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Tom Phillips forced his children to live in remote campsites, without access to education or healthcare
Charlotte Graham-McLayThursday 27 November 2025 09:13 GMT
CloseNZ police hold press conference after father who hid with children for years is shot dead
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The New Zealand government has launched a public inquiry into the case of Tom Phillips, who disappeared with his three children into a remote forest for years.
The country’s Attorney-General Judith Collins said the independent investigation will examine whether government agencies “took all practicable steps to protect the safety and welfare” of the children.
Phillips vanished from the rural township of Marokopa with his three children, then aged 5, 7, and 8, in December 2021. He was involved in court proceedings at the time regarding an earlier disappearance.
For years, he forced the children to live in campsites in the bush, without access to education or healthcare.
In September this year, Phillips was shot dead by police following a robbery. A police officer was shot in the head and critically injured during the confrontation.
One of Phillips’ children was with him at the time, and the other two were found at a makeshift campsite following the shooting.
open image in galleryTom Phillips came from a farming family in the small rural town of Marokopa (NZ Police)Saga began years before
The saga began long before the family first became known to the public in 2021. The Phillips children had been the subject of Family Court proceedings about their care since 2018, according to a government document outlining the terms of the new inquiry.
The period before the family vanished will be scrutinised by the inquiry, which must decide if officials did all they could to prevent the children's disappearance.
Sightings of Phillips, who carried out robberies while he hid with the children, continually placed him near where he had vanished.
That has provoked questions in New Zealand about the scale and rigour of law enforcement search efforts during the three-and-a-half year disappearance. It was clear “that the children’s safety and welfare remained at risk, especially given the time that had elapsed since they had first disappeared”, the document establishing the inquiry said.
The investigation will be headed by Simon Moore, a high-profile lawyer and a former High Court judge.
It is due to deliver a final report by July 2026, in which Moore must decide if government agencies engaged appropriately with the Family Court and took all practicable steps to find and recover the children.
open image in galleryThe main campsite where Tom Phillips and his three children livedNot the first disappearance
Scrutiny of officials' actions was prompted partly because Phillips had vanished with his children before.
Three months before the family's December 2021 disappearance, Phillips triggered a massive search and national headlines when his truck was found on a beach with no trace of him or the children.
Authorities concluded the family had died by drowning when Phillips reappeared from the forest three weeks later with the children, saying they had been camping. He was due to face charges in court for wasting police resources when he disappeared again.
This time, he did not return.
Phillips died in shoot-out
An early morning shoot-out in September brought the lengthy ordeal to a close of sorts. Phillips and one of his children were stopped by a police officer as they fled a robbery at a farming supplies store in the small town of Waitomo.
The officer was shot at close range. He survived but would require a series of surgeries, officials said.
More officers arrived and Phillips was fatally shot. The child with him was taken into custody and later helped law enforcement to find the campsite where the remaining children waited.
open image in galleryA police officer near the scene where Phillips died (AFP via Getty Images)The cache of belongings there included guns, officials said. Law enforcement photos released of campsites the family had used showed grim and squalid encampments.
Officials have not disclosed details about the current whereabouts of the children, citing their need for privacy.
Judges' orders imposed since the children were recovered have barred news outlets from reporting certain details of the case. Some national outlets are challenging the rulings in court.
Secrecy about what the authorities knew and what actions they took has produced growing calls for an inquiry.
Case prompts debate
The questions about officials’ actions have prompted heated debate in New Zealand and drawn global news headlines. A documentary about the case is in production and reporters have converged on the tiny township where the family lived.
News outlets have questioned why calls from the police for the public's help in locating the family only began well after they disappeared, when Phillips was accused of committing an armed robbery.
After that, officials regularly urged people who knew of the family's whereabouts to come forward, including by offering a sizable reward that was never collected.
The police believed Phillips was being helped by others in the area and efforts continue to identify his possible accomplices.
