Missing man Thomas Phillips. Photo: Supplied / Police
The police are launching a new operation to track down fugitive Tom Phillips and his three children, who have been on the run since 2021.
Detective Inspector Andy Saunders said police will be in the wider Marokopa area over the next few days as part of their search for the family.
Officers will be investigating north of Marokopa, in and around Te Waitere and Te Maika.
"This has not been prompted by any specific sighting - it is simply a continuation of the ongoing investigation," Saunders said.
A picture posted by Cat on social media which she says is the last birthday we got to celebrate with Jayda as a family. Photo: Supplied
In June 2024, an $80,000 police reward for information that led to the safe return of the children expired, with no sign of the fugitive father or his kids.
The hunters' video had been the first sighting of the missing family in nearly a year.
In November 2023, CCTV footage in the southern Waikato town of Piopio allegedly showed Phillips, along with a child, smashing the glass of a Piopio store.
Police are seeking information about a quad bike which was reported stolen from a Marokopa Road property in Te Anga on 2 November and is believed to have been driven south by Tom Phillips and one of his children. Photo: Supplied / NZ Police
In September 2023, police issued a warrant for Phillips' arrest in connection with an armed robbery of a bank in Te Kūiti in May that year.
Two people fled the scene on a black, farm-style motorbike. Photo: Supplied / Police
In August 2023, a masked man believed to be Phillips was spotted at Bunnings hardware stores in Te Rapa and Hamilton.
The man used what police described as a large amount of cash to make purchases at both stores, including headlamps, batteries, seedlings, buckets and gumboots.
Police released an image of Tom Phillips wearing a white beanie, a surgical mask and glasses taken at Bunnings in Te Rapa, Hamilton, on Wednesday 2 August. Photo: Supplied / NZ Police
The children's mother, known as Cat, told Mata Reports she recognised her former partner in the Hamilton Bunnings carpark in the same incident.
Also in August 2023, Phillips was involved in a car chase on the road to Kāwhia, which began after a member of the public recognised the stolen ute he was driving in the Waikato town of Pirongia.
Photo: Supplied / Police
The family first disappeared in September 2021, sparking a 17-day search in dense bush surrounding Marokopa.
Police later charged Phillips with wasteful deployment of police resources, but he failed to show at Te Kūiti District Court on 12 January 2022.
