A distraught mother has released a harrowing video pleading the public to help track down her three young children who she hasn’t seen in two-and-a-half years.
The woman, who introduced herself simply as ‘Cat’, is desperate to be reunited with Jayda, 11, Maverick, 9 and Ember, 8, who went missing along with their father from the small New Zealand town of Marokopa in December 2021.
What made the video especially poignant is that it was filmed on Jayda’s 11th birthday.
‘She will be a young woman now and she needs her mother,’ a tearful Cat explained in the Facebook video distributed by New Zealand police.
The desperate plea comes after an $80,000 reward was announced for information leading to the safe return of the children, who were reported missing by family members in January 2022.
‘I am standing before you here today, begging for your help to bring my babies home,’ Cat pleaded in the video.
‘They are just innocent children, they do not deserve to be treated this way, they do not deserve the life that is being provided to them right now’.
Despite police following up numerous reported sightings of their father Luke Phillips sometimes with his children in the region around Marokopa, which is around three hours drive south of Auckland on the North Island’s west coast, the foursome remain elusive.
Cat accused Mr Phillips of endangering and depriving the children.
A mother has made a desperate plea for the return of her children who have been missing for two and a half years
‘Ember is asthmatic as am I and she needs medical care that cannot be provided from the land,’ Cat claimed.
‘Many of you say that the children are fine and they are being well looked after.
‘How do you know? Have you seen them? Or is it just bush talk?
‘What Thomas is doing is not OK. It is not OK to divide and conquer, to isolate and control.
‘It is child neglect, it is child abandonment, it is child abuse. My babies deserve better.’
Police told Stuff that they have had more than 100 new reports of information on Mr Phillips
Almost half of those reports are considered by police worthy of greater examination.
Tom Phillips (pictured) has been on the run for the last two and a half years with his children on North Island’s west coast
While the area around Marokopa continues to be the focus, police search inquiries are also being made the surrounding areas of Honikiwi and Otorohanga.
Police urged anyone who has observed recent suspicious behaviour in these areas to come forward.
In January, police said they believed they had narrowed their search to an area where they had credible reason to think Mr Phillips was living with his children.
‘We believe Tom and the children are hiding out in Western Waikato within Marokopa or the surrounding areas,’ Acting Detective Inspector Andrew Saunders said.
‘Although the environment is challenging for investigators, we continue to devote resources to this operation and follow up on all reported sightings.’
However, Mr Phillips continues to avoid police.
Mr Phillips, a capable hunter with intimate knowledge of the bush, was last spotted in grainy CCTV in November last year attempting to allegedly rob a store in Piopio in the Waitomo District with another individual.
Dressed in army-style combat clothing with caps pulled low and masks covering their faces, the two figures can be seen leaving a red quadbike before they approach the window of the store.
Mr Phillips then allegedly smashed the shopfront before fleeing when the alarm sounded.
‘We continue to review existing evidence and new information and appeal to the community to pass on any details that could help the three children be reunited with their family,’ a police spokesperson said at the time.
One of the many reported suspected sightings of Mr Phillips, this one from a Bunnings Warehouse store in Te Rapa, Hamilton last August
Despite having numerous suspected sightings of Phillips with his children, police have not been able to track down the group
Phillips was sighted three times in one day.
He was first seen driving an allegedly stolen 2003 bronze-coloured Toyota Hilux flat-deck ute on State Highway 31 in the Kāwhia area on the North Island.
The same day, Phillips was recognised by someone who knows him in the car park of the Bunnings Warehouse store in Te Rapa, Hamilton.
CCTV allegedly captured Phillips with his head and face completely covered by a beanie, reading glasses and a mask.
He allegedly paid cash for head torches, batteries, seedlings, buckets and gumboots.
His children were not with him.
Less than three hours later, Phillips allegedly got into an altercation with another motorist near the small west coast settlement.
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