A New Zealand man who hid with his three kidnapped children in the rugged wilderness for years was fatally shot by police on Monday after a violent confrontation that left an officer critically injured.
New Zealand man dead after going on the run with his children
Law enforcement said 42-year-old Tom Phillips, who vanished with his children in December 2021, was believed to be the man killed during the gunfight.
One of his children was with him at the time of the shooting, while the other two were found hours later in the forest, unaccompanied and reportedly unharmed.
The saga began when Phillips and his children, now aged around 9, 10, and 11, disappeared from the small North Island community of Marokopa, sparking a baffling mystery that frustrated police and captivated the public.
The family was thought to be hiding in nearby dense forests, but sightings were scarce, and tips rarely led anywhere.
Acting Deputy Police Commissioner Jill Rogers told reporters that Phillips carried out an armed robbery at an agricultural supplies store early Monday before opening fire on officers.
During the confrontation, a police officer was struck multiple times in the head by a high-powered rifle.
The injured officer underwent surgery and is expected to survive, though additional operations will be necessary.
The child with Phillips at the time was immediately taken into custody.
Rogers explained that authorities initially feared for the safety of Phillips’ other two children, but after nearly 13 hours of searching, they were discovered at a remote campsite in rugged terrain.
Investigators said the child who had been detained helped guide them toward the area.
The robbery took place in a farming town in the Waikato region, the same stretch of countryside where Phillips and his children had been hiding since their disappearance.
New Zealand man kidnapped his children four years ago
The case gripped New Zealand for years, with police issuing repeated pleas for information, often coming up empty-handed.
Phillips, who did not have legal custody rights, had previously been captured on surveillance cameras while allegedly carrying out a string of crimes.
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Authorities say he was even wanted in connection to a May 2023 armed bank robbery in which he opened fire at a bystander while accompanied by one of his children.
Detective Senior Sgt. Andrew Saunders previously told reporters that the New Zealand man had deprived his children of health care and formal education since 2021.
Despite their isolation, some locals quietly supported his defiance, while others were accused of helping conceal the family.
Last year, authorities even put up a reward of 80,000 New Zealand dollars for information about their whereabouts, one of the largest payouts ever offered in the country, but it yielded no breakthrough.
This was not Phillips’ first disappearance with his children. In September 2021, just months before their long-term vanishing act, the family sparked a massive three-week land and sea search after Phillips’ vehicle was found abandoned on a beach near their home.
Authorities initially feared they had perished before the family suddenly reappeared from the bush, claiming they had been camping.
Phillips was later charged with wasting police resources and was due in court in January 2022.
Instead, weeks before his appearance, he and the children vanished once again, this time for nearly four years.
Despite multiple sightings in 2023 and another robbery in August this year, Phillips managed to remain on the run until Monday’s deadly encounter.
The standoff ended with his death, the rescue of his children, and a critically injured police officer.
The children’s mother, identified only by her first name Cat in New Zealand media, issued a statement after the ordeal.
“They have been dearly missed every day for nearly four years, and we are looking forward to welcoming them home with love and care,” she said, adding that she was “deeply relieved” her children’s long ordeal had finally ended.
Australian mushroom murderer sentenced
The shocking developments unfolded on the same day across the Tasman Sea that an Australian court handed down a life sentence to Erin Patterson, convicted of murdering three relatives by serving them beef Wellington laced with poisonous death cap mushrooms.
Justice Christopher Beale told Patterson in Victoria’s Supreme Court that her actions represented “an enormous betrayal of trust.”
Patterson, 50, was sentenced to life in prison with a non-parole period of 33 years for killing Don and Gail Patterson and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson.
She was also convicted of the attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson, who spent weeks in a hospital recovering from the poisoning.
The judge said Patterson’s crimes caused lasting devastation to two families and robbed her own children of their grandparents.
“The devastating impact of your crimes is not limited to your direct victims. Your crimes have harmed a great many people,” he said at the sentencing hearing.
“Not only did you cut short three lives and cause lasting damage to Ian Wilkinson’s health, thereby devastating the extended Patterson and Wilkinson families, you inflicted untold suffering on your own children, whom you robbed of their beloved grandparents.”
Prosecutors said Patterson deliberately avoided eating the tainted food herself, serving her guests on gray plates while she used a different one.
The court found she even fabricated a story about having cancer as a pretext to gather the victims together.
Her husband, Simon Patterson, was invited but did not attend. The judge noted that “only you know why you committed them,” rejecting any claims of accident.
Patterson, who will be eligible for parole in 2056, showed little emotion during her sentencing. Her non-parole jail term of 33 years is the longest that any woman convicted of murder in Victoria has ever been sentenced to.
