A private investigator who has himself been out searching the bush for Marokopa fugitive Tom Phillips says it remains challenging for police to locate him because he knows the terrain well and is being helped by people.
Until Thursday, Phillips and his three children Jayda, now 11, Maverick, nine, and Ember, eight, have not been seen together since 12 December 2021.
A video captured by hunters north of Awamarino and published this week showed a man followed by three children in wet-weather gear carrying camouflaged backpacks. T
The group could be seen trekking through rough, overgrown terrain before disappearing behind a hill.
But the grandfather of one of the teenage hunters said it took police several hours to respond.
There was a good chance Phillips had hidden by the time the search started, private investigator Chris Budge told Morning Report.
The group looked well prepared and the children looked fit and well, he said.
"Hopefully this is going to bring a conclusion soon, everybody's hoping. The mother is very heartened by the fact that they've been seen.
"The challenge here is the police's response, and there's been a lot of comments about what they've done. I think the police have stepped up to the game, they've sent people down, they've managed to get an airforce helicopter involved but Tom's a very smart boy and also he's been helped by people in the local area - so that's a challenge."
Budge said he had no doubt the police were doing more than they were saying publicly.
"There will be people that will be around the area, keeping an eye on [things]. The challenge they've got with that though is there's some very strong jungle drums around there so as soon as any police officers have gone around there in the past, whether on quad bike or on foot, they've been seen and the information's been passed around.
"And I'm getting that from a contact in the local area."
A screenshot from a video appearing to show Tom Phillips and his children. Photo: Supplied / John McOviney
At one point Budge had been out in the bush searching himself and said there were a lot of caves in the area, which Phillips would be familiar with.
"We're talking about an area about 30km square however because he is being helped by people. We have no idea whether or not he's been picked up by somebody, were they relocating from established area to established area, so that's the challenge."
He believed Phillips had either now gone to ground or had been picked up by someone.
Palmerston North businessman John McOviney said his 16-year-old grandson was one of the hunters who saw Phillips.
"They saw this guy and the three kids walking in front of them, about 20 or 30 metres away," McOviney told RNZ.
"They talked to one of the children... They said 'Who knows we're here?' It was a bit of a short conversation," he said.
"The police didn't come out until the next morning.
"There was a big contingent of 30 or 40 police out there, a helicopter and all that sort of stuff... [But] by then it had been about 12 hours since they saw them, so they were obviously quite a way away by then."
Phillips wouldn't have been confrontational in the moment, Budge said, but police would be cautious "because he does have a firearm, he is an alleged criminal, he has got pending charges, so you never know what's going to happen if there's a bit of a standoff".
While there was only so far young children could walk with packs on, Budge said area was close to the coast, with tracks and a gravel road within 6km.
"I don't think they'd have gone too far."
Sighting a fluke - former resident
A former Marokopa local says the sighting of Tom Phillips and his children was a fluke.
The former resident, who did not want to be named, said the area near Coutts Rd, north west of the tiny coastal King Country village where Phillips and the three children were captured on video by teenage pig hunters, was extremely large.
The woman said groups of pig hunters often hunted there at the same time without running into each other, but there were no liveable huts on the land - only a tin shed.
She questioned whether police had used heat seekers to find Phillips, who was carrying a gun when seen by the young pig hunters.
A police spokesperson said some elements of the investigation were operationally sensitive and they wouldn't be providing further information on equipment used.
Police said they responded to the 7pm sighting that night and sent a full search team on Friday morning, undertaking a three-day ground search.
The spokesperson said police were no longer on the ground in Marokopa and the focus had shifted to investigation work around the latest sighting.
Tom Phillips grew up in Marokopa and had close ties to the Ōtorohanga community, with his parents owning a home there.
It is understood the 37-year-old may have attended a private boarding school in Hamilton before being homeschooled by his mother alongside his brother and sister.
The former local resident said the land near Awamarino where Phillips was spotted was partially covered in pine trees and could be dense in parts, particularly in steep areas.
Phillips had proven he was a capable bushman and had taught his children those skills, the woman said.
She did not believe the sighting was credible until she saw the video footage of a man and three children in camouflage gear and carrying backpacks walking across McOviney's farm.
