Mother’s chilling theory after her children were spotted three years after they disappeared without a trace in the New Zealand wilderness

The mother of three who disappeared with their fugitive father three years ago believes her daughter may have called for help when they were spotted wandering through bushland last week.

Tom Phillips and his three young children, Jayda, 11, Maverick, 9, and Ember, 8, were photographed by local hunters while walking through the wilderness last week.

The father and three children have been missing since December 2021 and were believed to have been living off the land since then as they stayed one step ahead of authorities.

The 16-year-old hunters who captured images of the fugitive clan initially thought the group were poachers and shouted at them from about 60 meters away. Jayda responded.

“I said, ‘This is private property,’ and she said, ‘Yeah… duh.’ Then I asked, ‘Does anyone know you’re here?’ and she said, ‘No, just you guys,'” one of the boys recalled to a local news outlet. Stuff.

The children’s mother, Cat, now wonders if her daughter was trying to convey a message to the public.

Cat (pictured) is the mother of missing children, Jayda, 11, Maverick, 9, and Ember, 8, who are believed to be living off the land with their fugitive father Tom Phillips

‘Is that a cry for help? Is that: ‘Does anyone know we’re here? Is someone coming for us?” We can’t hear the tone of her voice, but I think that’s what I’m thinking,” she told Mata Reports in a lengthy television interview.

“It’s like she’s trying to say something without actually saying anything because her father is there, and she’s worried if she says the wrong thing and phrases it the wrong way, she’s worried about the consequences later.”

All four family members wore camouflage clothing and carried large backpacks.

Phillips walked about thirty feet ahead of his children, who trudged along behind him in a single file.

The sighting was reported to the police and it was the first time Cat had seen images of her children in almost three years.

“It was really good, they brought their own stuff, it’s the best news anyone could hope for,” she said.

The father and children first went missing on September 11, 2021.

About eighteen days later they returned to the family farm and explained that they had spent the time living in a tent in dense bushland.

Cat said her husband and three children had visibly lost a lot of weight even during that short absence, so they likely suffered hardships in recent years.

“I can’t imagine what they’ve been through in these three years, it’s just wrong on so many levels,” she said.

Cat believes the police response to her missing children has been inadequate, adding that she expected search parties with sniffer dogs to be immediately deployed to the scene where the children were seen.

Cat said every day without her three children was a ‘waking nightmare’ (they are pictured)

Tom Phillips (pictured) is wanted by police for an alleged armed robbery

The images were reported to police on Thursday, but Cat did not hear from investigators until the next day.

“The system has failed my children miserably from the beginning,” she said.

‘They shouldn’t have to live like this, they deserve so much more. They deserve to have friends, they deserve to go to the park and eat McDonald’s.”

In her attempt to cope with the loss of her children, Cat says she is trying to pretend they are not still missing.

She has two other daughters, who are older than the three children with their father, but admits she feels ‘lost’.

‘I’ve been lost since they left. I’m not me. They were my world, they were my everything,” she said.

‘I feel like I didn’t fight hard enough and didn’t make enough noise. I feel like it’s my fault.’

Looking back on their relationship, Cat described how her husband had been extremely controlling.

She claims he didn’t like her going anywhere or doing anything alone, and didn’t want her to put their children in daycare.

Phillips and his three children were filmed walking in camouflaged gear on a remote coastal farm near Marokopa on October 3 by a pair of teenage pig hunters

“Supporting Thomas is essentially supporting child abuse, because that’s what it is,” Cat said.

“I just want my babies home. I still have some of their clothes and Christmas presents from the year they disappeared. I don’t even know what they look like now.’

Phillips is wanted for questioning over an alleged armed robbery of a bank in Te Kuiti near Marokopa in September 2023.

CCTV footage showed Phillips riding a motorcycle with another person, believed to be Jayda, on the back.

There have been several “unverified” sightings of Phillips since he disappeared, but police believe the most recent footage from the pig hunters is the most credible.

In June this year, an $80,000 reward was offered for information that could help locate the three children. However, this reward expired after eight weeks without results, despite more than forty observations considered important by officers.

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