Tom Phillips, who had eluded the police with his three young children for nearly four years, was finally found. His eldest daughter, Jayda, was present when he died after their quad-bike was forced off the road during an escape following a failed burglary. In the aftermath, the 12-year-old guided the police to a hidden camp where her siblings, Maverick, ten, and Ember, nine, were hiding. The children were subsequently placed in care. By last night, it remained unclear if they had been reunited with their mother, Cat. The reason for this was obscure, but it was reported that the same day her estranged husband was fatally shot, 46-year-old Cat faced court for a drink-driving charge. Appearing as Catherine Christey, it was noted she had a blood alcohol level of 174mg after being stopped on August 2. The legal driving limit for adults in New Zealand is 50mg per 100ml. Her case is adjourned until next month.

Asked about the charge and appearing in court the same day her children were found, a relative of Cat’s stated, ‘We have asked for privacy.’ Despite Phillips being armed and involving his child in local store raids, some still perceive him as a folk hero. Online, commentators depict him as a custody battle victim merely attempting to raise his children the best way he knew. Despite his actions, including shooting an officer, they accuse the police of being ‘trigger happy’ and insist they sought Phillips’s death. This narrative has frustrated New Zealand authorities, who suggest the full story of his life on the run remains largely untold. Although the runaway father episode has ended tragically, unraveling the full story has just begun, leaving numerous questions unanswered.

Rather than living off the land, Phillips likely received aid from others, though police must determine who assisted them. Items discovered with Phillips included unexpected provisions: firearms, Sprite cans, a case of pre-mixed Jack Daniels, iced coffee, and chocolate milk. Following Phillips’s death, lawyers for his mother, Julia, sought an urgent injunction from the High Court in Wellington to prevent the media, police, and Oranga Tamariki—the New Zealand Ministry for Children—from releasing details about Phillips and his family. A temporary order was issued for 48 hours, and the matter returned to the High Court on Thursday, allowing media entities to make further representations.

The injunction was extended by a week, blocking the publication of specific details. Although traditional media abides by court orders, online discussions only fuel speculation. Lance Burdett, a former senior New Zealand police officer, cautioned Phillips’s supporters that they might regret their views as more about his fugitive years emerges. ‘There will be other aspects that will come out and they will have egg on their faces,’ Burdett, a seasoned detective who has followed the case and interacted with the Phillips family, told the Daily Mail. It’s critical for everyone to pause and reflect, but some will resist. Phillips’s ability to evade police for years appeals to some, and online profiles often show a predisposition against the police.

Opinions may remain unchanged, but facts cannot be suppressed permanently. Others might face charges as well. The children’s protection is a priority, but the truth may surface. Authorities are working to address myths about Phillips and his parenting. New Zealand’s Police Minister, Mark Mitchell, commented on the children’s experience: ‘They have witnessed things that no child in our nation should.’ He acknowledged the complexity of the situation. On Thursday, he condemned Phillips as a ‘monster,’ citing the harm to his children and the danger he posed, asserting that he was neither a ‘hero’ nor a ‘good father.’

Throughout his years on the run, Phillips’s supporters not only portrayed him as some sort of martyr, but also spread wild rumours about the fitness of the children’s mother, Cat, to look after them. While they were missing, she made a number of emotional appeals calling for them to be returned. And on the day they were found, she issued a statement speaking of her relief that her children’s ordeal ‘has come to an end’. She added: ‘They have been dearly missed every day for nearly four years, and we are looking forward to welcoming them home with love and care.’ But, as we know, there has been no swift reunion. Earlier in the week, Mr Mitchell was quizzed by Radio New Zealand as to why there had been a delay reuniting Cat with her children. I totally get where you’re coming from with the questions around the mother and siblings and everything at us screams… why are they not reunited?’ he said. ‘Why they’re not together? There are good reasons for that. They are complex.’

Whether those reasons include her drink driving charge is yet to be established, but Mr Mitchell added: ‘All that I can say is that the people that are with them are making sure that the kids are first and foremost in the front of the mind, in terms of how they’re being looked after right now, and also bearing in mind too that we are being instructed by the courts on this matter as well.’ And he added: ‘They are on a long journey themselves now, in terms of recovery, this is going to have enormous impact on them.’ While the child-centred approach of the authorities is understandable, Cat has claimed that her interests and concerns have been overlooked from the beginning of this sorry saga. By coincidence, last Thursday marked exactly four years since Phillips vanished for the first time along with his offspring. Back then his 4×4 truck was found abandoned on the shoreline not far from the family farm at Marokopa. The vehicle was facing the sea, with waves lapping at the bonnet. Empty child seats were in the back. By then Phillips had already been separated from Cat for several years. The split had prompted a battle over Jayda, then eight, Maverick, seven, and Ember, five.

Full details of the couple’s domestic arrangements have never been revealed because in New Zealand it is prohibited to report on family court proceedings. At the time of his disappearance, he, or his parents, Julia and Neville, had custody of the children, whom he was home-schooling. But it seems that was about to change, with Cat, it’s understood, set to be given increased access. Unsurprisingly, Phillips’s carefully stage-managed disappearance had the desired effect. Police were alerted and a huge land and sea search followed. Family members were distraught and spoke of their worst fears. But after 19 days, Phillips and the children walked through the front door of his parents’ farm. All were safe and well. Little explanation was given for his actions, other than for his family to claim that he had spent the time trying to ‘clear his head’ while camping in dense bushland ten miles from where his vehicle was found. But Cat was having none of it. She told police that his aim had been to hurt her and that the children were just ‘pawns’ in his game.

‘Why did he have to take the kids to clear his head?’ she would later observe. ‘He deliberately planted that vehicle on the beach to make it look a certain way. That was intentional… he’s trying to teach me a lesson.’ Police now accept the first disappearance was a ‘trial run’ for what Phillips was planning to do later. Amidst 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. Given his first disappearance, Cat has expressed amazement that more was not done to prevent him absconding again. But she has claimed that from start to finish, she was repeatedly sidelined by the authorities. ‘Regardless of what I have been saying, every step of the way nobody listened to me, I was just ignored, time and time again, minimised, gaslit and yet, look where we are,’ she said. ‘I have friends and family, but the support I’ve had through the system has basically been non-existent.’

And she added: ‘If the system had listened to me in the beginning instead of judging me based on the words of somebody who essentially has been dumped, we wouldn’t be in this situation.’ Cat has also been supported throughout by her two grown-up daughters, Storm and Jubilee, who are from a previous relationship. In the months after their half-siblings disappeared, they launched a petition demanding more be done to find the missing children. Storm alleged Phillips once lost his gun licence for threatening violence. In a post on the Facebook page about the missing children, she also recalled hearing him threaten her mother. ‘When I was 15 I heard Tom say that if my mother left him he’d take the kids and she’d never see them again,’ she wrote. ‘I brushed it off because it seemed like an empty threat and I had faith in the system. Looking back I don’t know why.’ In due course Cat did leave the marriage.

Of course, there are always two sides to any marital breakdown. But in 2024 Cat shone a light on their relationship, posting an undated letter she claimed Phillips had once sent to her to show that ‘all is not as it seems’. In it, Phillips begged for forgiveness and for Cat to take him back, apologising ‘for everything I have ever said or done to hurt you’. The letter began: ‘I don’t know what to say or do to help you forgive me… You have a beautiful personality and the happiest years of my life are because of you… ‘I don’t feel complete without you. I hope you can remember the man you fell in love with and know that I make multiple [expletive] ups [but] I have a good heart and I mean well.’

In an interview she also spoke about Phillips’s behaviour while on the run, criticising him for taking one of their daughters with him during an armed burglary on a shop. ‘I think it speaks volumes to his frame of mind and to the person he actually is truly because who does that sort of thing?’ she said. ‘Is it to share the blame? Is it to manipulate her? Unless you have been with someone like Thomas you can never truly understand how they work. Things were really good, we got on really well, we were a good couple. But there was just certain behaviour that I actually said “No, no more, enough is enough, that is not OK”… the controlling… he didn’t like me to go anywhere or do anything.’

She also strongly criticised those who had supported Phillips, pointing out that her youngest daughter was heavily asthmatic and needed medical treatment. ‘Many of you say that the children are fine and they are being well looked after,’ she said. ‘How do you know? Have you seen them? ‘What Thomas is doing is not OK. It is not OK to divide and conquer, to isolate and control. It is child neglect, it is child abandonment, it is child abuse. My babies deserve better.’ A sentiment which, to the background of the little that we already know, let alone what yet may emerge, all right-minded people will surely agree with.