Some know him as ‘The Bushman’, others ‘The Ghost’.

To Rozzi Pethybridge, Tom Phillips is her younger brother, a man known for his impressive sense of humor, often amusing the family with his sharp one-liners.

That was back in the day. Now no-one’s laughing – Rozzi included.

Because for the past three years and eight months, 38-year-old Phillips has been on the run, hiding out in the wilds of New Zealand. 

With him are his three children, Jayda, 12, Maverick, ten, and Ember, nine.

The case has captured the attention of people both nationally and globally, stirring mixed reactions. Some perceive Phillips as a man taking drastic measures to maintain his family unity.

Others, like Cat, his separated wife and the mother of the children, argue that nothing can justify the harm his actions have likely caused to the kids, who have been thrust into severe and unnatural living situations.

There are few who think Phillips could have managed to survive so long without assistance, weathering four harsh winters while continually evading increasingly frustrated authorities year after year.

The handful of sightings of him and the children have all been in the country’s remote Waikato region, home to the family farm at Marokopa.

Until now, his blood relatives have remained tight-lipped, leaving it to police and Cat to plead for the children’s safe return.

But last week all that changed when they finally spoke out – calling for Phillips to hand himself in.

‘There’s a lot of love and there’s a lot of support, and we’re ready to help you walk through what you need to walk through,’ said Rozzi in her first interview since he disappeared.

‘I miss you, and I miss being part of your life, and I really want to see you and the kids and be part of your lives again. 

‘You’re very special to me. You’re my friend, as well as my brother, and I love you, and it’s okay.’

A letter ‘from the heart’ written by her mother Julia and addressed to Phillips was also made public during Rozzi’s interview with New Zealand journalist Paddy Gower.

‘Tom – I feel really sad that you thought you had to do this,’ she wrote. ‘Not considering how much we love you and can support you.

‘It hurts every time I see photos of the children and of you and see some of your stuff that is still here. Thinking what could have been if you had not gone away. 

‘Jayda, Maverick, Ember – I love you so much and really miss being part of your lives.’

She added: ‘Every day I wake up and hope that today will be the day that you will come home.’

Of course, what impact the family’s dramatic intervention in this extraordinary case will have in bringing about that moment, only time will tell.

But what may prove to be equally significant is what is widely perceived to be a change of tactics by police. 

In the wake of the family’s appeal, the detective hunting Phillips suggested the time had come for him to ‘do a deal’.

It is the first time police have made such an offer.

‘Let’s work out a negotiation, and let’s get everyone out of there safely,’ Detective Senior Sergeant Andrew Saunders said. 

‘We’re willing to negotiate with anyone who is actually helping Tom and in communication with him.’

While the detective declined to go into the detail of what form a ‘deal’ might take, there is speculation that it could centre on criminal charges relating to an armed robbery Phillips was linked to in May 2023 while in hiding.

‘If they are going to have a negotiation that ends with him coming out, then they are not going to say, “Well, as soon as we see you, mate, we are going to lock you up, you won’t see your kids ever”,’ private investigator Chris Budge told the Mail last night.

‘That isn’t going to happen.’

Budge, a former military policeman, has visited the area where Phillips is believed to be hiding on half a dozen occasions and spent more than two weeks in the bush searching for the family using thermal imaging equipment.

‘I’ve been pushing for negotiations for three years,’ he says. ‘And they’ve just been not interested. 

‘And that makes me think maybe their armed robbery case isn’t quite as strong as they thought.

‘It’s rather significant that they are sort of indicating they will drop the armed robbery charges if you bring the kids out. 

‘They have not done that before – they have been staunch in saying, “Screw it, he’s going to jail, he’s done the offence”.’

He added: ‘If I was them, I would have my police team pushing that message that they have just sent – “Tom, seek some independent advice and let’s get the kids out of here”. 

‘And don’t say anything about any criminal charges.’

Budge and other sources have told the Mail that they believe Phillips has been hiding out in a house or outbuilding – and that for some time he may have had the support of an unknown woman.

‘There’s information that he has a new partner who has been helping him – it’s unconfirmed but it makes sense,’ said Lance Burdett, a former police detective inspector and senior crisis negotiator who now runs a security consultancy and who has spoken at length to Phillips’ parents, Neville and Julia.

‘I think he is living in a house and people are giving him information because you can’t do nearly four years and not have help and live solely in the bush,’ he says. 

‘This is not a movie, it’s reality.’

The extraordinary saga began in 2021 when the children and their father first went missing.

By then Phillips had been separated from his wife for several years and had reportedly been awarded custody of the children, whom he was home-schooling.

Full details of the couple’s domestic arrangements have not been published because in New Zealand it is prohibited to report on family court proceedings. 

Much of their time was spent on the Phillips family farm at Marokopa, a tiny settlement on the west coast of New Zealand’s North Island.

Then, one Sunday in September 2021, Phillips’ 4×4 truck was found abandoned on the shoreline.

The vehicle was facing the sea, with the waves lapping at the bonnet. Empty child seats were in the back.

Police were alerted and a huge land and sea search followed.

Rozzi, speaking at the time, voiced her concerns: ‘I do fear the worst. I am worried a rogue wave has caught one of the kids and he’s gone in to save them.’ 

But after 17 days, Phillips and his three children walked through the front door of his parents’ farm. 

All were safe and well and it emerged that he had spent the time trying to ‘clear his head’ while camping in dense bushland ten miles from where his vehicle was found.

Amid a public outcry over the cost of the search, Phillips was charged with wasting police time and resources.

But in December 2021, a month before he was due in court, he left the family farm with his children for a second time. 

It wasn’t until he missed his hearing that police issued an arrest warrant.

Initially, there was a certain amount of support for his actions, with some seeing him as a father trying to bring his children up in the manner that he wanted to.

But as the months passed, few truly believed the family could be living off the land. 

Not least because, as the children’s mother has pointed out, Ember suffers badly from asthma.

‘You need a prescription to get inhalers, so either [Tom] is neglecting her health, or somebody’s giving him inhalers,’ Cat has said.

Since then, despite a continuing police search and a £37,000 ($77,000 AUD) reward, there have been just a handful of sightings.

In May 2023, Phillips is alleged to have stolen a motorcycle and, accompanied by a smaller, female accomplice, held up a bank at gunpoint. 

He was subsequently charged with aggravated robbery, aggravated wounding and unlawfully possessing a firearm.

That summer Phillips was spotted at a supermarket wearing a medical face mask. He drove away in a stolen Toyota Hilux. 

In November, he was again caught on CCTV, also accompanied by a child, trying to smash his way into a store. When an alarm sounded, they fled on a stolen quad bike.

But the most significant sighting came last October when two teenagers hunting wild pigs spotted four figures trudging through rough terrain on their farm.

Believing them to be poachers, the 16-year-olds filmed them on a phone. 

Their footage shows a heavily bearded man in camouflage gear carrying a backpack and rifle, followed by three smaller, similarly dressed figures. 

Believing them to be poachers, the 16-year-olds filmed them on a phone. 

Their footage shows a heavily bearded man in camouflage gear carrying a backpack and rifle, followed by three smaller, similarly dressed figures. 

The boys told the interlopers that they were on private property, before asking one of the foursome, a girl: ‘Does anyone know you’re on here?’

She replied: ‘No, just you guys’.

Although officers were alerted soon after the sighting, scrambling a helicopter with heat-seeking cameras, no trace was found, with the hunt called off after three days. 

The ability of Phillips once again to evade the authorities did not impress the children’s mother, who said she felt that finding them was ‘out of the police’s league’.

‘It was like Christmas come early and I really thought they would be coming home this time,’ she said. ‘It’s a confirmed sighting and yet nothing has come of it.’

She speculated that her daughter’s interaction with the pig hunters may have been her trying to get a message out to the public. ‘Is that a cry for help?’

Cat said on a podcast produced by Radio New Zealand. ‘Is that, “Does anybody know that we’re here? Is anyone coming for us?”

‘We don’t get to hear the tone of her voice but to me, that’s what I think.

‘It’s like she’s trying to say something without actually saying something because her father is right there and she’s worried if she says the wrong thing and words it the wrong way, there’s later repercussions.’

As for the support Phillips may be getting from the rural community, where his family has lived and farmed for generations, Cat pulled no punches.

‘One hundred per cent somebody is helping them. Somebody is supplying them or just inadvertently leaving things in an accessible place,’ she said.

‘My babies deserve better. It’s beyond time that they came home and supporting Thomas is essentially supporting child abuse because that’s what it is. 

‘There’s no beating around the bush. None of this is okay.

‘Those people need to stop. They need to think seriously about it and they need to question themselves. 

‘Why do these children deserve any less than any other child in New Zealand?

‘My problem is that my babies are gone. My problem is that people are helping and they need to stop. Those people need to stop.’ 

The subject of who was helping Phillips was also raised in last week’s interview with his sister.

‘Part of me hopes he is being helped, so that he has people he can rely on to help him,’ she said.

‘But at the same time, I’ll be very angry with anyone that is helping him and not telling us how they’re doing.’

Rozzi insisted she had not had any contact with her brother since he left.

‘I emailed, texted, tried to call his phone for a few months following his disappearance… a variety of messages, nice and not so nice. 

‘I finally gave up because, while I was sending messages to him, I never got any replies.’

She said she hoped that by speaking out now, Phillips might see the appeal and be persuaded to come ‘home’. 

Mobile phone coverage in the Marokopa valley has recently improved, making it more likely that he might be able to access her words.

Despite the latest developments, many remain sceptical Phillips will ever willingly give himself up. Among them is investigator Chris Budge.

‘I’ve always thought this would resolve in one of three ways,’ he says. ‘First is an accidental sighting and police and others are able to roll. 

‘Second is one of the kids gets sick and has to come out. 

‘And third is – because there’s a belief that Tom is dealing with some criminal elements – that someone turns on him if they get caught for something. 

‘Let’s say someone gets caught by police and says: “Hey, drop the charges and I’ll tell you where Tom is”.’

All possible scenarios, of course – albeit ones that rely on chance.

And, so far, all the luck has been with The Ghost.