A distraught mother has released a harrowing video in which she begs the public to help locate her three young children who she has not seen for 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 with their father in 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 relatives in January 2022.
“I stand here before you today begging for your help to bring my babies home,” Cat pleaded in the video.
“They’re just innocent children, they don’t deserve to be treated this way, they don’t deserve the life that’s being offered to them right now.”
Despite police following up on numerous reported sightings of their father Luke Phillips, sometimes with his children, in the region around Marokopa, about a three-hour drive south of Auckland on the west coast of the North Island, the foursome remains elusive.
Cat accused Mr Phillips of endangering and robbing 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, like me, is asthmatic and she needs medical care that cannot be provided from land,” Cat claimed.
‘Many of you say the children are doing well and being well cared for.
‘How do you know that? Have you seen them? Or is it just bush talk?
‘What Thomas is doing is not okay. It is not okay to divide and conquer, to isolate and control.
“It’s child neglect, it’s child neglect, it’s child abuse. My babies deserve better.”
The police told me Stuff that they have received more than 100 new reports containing information about Mr. Phillips
Almost half of these reports are considered by the police to require further investigation.
Tom Phillips (pictured) has been on the run with his children on the west coast of the North Island for the past two and a half years
While the Marokopa area remains the focus, police investigations are also underway in the surrounding areas of Honikiwi and Otorohanga.
Police are calling on anyone who has recently observed suspicious behavior 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 believe Phillips lived with his children.
“We believe Tom and the children are hiding in Western Waikato, in Marokopa or surrounding areas,” said Acting Detective Inspector Andrew Saunders.
“While the environment is challenging for investigators, we continue to dedicate resources to this operation and follow up on all reported sightings.”
However, Mr Phillips continues to evade police.
Mr Phillips, a skilled hunter with intimate knowledge of the bush, was last seen on grainy CCTV in November last year when he and another individual attempted to rob a shop in Piopio in the Waitomo District.
Dressed in army-style combat fatigues with caps pulled low and masks covering their faces, the two figures can be seen exiting a red quad bike before approaching the shop window.
Mr Phillips is then said to have destroyed the shop front before fleeing when the alarm went off.
“We continue to assess existing evidence and new information and appeal to the community to come forward with any details that could help reunite the three children with their families,” a police spokesperson said at the time.
One of many reported suspected sightings of Mr Phillips, this one last August at a Bunnings Warehouse store in Te Rapa, Hamilton
Despite numerous suspected sightings of Phillips with his children, police have been unable to track down the group
Phillips was sighted three times in one day.
He was first seen driving an allegedly stolen bronze-coloured 2003 Toyota Hilux flat-deck car on State Highway 31 in the Kāwhia area of the North Island.
The same day, Phillips was recognized 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 hat, reading glasses and a mask.
He is said to have paid cash for headlamps, batteries, seedlings, buckets and rubber boots.
His children were not with him.
Less than three hours later, Phillips is said to have gotten into an altercation with another motorist near the small west coast settlement.