Ethan Choi
Palmer
Block B
How a shootout ended a four-year search for a NZ bushman and his three children
1 hour ago
Ethan
EC news
On 11 September 2021, Tom Phillips and his three children went missing for the first time.
His Toyota Hilux was found parked below a tide line at a beach near his parents' home in Marokopa on New Zealand's North Island. Police launched a massive search operation by land, sea and air.
Less than three weeks later, the family returned home, with the father claiming they had been on a camping trip.
Then, on 12 December that year, they vanished again. Aside from a few chance sightings and grainy frames of CCTV footage, the bushman and his three children had not been seen since.
That was, until the early hours of Monday morning, when police responding to a report of an attempted burglary entered into a shootout that resulted in Mr Phillips' death, ending a four-year manhunt.
Many questions about his disappearance remain, including why he took his children and disappeared into New Zealand's harsh wilderness, and whether he was able to evade capture for so long by having help.
When Mr Phillips returned home for the first time in 2021, he was charged with wasting police resources. The search effort over the harsh, unforgiving landscape of the western Waitomo region had cost New Zealand authorities hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Police did not launch a fresh search the second time he and his three children - Ember, Maverick, and Jayda, aged five, seven and eight, respectively, at the time - went missing.
When he failed to appear at a court appearance on 12 January 2022, police issued a warrant for his arrest.
Mr Phillips returned to his family home alone at night to collect supplies on 9 February that year.
He was then not seen for more than a year.
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He was not seen again until late August this year, when he and one of his children were captured on CCTV allegedly breaking into a store in Piopio, making off with grocery items.
It was Piopio he returned to on Monday morning. It was at about 02:30 local time (14:30 GMT on Sunday) that police were called to a report of an attempted burglary at a rural farm supply shop there, which police believe Mr Phillips had unsuccessfully targeted before.
A quad bike carrying two people was seen heading towards Marokopa. Police laid spikes along the road and, when these stopped the quad bike, officers said they were met with gunfire.
Police said the first officer to reach the scene was shot in the head and he remains in a serious condition. A second officer returned fire and Mr Phillips died at the scene, police said.
The child who was with him was unharmed and provided police with information that led them to the other two children, who were at a remote campsite in the bush between Marokopa and Te Kuiti in near-freezing conditions, police said.
