On 9 December, 2021, father Tom Phillips took his children; eight-year-old Jayda, six-year-old Maverick and five-year-old Ember and disappeared with them into the wilderness in New Zealand.
The case is currently back in the news as Phillips and his three children were seen together for the first time since their disappearance, after being reportedly spotted by a group of pig hunters on on 3 October.
Footage shows what appears to be Tom Phillips and his children dressed in camo and wearing large rucksacks (YouTube/1News)
An interview with the siblings’ older half-sister Jubilee Dawson has since resurfaced online in the wake of the sighting, with her recalling the last conversation she’d had with them.
Speaking to New Zealand outlet 1News last year, Jubilee revealed how she’d spoken with her siblings ‘briefly’ after their father previously disappeared with them for 19 days in September 2021.
Police had been alerted to their disappearance, however, Phillips later reappeared and claimed he’d taken the children on a camping trip.
He was later charged with wasting police time and was given a court date for 12 January, 2022 – but he would disappear again just a couple of months later.
Older sister Jubilee Dawson revealed her fears that the siblings would be forgotten (YouTube/1News)
Jubliee said when her siblings came back, it was the ‘most that I cried over the course of the 19 days’.
Explaining how they ‘weren’t allowed to talk about their ‘camping trip’, Jubliee revealed the children had supposedly clocked on to the fact that they had been reported missing.
“I think they were well aware they were missing, they’re well aware they were on TV the first time, and I think they do know they’re not supposed to be gone,” she said. “They said their rice went mouldy, they said they were near water, and Maverick said they did lots of walking.
“That is all the information they gave us.”
Recalling fond memories about her siblings, Jubilee explained that she’d wanted to speak out so the siblings wouldn’t feel as though they’d been forgotten about.
“My biggest fear is that they’re out there wondering why we haven’t come to get them. It’s just been so long and there’s nothing else we can really do.”
“We love them very much, and we are just waiting for them to come home,” she added.
Following the sighting of the children, their mother Cat spoke of her relief to learn all three of them were alive and together, telling the NZ Herald: “I’m so happy that they’re all there.
“I’m so relieved to see all three of my babies. They’re all alive.”
They returned after several days with Phillips claiming he’d just taken his kids on a camping trip, but an extensive search had been launched to find them, resulting in him being charged with wasting police resources.
He was given a court date but never made it, having disappeared once again with his three children this time seemingly for good.
There have been a few scant appearances since then, but on 3 October a group of pig hunters spotted a man with a gun and three children wearing camo gear walking nearby.
Tom Phillips and his three children were seen together for the first time since they went missing. (YouTube/1News)
Police called it a ‘credible’ sighting of Tom Phillips and the three children, and said it was good news for their family.
Detective Inspector Andrew Saunders said: “This is the first time all three of the children have been sighted, which is positive information, and we know it will be reassuring for the children’s wider family.”
According to Stuff, one of the pig hunters who interacted with the Phillips family was the grandson of John McOviney, who described the encounter his grandson had with the family.
McOviney recounted: “He said to them, ‘What are you doing here? Who are you? Does anybody else know you’re here?’ The kid said ‘only you’, and then they just kept walking.”
The pig hunters described the man leading the children as carrying a gun and wearing a long beard, while the three kids were carrying packs of equipment.
Cat, the mother to Jayda, Maverick and Ember, welcomed the sighting of all of her children together.
Speaking to the NZ Herald she said: “I’m so happy that they’re all there.
“I’m so relieved to see all three of my babies. They’re all alive.”
In response to the footage a three day police search was launched, failing to track down Tom Phillips or his children.
Tom Phillips, who three years ago took his children and disappeared. (NZ Police)
Police have said they believe that Phillips is being helped by others, with DI Saunders saying they were ‘urging anyone who’s doing this to please stop, do the right thing and tell police what you know’.
There is a warrant for the arrest of Tom Phillips after he was suspected to have carried out an armed bank robbery in the New Zealand town of Te Kuiti last year.
Phillips has been charged with aggravated robbery, wounding and unlawful possession of a firearm for his suspected part in the bank robbery, and it is believed that one of his children was an accomplice.
This picture from 2023 is thought to show Tom Phillips and one of his children. (NZ Police)
Earlier this year police offered a reward of up to $80,000NZ (£37,000) for information that would lead to the safe return of the children.
The reward unfortunately expired without being claimed as Phillips and his children are still out there.
They also offered legal immunity to anyone who might have been helping Phillips and wanted to come forward.
On 9 December, 2021, New Zealand man Tom Phillips and his children; eight-year-old Jayda, six-year-old Maverick and five-year-old Ember disappeared.
It wasn’t the first time they’d gone missing either. Earlier that year, Phillips and his three children disappeared for 19 days in September before returning, with Phillips claiming he’d taken them on a camping trip.
As a result, Phillips was charged with wasting police resources and given a court date of 12 January, but he had disappeared once again with his children over a month before that date came.
He returned to his home on 9 February for a short amount of time and told his family the children were safe, but wouldn’t say where they were before leaving again.
Tom Phillips and his three children were spotted recently. (YouTube/1News)
In August 2023 he was spotted again, having stolen a Toyota Hilux and was seen shopping in the New Zealand city of Hamilton while using a mask to cover his face.
A month later he was charged in connection with an armed bank robbery which he’d been accused of carrying out with an unknown accomplice believed to be one of his children.
Phillips and his three children were just recently spotted by pig hunters who filmed the encounter and managed to speak to the family.
The children’s mother Cat told the NZ Herald she was ‘relieved’ to see her children alive, saying: “I’m so happy that they’re all there.
“I’m so relieved to see all three of my babies. They’re all alive.”
This is the first time since Phillips and his children went missing that all three children have been seen together.
The children’s mother Cat said she was ‘relieved’ to see her children again and that she could still recognise them. (YouTube/RNZ)
According to New Zealand outlet Stuff, John McOviney said that one of his grandchildren was among the group who spoke to the Phillips family, and that Tom Phillips had a gun.
McOviney recounted his grandchild’s interaction with the family: “He said to them, ‘What are you doing here? Who are you? Does anybody else know you’re here?’ The kid said ‘only you’, and then they just kept walking.”
Stuff also reported that the person who answered ‘only you’ was Jayda, the eldest child, and there had been claims that one of the children asked ‘Who else knows we’re here?’, but the outlet insisted that wasn’t what had been said.
The pig hunters contacted the police, who launched a search but were not able to find Phillips or his three children.
Thomas Callam Phillips and his three kids – Ember, eight, Maverick, nine, and Jayda, 11 – have been missing since December 2021 when they were taken by their dad to an unknown location.
A bitter family split in New Zealand’s North Island saw Phillips flee the area with his children, despite being wanted by police for failing to appear in court on charges of wasting police resources.
Thomas Callam Phillips has been on the run from police for three years with his three children (New Zealand Police)
Fast forward to 2023, the fugitive father allegedly robbed a bank in May with a female accomplice, according to New Zealand Police, with both reported to have been armed.
Up until recently, search and rescue teams have had no luck finding the family.
But in what could be a breakthrough, a hunter filmed four people believed to be that of Philips and his children on 3 October on his family’s 8,500-acre property in Marokopa.
Though the man didn’t want to named, his grandfather told CNN: “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.”
Meanwhile, the mayor of the Otorohanga district, Max Baxter, has his own theory on what Phillips is up to.
Phillips and his three kids may have been spotted in a video taken by a mountain hunter earlier this month (John McOviney)
“We absolutely believe that somebody, or some people, are helping them,” he said. “Tom still has a number of supporters out there believing that he is doing the right thing for him and his children.
“There’s a reason why people live at Marokopa. It’s because they love the isolation.
“They love the fact that they’re on the rugged west coast, that they can go fishing, they can hang out with like-minded people.”
The children’s mother Cat took to Facebook back in June, urging people to ‘help to bring my babies home’.
On the eldest child, Jayda, who is now 11, Cat said: “She will be a young woman now, and she needs her mother.
“Ember is asthmatic as I am… she needs medical care that cannot be provided from the land.”
Cat, the mother of the missing children (New Zealand Police)
Jubilee Dawson, the eldest sister, also said in a Mata Reports documentary: “Jayda is the more outgoing one … she’s definitely the most confident of the three … loves talking to everybody.
“Maverick is more introverted, I’d say he’s more shy … Ember is the youngest, and more sweet and bubbly.
“We love them very much, and we are just waiting for them to come home.”
Lance Burdett, the lead crisis negotiator for New Zealand Police, said: “This is not a big country we’re talking about.
“It’s very surprising that they haven’t been found, particularly since the number of sightings are in a very similar area.”
Danny Abdallah had his world turned upside down in February 2020 when three of his children were killed in a tragic accident.
Antony, 13, Angelina, 12 and Sienna, eight, were walking with their cousin Veronique, 11, when they were struck down.
Samuel Davidson had been under the influence of drugs and alcohol when his car veered onto the footpath of the Sydney suburb and killed all four children.
He is now serving a 20-year jail sentence.
The Abdallahs will be addressing 500 people gathering at the Australian National Prayer Breakfast on Monday.
They are still in contact with the driver.
Danny has visited Davidson in prison, whilst his wife Leila has plans to.
Danny was unsure of the encounter would go down, but was ultimately moved by Davidson’s remorse.
“I shook his hand and he just fell to his knees, put his head on the floor and said, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry I took your kids,'” he said.
“He was crying and I was crying – you just see nobody won in this.
“I was at a crossroads in my life and the hardest question as a parent is you can lose your whole family with bitterness and seek revenge, or you can keep half of your family and find forgiveness.”
As well as the three children who tragically died in the crash, Danny is dad to Liana, Alex, Michael, and welcomed a baby girl named Selina last year.
Former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who has become close with the Abdallahs, has also spoken on how difficult the experience was.
Speaking on the heartbreaking day, Morrison said: “I’ll never forget that day… my dear friends Danny and Leila Abdallah and Bridget Sakr lost their kids in that terrible accident over in Oatlands.
“They had every right to be furious, they had every right to be vindictive, they had every right to lash out and they chose a different path.
“And I know why they did because we share the same faith.”
Morrison wasn’t the only person in awe of the parents’ ability to forgive.
Since the tragedy, the couple set up the i4give Foundation to remember their loved ones and help others in similar dire circumstances.
The Oatlands Golf Club have also agreed to set up a memorial at the scene of the crash.
It’s expected to be up by Christmas, which the family hope will bring them ‘closure’.
