WORLD • 4 MIN READ
Police shoot dead fugitive father and find his three children missing for years in wilderness

By Todd Symons
UPDATED 15 HR AGO


Thomas Callam Phillips and his children were officially reported as missing by family members in December 2021.

A fugitive father who had been hiding with his three children in the dense New Zealand wilderness was shot dead in an armed confrontation with police on Monday, leading to his three children being placed in the custody of police, ending a near four-year search for the family.

Thomas Phillips and his children – believed to be ages 9, 10 and 12 – had been evading police in a remote part of the country’s North Island since December 2021, triggering a manhunt that gripped the nation.

Phillips’ time on the run ended in the early hours of Monday when police responded to a break-in at a farm shop in a tiny rural town and gave chase. … A police officer was wounded in the confrontation after being shot in the head at close range with a high-powered rifle, police said.

One of the children was found with Phillips. Following a massive and urgent search operation involving helicopters, police announced the other two children had been located, later Monday, on their own at a remote campsite in the dense bush near the tiny rural town of Marokopa, on the rugged west coast of New Zealand’s Waikato region.

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