Marakopa search continues on land as base wound up

Sunday, 19 September 2021

Searchers scour Marakopa and surrounds earlier in the week for Tom Phillips and his three children.

Police are winding down their daily search base for Tom Phillips and his three young children at Marokopa but say the hunt for the four remains far from over.

New search teams were added to the effort on Sunday to refresh the existing teams, and included police staff working with drones.

Phillips and his children Jayda Jin, 8, Maverick, 6, and Ember, 5, have not been seen since September 11. An intense search of both sea and land has been underway in the Kiritehere and Marokopa areas since Monday, when Phillips’ ute was found below the tideline at Kiritehere Beach.

* The mystery of the missing family - what's become of Tom Phillips and his kids?

The Marakopa search and rescue headquarters is being wound up.

* Mum 'holding out every hope' for children missing on stormy Waikato beach

Surf Lifesaving NZ search and rescue manager Allan Mundy talks about the search for the missing family (first published on September 17).

A land-based search continued on Sunday on the coastline around Kiritehere Beach and the Marokopa River mouth.

Involved were volunteers from the Waitomo LandSAR group, alongside Hamilton LandSAR, with oversight from NZ Police Search and Rescue.

the coast near Kiritehere Beach is very rugged.

While the current search base at Marokopa Hall was to be stood down on Sunday, search efforts were not over, Police said.

Searchers were determined to bring answers to the family and community, and work will continue, police said. They thanked the local community who continued to play an active role in helping with the search.

Police said on Saturday they had accounted for a Honda motorcycle they believed Phillips had recently owned, and were satisfied it was not linked to the family’s disappearance. Help was still needed to identify the whereabouts of a smaller 2019 Honda CRF50.

Police had earlier asked that people wanting to help search restrict themselves to the sandy beach areas only, at the two locations.

“We understand people want to help, however the search area is extremely challenging, and we don't want a situation where people become injured or trapped, causing another search or rescue incident,” said Waikato west area commander Will Loughrin.

If people located anything they believed might be of interest, searchers were asked to first take a photo, if possible, of where the item was found, and then contact Police on 105, quoting file number 210913/1952.

Police wanted the opportunity to review all items located and then discount them if they were not of significance, said Loughrin.

Police were also strongly encouraging those not yet spoken to, but who had “interactions” with Phillips’ 2004 Toyota Hilux ute while it was on the beach at Marokopa, to contact them as soon as possible.

Teams searching the sea were stood down on Friday but remained on call if needed again, said Allan Mundy national lifesaving manager of Surf Life Saving New Zealand.