A government inquiry has found police missed a significant opportunity to locate Tom Phillips and his three missing children after a woman encountered the fugitive father and his children in rural Waikato in 2023.
According to a report by Stuff, the Public Inquiry into the Disappearance of the Phillips Children found there was a “real prospect” the children could have been found sooner if police had responded appropriately to the sighting.
The encounter happened on May 28, 2023, when a woman referred to in the inquiry report as Rhonda had a man arrive at her home at about 12.30pm asking for help to jump-start his vehicle.
Rhonda described him as a Caucasian man in his late 30s or early 40s, about 5’10, wearing “with a black hat, shirt, jeans and workboots”. She also noticed he smelled as though he had not washed in a ”very long time,“ as quoted by Stuff.
Rhonda and her mother-in-law drove the man along Te Anga Rd to a forestry road, where his vehicle was parked with its bonnet open.
She saw a girl near the vehicle and other children inside. After attempts to jump-start the car failed, Rhonda returned home and contacted police at about 2pm through the non-emergency 105 line, Stuff has reported.
She reported a possible sighting of Phillips and his children and raised concerns that they appeared to be stranded in a remote area.
According to Stuff, Police dispatched officers 27 minutes later, but the unit was diverted to a family harm incident while travelling to the scene.
About an hour later, the Phillips sighting was marked “K1”, meaning no further police action was required.
The inquiry found there was no evidence officers had visited Rhonda or attempted to locate the broken-down vehicle. Police have also been unable to explain why the job was abandoned, Stuff has reported.
A Senior Constable later emailed a member of the police search and rescue team who had previously been involved in the search for the children.
“It doesn’t say why it was K1, but could be worth a look,” the constable wrote, as quoted by Stuff.
However, the message was not forwarded to the Operation Curly team, which was responsible for the ongoing search. The officer who received the email was also on leave, and the Senior Constable did not forward it elsewhere after receiving an out-of-office response, as reported by Stuff.
Nine days later, the officer returned and alerted Operation Curly. Police then contacted Rhonda, who provided further information about the man, including that he appeared “evasive”, covered his face and appeared to be living rough.
Rhonda also told police she had taken a photograph of the man and emailed it to them.
Months later, she contacted police again after media reports about a warrant for Phillips’ arrest over the armed robbery of the Te Kūiti ANZ. She recognised the man in the reports as wearing the same jeans and boots as the person she had helped, as reported by Stuff.
Rhonda subsequently filed another online report. The following day, police took a witness statement and received screenshots from Google Maps showing where she believed the vehicle had been parked.
“Unsurprisingly, given that several months had since passed, nothing of interest was noted. However, the officer did pass on the information to the Operation Curly team, including a map with a pin drop and Rhonda’s witness statement,” the report noted, Stuff has quoted.
“It does not appear that Police took any further steps to investigate this sighting.”
The inquiry said police had failed to recognise the importance of the encounter.
“Disappointingly, it also does not appear that the sighting was flagged as the significant and credible sighting of Tom Phillips and the children that it plainly was, as quoted by Stuff.
The report described it as the first credible sighting of the three children since they disappeared nearly 18 months earlier and said it was a “hugely significant” development in the investigation, as reported by Stuff.
Phillips was eventually shot dead by police in September 2025 following a confrontation on Te Anga Rd, while his three children were recovered after almost four years in hiding.
After the children were found, the vehicle was located “a short distance from the coordinates which Rhonda had given and, significantly, not far from two of the camps used by the family across the four-year disappearance,” Stuff has quoted.