A distraught mother has posted a heartbreaking video asking the public to help her locate her three young children, whom she has not seen for two and a half years.
The woman, who introduced herself simply as ‘Cat’, is desperate to be reunited with Jayda, 11, Maverick, 9, and Ember, 8, who disappeared along with her father in the small New Zealand town of Marokopa in December 2021. .
What made the video especially touching is that it was filmed on Jayda’s 11th birthday.
“She will be a young woman now and she needs her mother,” Cat explained, through tears, in the Facebook video distributed by New Zealand police.
The desperate plea comes after an $80,000 reward was announced for information leading to the safe return of the children, who were reported missing by relatives in January 2022.
“I stand here before you today, begging you to help me bring my babies home,” Cat pleaded in the video.
“They are just innocent children, they don’t deserve to be treated this way, they don’t deserve the life that is being given to them right now.”
Although police followed numerous reports of sightings of his father Luke Phillips, sometimes with his children, in the region around Marokopa, which is about three hours’ drive south of Auckland on the island’s west coast North, all four remain elusive.
Cat accused Mr Phillips of child endangerment and deprivation.
A mother has made a desperate request for the return of her children who have been missing for two and a half years
“Ember is asthmatic like me and needs medical care that cannot be provided from Earth,” Cat stated.
‘Many of you say that the children are well and that they are well cared for.
‘How do you know? Have you seen them? Or is it just quackery?
‘What Thomas is doing is not right. It is not okay to divide and conquer, isolate and control.
‘It’s child neglect, it’s child abandonment, it’s child abuse. My babies deserve better.’
The police said Stuff who have had more than 100 new reports of information about Mr. Phillips
Police consider nearly half of those reports worthy of further scrutiny.
Tom Phillips (pictured) has been on the run for the past two and a half years with his children on the west coast of the North Island.
While the area around Marokopa remains the focus, police are also carrying out search investigations in the surrounding areas of Honikiwi and Otorohanga.
Police are urging anyone who has observed recent suspicious behavior in these areas to come forward.
In January, police said they believed they had limited their search to an area where they had credible reason to believe Phillips lived with his children.
“We believe Tom and the children are hiding in Western Waikato within Marokopa or surrounding areas,” Acting Detective Inspector Andrew Saunders said.
“Although the environment is challenging for investigators, we continue to dedicate resources to this operation and follow up on all reported sightings.”
However, Phillips continues to avoid the police.
Phillips, a capable hunter with a deep knowledge of the bush, was last seen on grainy CCTV in November last year allegedly attempting to rob a shop in Piopio, in the Waitomo district, with another individual.
Dressed in military-style combat clothing, pulled-back caps and masks covering their faces, the two figures can be seen exiting a red quad bike before approaching the store window.
Phillips then allegedly vandalized the front of the store before fleeing when the alarm sounded.
“We continue to review existing evidence and new information and appeal to the community to pass on any details that may help reunite the three children with their family,” a police spokesperson said at the time.
One of many suspicious sightings of Mr Phillips, this one at a Bunnings Warehouse store in Te Rapa, Hamilton, last August.
Despite there having been numerous suspicious sightings of Phillips with his children, police have been unable to locate the group.
Phillips was sighted three times in one day.
He was first seen driving a suspected stolen 2003 tan Toyota Hilux flatbed ute on State Highway 31 in the Kāwhia area of the North Island.
On the same day, Phillips was recognized by someone who knows him in the car park of the Bunnings Warehouse store in Te Rapa, Hamilton.
CCTV allegedly captured Phillips with his head and face completely covered by a beanie, reading glasses and a mask.
He allegedly paid cash for headlamps, batteries, seedlings, buckets and rubber boots.
His children were not with him.
Less than three hours later, Phillips allegedly got into an altercation with another motorist near the small west coast settlement.