There have been multiple sightings of Phillips since he took his three children bush in 2021, but despite intense police efforts, he managed to evade capture in rugged and remote areas.
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Police have long suspected that locals may have been assisting the fugitive father, possibly providing him with shelter, supplies or intelligence to keep him hidden.
A key focus for police now is determining the full extent of any assistance Phillips may have had, and how he managed to remain elusive for so long.
In 2024, Stuff reported many people in the region believed Phillips just should’ve been “left alone”.
“I don’t know where he is, I know people that do, and I’ve never asked them where,” a woman working at a local gas station recently said.
Phillips’ father’s wife, Julia, denied claims that she and her husband were helping Tom and their grandchildren, saying people were merely guessing.
Police Minister Mark Mitchell told Radio New Zealand that Phillips had “multiple high-powered firearms” and was “very unstable in his thinking”, which had made it a very complicated situation.
“I think the whole country has seen play out in the last 24 hours just how dangerous the situation was and how it could have ended an even worse tragedy, and that would have been the loss one, two or three young lives.”
Chambers told the New Zealand Herald on Tuesday morning there would be some people in the community who would try to defend Phillips, but “he was not a hero”.
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In Marokopa village, near where the Phillips family has a farm, there was sadness among residents that the story had ended in bloodshed.
“It was inevitable, really, but it’s a shock all the same,” Gayle Keegan said.
“What was the outcome ever gonna be? He wouldn’t give up, he wouldn’t come out. He obviously felt he had no other way to deal with it.
“It’s sad, it’s just left everybody flat. I feel sorry for his family. Even though he’s done what he’s done, he still has a family.”
Her husband, Warren, said he was upset when he had heard that Phillips was dead.
“I find it a bit hard. I think he mucked up, he shouldn’t have fired a shot. If you fire at the police, they’ve got to shoot back, you know.
“I’d have sooner seen him alive than shot. He’s done nothing to us down here in this village.”
Stuff.co.nz
