The mother of three children who vanished with their fugitive father three years ago is convinced her daughter may have made a cry for help when they were spotted walking through bushland last week.

Tom Phillips and his three young children, Jayda, 11, Maverick, 9, and Ember, 8 were photographed by local hunters as they walked through the wilderness last week.

The father and three children have been missing since December 2021 and it was thought they had been living off the land since as they stayed a step ahead of authorities.

The 16-year-old hunters who took footage of the fugitive clan initially believed the group were poachers and called out to them from roughly 60metres away and Jayda responded.

‘I said, ”This is private property”, and she was like, ”Yeah… duh”. Then I asked, ”Does anyone know you’re on here” and she said, ”No, just you guys”,’ one of the boys recalled to local news outlet Stuff.

The children’s mother, Cat, is now wondering if her daughter was trying to get a message out to the public.

‘Is that a cry for help? Is that ”Does anybody know that we’re here? Is anyone coming for us?” We don’t get to hear the tone of her voice but to me, that’s what I think,’ she told Mata Reports in a lengthy televised interview.

‘It’s like she’s trying to say something without actually saying something because her father is right there, and she’s worried if she says the wrong thing and words it the wrong way, she’s worried about later repercussions.’

All four family members were wearing camouflage gear and carrying large backpacks. 

Phillips walked some 10metres ahead of his children, who trudged in single file behind him.

The sighting was reported to police and was the first time Cat had seen any footage of her children in almost three years.

‘It was really good, they’re carrying their own gear, it’s the best news that anybody could hope for,’ she said.

The father and children first went missing on September 11, 2021.

Some 18 days later they returned to the family farm, explaining they had spent the time living in a tent in dense bushland.

Cat said her husband and three children had visibly lost a lot of weight even in that brief absence, so have likely been suffering privation in the years since. 

‘I can’t imagine what they’ve endured in these three years, it’s just wrong on so many levels,’ she said.

Cat believes the police response to her missing children has been inadequate, adding that she expected search parties with sniffer dogs to be deployed immediately to where the children had been seen.

The footage was reported to police on Thursday but Cat didn’t hear from detectives until the following day.

‘The system has failed my children miserably from the get-go,’ she said.

‘They shouldn’t have to live like this, they deserve so much more. They deserve to have friends, they deserve to go to the park and eat McDonald’s.’ 

In her attempt to cope with the loss of her children, Cat says she tries to pretend they aren’t still missing.

She has two other daughters, who are older than the three kids with their father, but admits she feels ‘lost’.

‘Since they’ve been gone, I’ve lost my way. I’m not me. They were my world, they were my everything,’ she said.

‘I feel like I didn’t fight hard enough, I didn’t make enough noise. I feel like it’s my fault.’

Reflecting on their relationship, Cat described how her husband had been extremely controlling.

She claims he did not like her going anywhere or doing anything on her own, and did not want her to put their children in childcare.

‘Supporting Thomas is essentially supporting child abuse because that’s what it is,’ Cat said. 

‘I just want my babies home. I still have some of their clothes and Christmas presents from the year they disappeared. I don’t even know what they look like now.’

Phillips is wanted for questioning over an alleged armed robbery of a bank in Te Kuiti near Marokopa in September 2023.

CCTV showed Phillips riding a motorbike with another person, believed to be Jayda, on the back.

There have been several ‘unverified’ sightings of Phillips since he disappeared, but police believe the most recent footage captured by the pig hunters is the most credible.

In June this year an $80,000 reward was offered for information that could locate the three children, however, this expired after eight weeks with no result despite more than 40 sightings deemed significant by officers.

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