Police published the first images of what they believe to be one of the many campsites where an onwarter-Zealand father hid with his three children for years.
On Monday, two of Tom Phillips’ children were found on the site of the Waikato region, a few hours after being killed during a shooting with the police.
The police found them with the help of the third child, who was with Phillips when he died. They said the children “are doing well”, but will take the time to recover from the test.
Shortly before Christmas in 2021, Phillips disappeared with his children – Jayda, Maverick and Ember, then aged eight, seven and five respectively. Police think he did it after losing his custody from them.
Phillips had “no respect” for children’s safety and ” [them] Like Harm, “the police commissioner Richard Chambers, the media, added on Tuesday, adding that they were now at the assignment of the authorities.
A reserve of firearms and ammunition was also found at the campsite, which is surrounded by dense vegetation. Two quad bikes are represented among the trees.
As the authorities arrived on the site, the search for the two children had been underway for almost 12 hours.
In the early hours of Monday, police responded to a burglary attempted report in a rural farm supplies store in the small town of Piopio. And it was there that they entered a shooting with Mr. Phillips. An officer was seriously injured after Phillips shot him with a high power rifle. Chambers said that the police had “without a doubt” without a doubt what he was intended to kill the officer.
The injured officer has undergone a series of surgeries but still has a long way to recovery before him, said Chambers.
The Phillips affair has seized New Zealand since the day he became a fugitive almost four years ago, and although Monday’s events suggest that the mystery ended, the police are still looking for answers.
They try to discover how Phillips, supposed to be in the end of the thirties this year, escaped capture despite national research and several observations – and, above all, how he was able to access firearms.
The authorities did not answer journalists’ questions on Tuesday to find out if the mother of the children, known in reports only as CAT, and members of the extended family of Phillips are in contact with children.
“Our priority is to ensure that these children are taken care of and that there is a careful plan, everyone getting involved at the right time,” said police minister Mark Mitchell.
“They have seen and were exposed to things that the children of our country should not be.”
Warwick Morehu of the Ministry of New Zealand for children added: “These children will receive all the help or assistance they need, as long as they may need”.
On Monday, the mother of the children was cited by the local RNZ media as saying that she was “deeply relieved” that “this event ended” after missing her children “every day for almost four years”.
But, she continued: “We are saddened by the way the events took place today.”
