WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The disappearance of a New Zealand father and his children in a forest for several years before he was discovered and killed by police has prompted the government to launch a major inquiry into how officers handled the case.
The public inquiry — which is a formal, independent investigation into matters of significant importance in New Zealand — will examine “whether government agencies took all practicable steps to protect the safety and welfare” of Tom Phillips’ children, Attorney-General Judith Collins said Thursday.
The announcement follows an outrage in New Zealand over how a father involved in court proceedings was allowed to evade authorities for years, while forcing his children to live in harsh conditions in the remote countryside without access to health care or education.
Phillips disappeared in December 2021 with his three children — then aged 5, 7 and 8 — from Marokopa, a small rural township in New Zealand’s North Island. The children were found in a makeshift campsite in September this year, hours after their father was killed by the police following a robbery. A police officer was shot in the head and critically wounded during the confrontation.
The inquiry will scrutinize the authorities
The saga began long before the Phillips family first became known to the public in 2021. The children have been the subject of family court proceedings over their care since 2018, according to a government document outlining the terms of the new inquiry.
The period before the family disappeared will be scrutinized by the inquiry, which must decide whether the officers did everything they could to prevent the children’s disappearance. Sightings of Phillips, who committed a robbery while hiding with the children, continually put him close to where he had ended up.
This raised questions in New Zealand about the scale and rigor of law enforcement search efforts during the three-and-a-half-year disappearance. It was clear “that the safety and well-being of the children remained at risk, especially because of the time that had passed since they first disappeared,” said the document establishing the inquiry.
The investigation will be led by Simon Moore, a high-profile barrister and former High Court judge. He is expected to deliver a final report by July 2026, in which Moore must decide whether government agencies have properly engaged with the family court and taken all practicable steps to locate and recover the children.
The family had disappeared before
The scrutiny of the officers’ actions was prompted in part because Phillips had disappeared with his children before.
Three months before the family’s disappearance in December 2021, Phillips sparked a massive search and national news when his truck was found on a beach with no trace of him or the children.
The authorities concluded that the family had drowned when Phillips reappeared in the forest three weeks later with the children, saying they had gone camping. He had to face charges in court for wasting police resources when he disappeared again.
This time he did not return.
The secrecy surrounding the episode
An early morning repair in September brought the long ordeal to an end. Phillips and one of his sons were stopped by a police officer as they fled a robbery at a farm supply store in Waitomo, a small town on New Zealand’s North Island.
The officer was shot at close range. He survived but required a series of surgeries, officials said.
More officers arrived and Phillips was fatally shot. The child he was with was taken into custody and later helped law enforcement find the campsite where the remaining children were waiting.
The cache of items there included guns, officials said. Law enforcement photos released of campsites used by the family showed grim and squalid camps.
Officials did not provide details on the children’s current whereabouts, citing their need for privacy.
Judges’ orders imposed since the children were recovered have prohibited news outlets from reporting certain details of the case. Some national stores are contesting the judgments in court.
The secrecy surrounding what the authorities knew and what actions they took has brought increasing calls for an inquiry.
The case gripped New Zealand
Questions about the officers’ actions have sparked heated debate in New Zealand and attracted global headlines, with a documentary about the case in production and journalists converging on the small town where the family lived.
The news asked why the calls from the police for the public’s help to find the family only started after they disappeared, when Phillips was accused of committing an armed robbery.
After that, officers routinely encouraged people who knew the family’s whereabouts to come forward, including by offering a sizeable reward that was never collected.
Police believe Phillips was being helped by others in the area and efforts are continuing to identify his possible accomplices.