A manhunt that stretched nearly four years ended after a fugitive father was shot dead by police in New Zealand early on Monday, and investigators say items recovered from his quad bike suggest he had been using livestock feed to sustain his three children while living in rough bush terrain.
The deceased was identified by police as Tom Phillips, 38. Phillips was shot after a confrontation with officers on Te Anga Road in the Waitomo area of the North Island’s Waikato region, police said. A police officer critically injured in the incident remains in Waikato Hospital in stable condition following emergency surgery.
Police said Phillips had earlier broken into a PGG Wrightson farm-supply store in Piopio during the early hours of Monday and fired at an officer responding to the burglary. He was later intercepted about 33 kilometres away after road spikes were deployed to stop his quad bike, prompting a shootout in which he was killed. Phillips’s eldest child, a 12-year-old identified by police as Jayda, accompanied him during the store burglary but was uninjured and subsequently led officers to the family's campsites, where the other two children, aged 9 and 10, were located safe.
Photographs released by police show Phillips’s quad bike loaded with gumboots, equipment and several bags of livestock grains sold by the agricultural retailer. The visible products included three varieties of maize-based feed — a barley blend, wholefeed and kibbled feed — which are marketed for animals such as pigs, cows, chickens, goats, deer and horses. Kibbled feed is essentially dried corn.
Police and investigators declined to say how long the family had been at the campsites recently, but they described two nearby encampments in native scrub: a smaller, less-developed site where two children were initially found and a more established main campsite about 200 metres away. Images show makeshift shelters built into an escarpment with bound sticks and black tarpaulins, stockpiled wood, cooking equipment, gas bottles, buckets and other domestic items. Detective Senior Sergeant Andrew Saunders said the terrain is steep and difficult and that the main campsite was well hidden and dry.
"It’s a very grim, dimly-lit area, surrounded by dense bush. The tent was well covered and dry," Saunders said. He added that investigators have linked additional burglaries to Phillips and that evidence suggests the family received outside help to survive in the remote terrain.
Authorities said the woman identified as the children’s mother reported Phillips missing with the children in December 2021 amid a custody dispute. Police and local residents recorded several suspected sightings in the intervening years. In October 2024, pig hunters filmed a group described as Phillips and the children walking across private property in camouflage and carrying backpacks, and in August 2025 CCTV captured Phillips with one of the children breaking into a Piopio shop to steal groceries. Previous attempts to locate the family, including searches after those sightings, did not result in their recovery.
Police launched an operation known as Operation Curly that focused on locating Phillips and returning the children safely. Saunders said the operation will now shift as homicide and other investigations proceed. The children have been taken into the care of Oranga Tamariki, the government agency responsible for child welfare, while they receive treatment and are interviewed by detectives. It is not yet clear who will assume custody after that process. An injunction limiting publication of certain case details was granted on Monday and is due back in court on Thursday.
Investigators said it remains unclear why Phillips was stockpiling livestock feed, and they cautioned against drawing conclusions about his motives. Some survival experts and others familiar with off-grid living told reporters that maize-based livestock feed can be rehydrated and used as an emergency food source, though it is starchy and not the same as sweet corn eaten fresh. The feed could also be bartered for goods or services, used for other practical purposes around a remote camp, or processed into alcohol or ethanol by those with the knowledge and equipment; police did not confirm any of those possibilities and said those are among hypotheses being considered.
Saunders said officers are continuing a thorough examination of the shootout scene and the nearby campsites, working in steep and uneven conditions to document and collect evidence. Police vehicles and the quad bike were removed from Te Anga Road as part of the investigation. He described it as "highly satisfying" that the children were returned to safety and thanked staff and members of the public who assisted over the course of the prolonged search.
New Zealand police have not released details about the officer who was shot beyond his condition in hospital. The inquiry into the fatal shooting remains under way, and detectives from multiple units are involved as they piece together the family's movements and the circumstances that led to Monday’s confrontation.