The man wore camouflage gear, a long beard protruding below a mask. His features were hidden, but when New Zealand police saw the video showing three figures walking behind him, one name came instantly to mind.
Fugitive Thomas Callam Phillips has been evading police for three years since disappearing with his children Ember, Maverick and Jayda – now 8, 9 and 11 – into the rugged wilderness of the country’s North Island during a bitter family split in December 2021.
At first Phillips was wanted for failing to appear in court on charges of wasting police resources but, three years on, his charge sheet has grown longer and more serious, with allegations that he robbed a bank in May 2023 with an unnamed female accomplice.
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Police have scrambled search teams, helicopters and planes to investigate sporadic sightings but have failed to find them.
Last week’s sighting is believed to be the first of all three children since 2021.
It was made by a teenager, who didn’t want to be named or interviewed for this story, but his grandfather John McOviney told CNN the boy had been hunting with a friend on the family’s 8,500-acre (3,439-hectare) property in Marokopa when they spotted four figures carrying backpacks who they assumed were poachers.
“The guy had a big, long beard, and the kids were all masked up, and they were carrying packs, and they weren’t very keen to talk to them at all,” McOviney said.
Instead, his grandson filmed them on his phone, providing the first proof of life of the missing Phillips children that their mother Cat has seen since they left.
The entire country wants to know where they are, and why it’s taking police so long to find them.
