which is that he has had this confrontation with police
that's led to his death.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
So talk to me about that confrontation. It was a
big news story here in Australia when we woke up
yesterday morning, right yes, So.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
At around two thirty am on Monday, police responded to
reports of a break in at a shop in the
royal town of Poor Pio in the northwest of the
North Island. Witnesses said a man and another person, possibly
a child, had left the scene on a quad bike.
Police said they made a guess or they figured out
which road the pair were going to be driving down.
(09:16):
They laid down road spikes which stopped the quad bike.
Phillips then got off the quad bike and opened fire
with a high powered rifle, shooting one officer in the
head before other police fatally shot him and he died
at the scene. The police officer is in hospital in
a critical condition, and the person with Phillips was one
(09:38):
of his children who's now been taken into custody.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Wow, okay, So why don't we talk through the response
from police, because I think, as you're pointing out, that's
quite limited information that we really know about, yeah, where
he's been for the last three years or so, but
also even which of his three children were with him,
So what do we know from police.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
At a media conference following that confrontation, Acting Deputy Commissioner
Jill Rogers said the incident was quote the outcome that
nobody wanted. The children's mother, who is known as Cat
in local media, said, while she is quote saddened by
how the events unfolded, she is relieved that it's come
(10:18):
to an end, and late yesterday afternoon, New Zealand Police
held a short press conference to announce that they had
actually found the other two children, with only about an
hour of daylight left for search teams, so it was
really right under the wire. Deputy Commissioner Rogers said her
team quote felt great relief in discovering the kids. As
you can imagine, temperatures were set to drop to freezing
(10:41):
that night. I mean, I imagine they've experienced that before in
the years that they've been in the wild, but still
want to spare the kids another night. She said the
children had been found at a campsite and that they
were well and uninjured, but will be getting medical checks.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Lucy, I think a lot of people listening would be
thinking about some of the parallels with the current situation
in Victoria where Victorian and police are still searching for
Desi Freeman, who allegedly killed two police officers on a
rural property a couple of weeks ago. Yeah, it is
interesting how there's some really strong parallels here in terms
of these major searches in bushland with people very experienced
(11:17):
at outdoor survival skills. Yeah, and as we've seen in
New Zealand, that could go on for years.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
It could, It absolutely could. There's interesting parallels with there's
also interesting differences. New Zealand police don't believe Tom Phillips
had any kind of ideological motivation for going on the
run or for an acting violence that we know of,
although of course now he's dead, so we won't necessarily
ever know what his true motivations were. We can only speculate,
(11:45):
but yes, it certainly shows that you can keep hiding
for a long time if you have the means too.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Thanks for that, Lucy, a really interesting story from across
the Ditch, and thank you for joining us on the
Daily os today. We'll be back in the afternoon those headlines.
Until then, have a wonderful day. My name is Lily
Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda Bunjelung Calcuttin woman from
Gadighl Country. The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is
(12:15):
recorded on the lands of the Gadighl people and pays
respect to all Aboriginal and torrest Rate island and nations.
We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries,
both past and present.
Already and this is this is the Daily This is
the DALYI os oh, now it makes sense. Good morning
and welcome to the Daily ODS. It's Tuesday, the ninth
of September.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I'm Lucy Tassel, I'm Sam Gozlowski.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
New Zealand police have shot and killed a man who
had been on the run with his three young children
for almost four years. Tom Phillips disappeared in December twenty
twenty one with his kids, then aged eight, six and five,
leaving their mother and his family behind. In today's episode,
we'll explain what we know about how Phillips and his
children stayed hidden for so long and his final fatal
(00:44):
collision with police. But first a quick word from our sponsor.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
So Lucy. As you mentioned at the top, this story
has been ongoing since late twenty twenty one, and we've
covered it before here at TDA. When Tom Phillips and
his children were spotted last year, I think we did
a video on it.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
For those who aren't familiar, though, take us right back
to the beginning a couple of years ago where this
story started.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
So this actually really starts in September twenty twenty one.
That's when Tom Phillips and his three kids, named Jada, Maverick,
and Ember first disappeared together. At the time, the kids
were aged eight, six and five, so pretty little kids. Yeah.
They were missing for seventeen days in New Zealand's Waikato region,
(01:32):
which is on the west coast of the North Island.
Tom's ute was found on a remote beach more than
an hour from the nearest petrol station, and it was
like on the beach, like physically on the sand below
the tideline facing the waves. The group was gone so
long that searchers were actually called off, and the family
(01:53):
told media at the time they were considering the worst
case scenario. They thought there was a strong possibility that
all of them had been actually washed out to see
but then all of them showed up again, completely unharmed.
So Tom and all three kids they walked into the
family farmhouse owned by Tom's parents seventeen days after they had.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Disappeared, and that must have been quite a shock to
the family. It was a national news story. Were there
any repercussions for Tom based on the fact that the
family had gone missing for almost three weeks and then
just turned up again.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Yeah, So in terms of like physically, everyone was totally fine.
Apparently Tom had a lot of experience in living in
the bush and that he'd also taken some food with them.
In terms of legal repercussions, he was charged with wasting
police resources in relation to the search and told to
appear in court the following January. And then it's hard
(02:49):
to pin down exactly the timeline of events, partly because
some information hasn't been made public to the media. But
we know that at some point in the ensuing month,
Tom didn't have legal custody of his children anymore. But
just to beically, I have to be vague. There's only
so much that we can say, but just that by
(03:11):
December twenty twenty one, he didn't have legal custody of
his children. And then it was that month, December twenty
twenty one, that he and his kids disappeared for the
second time.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Right, so, he was due to face court on those
charges about wasting police resources. He didn't show up for
the court date, and that was that second disappearance. Is
that the disappearance that we've been talking about until today.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Yes, So on the ninth of December twenty twenty one,
Tom and his kids left the family farmhouse and disappeared
into the Western Waikato region. A week later, there was
a Facebook post that began circulating saying that the kids
were missing again and the family wanted them back police
at that time, so December twenty twenty one, they actually
(03:53):
said they weren't concerned because they are now just two
months out or three months out from a previous disappearance
where everyone was totally fine, and they now know that
this guy has experience living in the bush. And they
said at the time that he hadn't broken any court
restrictions and that he told his family where he was going.
But then when he didn't show up to the court
(04:14):
appearance which was scheduled for January twenty twenty two, they
issue and arrest warrant and then the family reported the
kids and Phillips missing in mid January twenty twenty two,
and they've been basically missing until now.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Wow, that's three and a half years of being reported missing.
But we knew though that Tom and his children were
still alive all of this time, because, as I mentioned earlier,
there was this sighting of them last year that we covered.
What can you tell me about that sighting?
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Yeah, So TDA followers may remember the footage that we
saw was from a video put together by our journalist
Atola Rock. That citing in particular was special because it
was the first time that Tom and all three kids
were seen together. So it was in October twenty four
and the kids and Tom were seen by pig hunters
(05:04):
in the region who initially didn't recognize them. They started
filming them because they thought they were poachers and they
wanted legal repercussions. They told media at the time. They
remembered that Tom Phillips was holding a gun, that he
was silent, they said. They told the kids that they
were on private property. They asked, does anyone know you're
(05:28):
on this private property? The eldest kid said no, just
you guys, right.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
So they actually spoke to the family, yes, just very briefly.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
The confirmed sighting led to a three day search in
the area that didn't turn anything up. So I mentioned
that sighting was special because that was all of them
together for the first time, But that wasn't the only
sighting that we have from the last couple of years.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Interesting, so there were other sightings in that three year period.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Yeah, so I'm relying here on a timeline from the
New Zealand publication stuff, so they've noted a number of
possible sightings over the years. Police believe Phillips was the
perpetrator of a number of armed robberies, successful or attempted,
all in and around the Waikato region. Sometimes he had
one of the kids with him, sometimes not. In June
(06:16):
twenty twenty four, police actually posted an eighty thousand dollars
reward as well as potential criminal immunity if anyone who
had been helping him came forward. No one came forward
that we know of, Like, I don't think this reward
was ever handed out, Like people gave information, but nothing
that was enough to trigger that. And then so then
(06:36):
after that then we have the spotting, like the sighting
by the people who thought they were poaches. And then
it was around then that we started to get like
a lot of kind of more media coverage of this.
So that month October twenty twenty four, police shared a
lot of information that hadn't previously been public. So they
(06:56):
said they believed Tom had taken his kids as part
of a custody dispute which had come after the seventeen
day disappearance. They told the New Zealand Herald that officially speaking,
the New Zealand Government Child Protection Agency had custody of
the children, although they weren't around, so it was sort
of just in law. And they also said they were
(07:17):
aware of the fact that there were people helping him
stay hidden who were not cooperating with police.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
So I think there's a few aspects to this story here.
I mean, one clearly is the child protection aspect. But
then there was this spate of robberies which I could
only assume were for food and materials and that kind
of thing. Yeah, so there were crimes being committed as well,
and so this kind of bubbled along for a couple
of years. Were there any other developments in this case though,
(07:45):
that led up to this recent confrontation in major development?
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Yeah, so, Actually two weeks ago, two or three weeks ago,
Tom Phillips's sister, Rossie, gave an interview to New Zealand
journalist Patty Gower and she read a letter from their mother,
her and Tom's mother, the kid's grandmother.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Tom, I feel really said that you thought you had
to do this, not considering how much we love you
and can support you. Jada Merrick and Nimba I love
you so much and really must being part of your lives.
Every day I wake up and hope that today will
(08:25):
be the day that you will come home.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
So this was only a couple of weeks ago. This
was on the nineteenth of August. I don't think it's likely, however,
that Tom actually saw this, given that we believe he's
been basically in the bush all this time, and also
given the reason why we're talking about this story now,
which is that he has had this confrontation with police
that's led to his death.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
So talk to me about that confrontation. It was a
big news story here in Australia when we woke up
yesterday morning, right yes, So.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
At around two thirty am on Monday, police responded to
reports of a break in at a shop in the
royal town of Poor Pio in the northwest of the
North Island. Witnesses said a man and another person, possibly
a child, had left the scene on a quad bike.
Police said they made a guess or they figured out
which road the pair were going to be driving down.
(09:16):
They laid down road spikes which stopped the quad bike.
Phillips then got off the quad bike and opened fire
with a high powered rifle, shooting one officer in the
head before other police fatally shot him and he died
at the scene. The police officer is in hospital in
a critical condition, and the person with Phillips was one
(09:38):
of his children who's now been taken into custody.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Wow, okay, So why don't we talk through the response
from police, because I think, as you're pointing out, that's
quite limited information that we really know about, yeah, where
he's been for the last three years or so, but
also even which of his three children were with him,
So what do we know from police.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
At a media conference following that confrontation, Acting Deputy Commissioner
Jill Rogers said the incident was quote the outcome that
nobody wanted. The children's mother, who is known as Cat
in local media, said, while she is quote saddened by
how the events unfolded, she is relieved that it's come
(10:18):
to an end, and late yesterday afternoon, New Zealand Police
held a short press conference to announce that they had
actually found the other two children, with only about an
hour of daylight left for search teams, so it was
really right under the wire. Deputy Commissioner Rogers said her
team quote felt great relief in discovering the kids. As
you can imagine, temperatures were set to drop to freezing
(10:41):
that night. I mean, I imagine they've experienced that before in
the years that they've been in the wild, but still
want to spare the kids another night. She said the
children had been found at a campsite and that they
were well and uninjured, but will be getting medical checks.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Lucy, I think a lot of people listening would be
thinking about some of the parallels with the current situation
in Victoria where Victorian and police are still searching for
Desi Freeman, who allegedly killed two police officers on a
rural property a couple of weeks ago. Yeah, it is
interesting how there's some really strong parallels here in terms
of these major searches in bushland with people very experienced
(11:17):
at outdoor survival skills. Yeah, and as we've seen in
New Zealand, that could go on for years.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
It could, It absolutely could. There's interesting parallels with there's
also interesting differences. New Zealand police don't believe Tom Phillips
had any kind of ideological motivation for going on the
run or for an acting violence that we know of,
although of course now he's dead, so we won't necessarily
ever know what his true motivations were. We can only speculate,
(11:45):
but yes, it certainly shows that you can keep hiding
for a long time if you have the means too.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Thanks for that, Lucy, a really interesting story from across
the Ditch, and thank you for joining us on the
Daily os today. We'll be back in the afternoon those headlines.
Until then, have a wonderful day. My name is Lily
Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda Bunjelung Calcuttin woman from
Gadighl Country. The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is
(12:15):
recorded on the lands of the Gadighl people and pays
respect to all Aboriginal and torrest Rate island and nations.
We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries,
both past and present.
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