The primary pictures of the campsite the place a fugitive father was hiding together with his three youngsters within the distant New Zealand countryside earlier than he was shot useless by police have been launched.
Tom Phillips, who had been on the run together with his three youngsters since 2021, was shot and killed by a police officer on Monday following a shootout.
On Tuesday, legislation enforcement mentioned they are going to now attempt to “put the puzzle collectively” of how the household lived, discovered meals and averted detection by searchers for therefore a few years.
Phillips was with one little one throughout the confrontation with police, and the 2 different youngsters have been discovered within the forest about 13 hours after their father was killed.
Images provided by the police of the household’s remaining campsite — the place soda cans, tires and a metallic container sat amid camouflaged belongings — gave few clues. The location was possible a brief one, officers mentioned, nevertheless it was in terrain that had been searched earlier than.
This Sept. 8, 2025 picture, launched by the New Zealand police, exhibits the campsite the place Tom Phillips and his youngsters have been hiding earlier than he was shot and killed in Waitomo, positioned within the district of Waikato, New Zealand.
New Zealand Police
New Zealand’s Police Commissioner Richard Chambers instructed reporters that it’s “extremely possible that we’ve been very, very shut” to finding the campsite.
On Monday, the kid with Phillips was taken into custody and hours later, helped legislation enforcement to search out the campsite the place the opposite youngsters — now aged 9, 10 and 12 — waited.
This Sept. 8, 2025 picture, launched by the New Zealand police, exhibits the campsite the place Tom Phillips and his youngsters have been hiding earlier than his capturing demise in Waitomo, positioned within the district of Waikato, New Zealand.
New Zealand Police
Investigators consider that since Phillips and his youngsters disappeared in December 2021, that they had by no means travelled removed from the tiny rural settlement the place they lived within the farming area of Waikato.
Chambers mentioned officers would search to uncover the identities of “anyone who might have been serving to Mr. Phillips.”
This Sept. 8, 2025 picture, launched by the New Zealand police, exhibits the campsite the place Tom Phillips and his youngsters have been hiding earlier than he was shot and killed in Waitomo, within the district of Waikato, New Zealand.
New Zealand Police
Phillips was expert in wilderness survival, however legislation enforcement mentioned they have been more and more positive he had assist to stay hid.
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“I can inform you he’s no hero,” Chambers mentioned Tuesday. “Nobody who does this to youngsters, nobody who unleashes high-powered rifles on my employees, is a hero, easy as that.”
New Zealand Commissioner of Police Richard Chambers, left, and Police Minister Mark Mitchell tackle a press convention in Hamilton, New Zealand, on Sept. 9, 2025.
Christel Yardley/Waikato Occasions through AP
Phillips was positioned after police responded to a break-in at an agricultural store in a tiny rural city, resulting in a confrontation that left one officer critically injured after being shot within the head, in response to Jill Rogers, New Zealand’s performing deputy police commissioner.
The officer was present process surgical procedure in hospital and his accidents are survivable, Rogers instructed reporters. She added that the officer was shot “a number of occasions with a high-powered rifle” and additional surgical procedures are anticipated.
After visiting the injured officer, known as Officer A, in hospital, Chambers shared an replace.
“I used to be happy that I might meet him and his household immediately and provide my encouragement and assist to them. Whereas the officer has a protracted highway to restoration, we will likely be there to assist him and his Whānau at each step,” Chambers mentioned.
Chambers mentioned that the officer is “a devoted and caring constable and represents the perfect of what it means to be a rural police officer.”
“I’m happy with him, and the officers who arrived on the scene seconds later and dealt to the menace,” he added.
The camp space in Waitomo and the scene of the capturing stay lively crime scenes, with forensic employees on-site Tuesday to collect proof.
Rogers mentioned that a lot of investigations are underway into the incident, together with an Unbiased Police Conduct Authority investigation, Coronial enquiries and a Crucial Incident Evaluation.
“The physique of Tom Phillips was faraway from the scene late yesterday, and there will likely be a autopsy tomorrow, after which his physique will likely be launched to his household,” Rogers mentioned Tuesday.
“Investigation employees are going over the areas the place the household had been staying, and have been talking with farmers, locals, and employees within the space. That work is to assist us construct an correct image of the actions of Tom Phillips and the youngsters,” she added.
Officers didn’t share particulars in regards to the youngsters’s whereabouts after their rescue however did affirm {that a} little one protecting service company was concerned.
“There’s a cautious plan with everybody changing into concerned on the proper time by way of ensuring that they’re placed on a very sturdy and wholesome pathway to restoration,” New Zealand’s Police Minister Mark Mitchell instructed reporters.
Rogers described the youngsters as “being engaged.”
“They readily spoke with our employees, who offered them with snacks and drinks whereas they waited to be introduced out of the campsite,” Rogers mentioned.
Tom Phillips (L) disappeared into the New Zealand bush together with his three youngsters in 2021.
New Zealand Police
On Monday, a Excessive Court docket choose issued a brief injunction that bars officers or information retailers from disclosing sure particulars of the case, which has gained mass media consideration.
“They’ve seen and been uncovered to issues that youngsters in our nation shouldn’t be,” Mitchell mentioned. “It’s very sophisticated and it’s very complicated and it has been for fairly a while.”
Warwick Morehu, Oranga Tamariki and Whānau Providers Regional Commissioner Waikato and Bay of A lot, instructed Folks journal on Tuesday, “I need to guarantee the neighborhood right here within the Waikato, and likewise the broader public of New Zealand, that my crew right here on this area have been planning and making ready for the return of those youngsters from after they went lacking.”
Morehu mentioned that the youngsters had “a settled evening” and confirmed that they’re “doing effectively underneath the circumstances.”
“Going ahead, I’ve an skilled and devoted crew of employees assigned to this, they’re prepped and prepared to reply to no matter wants these youngsters might need,” Morehu added.
“We’re joined up with our companion companies throughout the youngsters’s system to reply to these wants,” he mentioned. “We’ve got scientific professionals who’ve put their arms as much as help if required. I need to guarantee you that these youngsters will likely be supplied with no matter assist or help they might want, for nevertheless lengthy they might want it.”
Morehu mentioned that everybody is “doing their finest to make sure” they will return the youngsters “to some type of a standard every day life.”
—With information from The Related Press
