There's been a major breakthrough in the police hunt for Marokopa father Tom Phillips and his three missing children.
Police have found the stolen ute Phillips has been using in the Waikato region.
The 36-year-old has been on the run with his three young children Jayda, Maverick and Ember for 19 months.
On Thursday police revealed a number of sightings of him and requested information about a stolen 2003 Toyota flat deck ute.
On Friday they found that ute in dense bush near Te Anga, 15 kilometres from Marokopa where Phillips disappeared in 2021.
Newshub has spoken to the man who found telltale signs of the ute in bush behind a high mound of gravel, one kilometre from the Te Anga turnoff. He alerted police who swarmed into the area.
"Out of the corner of my eye I saw some fresh marks going down a grass track besides the bush. So I pulled into the middle bit and that's when I walked up onto the metal and had a look over and I could see that ute," he told Newshub.
Neither Phillips, or his children were with the vehicle.
Newshub has learnt that the owner of the ute stolen on Wednesday morning has since discovered that a number of items of clothing have also disappeared from their home.
Police have released CCTV photos from Bunnings in Hamilton where Phillips was spotted at the Kahikatea Drive store, and at the Te Rapa store on Wednesday around 4pm.
The ute was laden with water canisters and a petrol can.
Police say the fugitive is going to significant lengths to change his identity.
"He's wearing a woollen beanie, a surgical mask, glasses, and it appears to be a number of layers of clothing - so he is trying to hide his identity," Waikato Area Commander Inspector Will Loughrin said.
It's an identity New Zealanders became all too familiar with in 2021 when the father-of-three disappeared with his children, sparking a large-scale search and rescue operation.
He breached a custody order later that year in December when he took off again with the youngsters in tow.
While the children remain missing, this week's sightings have police hopeful they're closing in.
Police say the ute he is believed to have been using was involved in an altercation on Wednesday night on SH31 near Kawhia.
It's understood it was the owner of that ute that tried to ram Phillips off the road, after learning it was seen near Pirongia.
Kawhia's Oparau Station manager Wayne Townsend got the call up to help stop Phillips in his tracks.
"I just got a phone call from a friend, put my hazard lights on," he said.
But Phillips was already off the grid again, his efforts to evade police and locals taking him bush on the main road into Kawhia.
"He's come in and bowled the gate, gone in about 30 metres, and then the car's gone past and he's quickly reversed and shot off," said Kawhia farmer Peter Walter.
Collateral damage Walter is now cleaning up.
"I was hoping they'd catch up with him so he could come and fix my post," Walter said.
But it's the concern for Phillips' three missing youngsters that needs fixing first.
