A stolen quad bike, and a butchered cow: Stuff journalist Tony Wall reveals Tom Phillips’ likely escape route
Friday, 5 September 2025
A month before Tom Phillips allegedly burgled a dairy in Piopio with one of his kids, a quad bike was stolen from a nearby farm where he used to work. Could this be the bike they escaped on? And what does it say about the family’s whereabouts? Tony Wall investigates.
Driving the country roads west of the small village of Piopio - the likely escape route of Tom Phillips after he allegedly burgled a store in the town last week - it doesn’t take long to come across a potential clue in the case.
Locals talk about a quad bike being stolen from a farm around here - and steer us to the property of Shaun and Kate Carter.
Kate Carter, a local veterinarian who’s just been called to an emergency involving a pregnant goat, confirms that they had a burglary from a shed on their property about a month ago.
A quad bike and other items were taken. She points to the spot where the intruder or intruders cut the power, meaning nothing was caught on camera.
“They cut my power to the wifi, they’ve been here before, whoever it is.”
Phillips and his children - Jayda, 12, Maverick, 10, and Ember, 9 - have been missing for almost four years, with only the occasional sighting.
Police are not actively searching bush areas for the family because of fears that they’ll get into a confrontation with Phillips, who’s believed to be armed.
“Our concern is that Tom will pose a risk to anyone that tries to stop him, the way he’s living his lifestyle with his children,” Detective Senior Sergeant Andy Saunders told media last week.
Carter says she couldn’t tell from the CCTV footage at the Piopio Superette whether it was her and her husband’s quad bike, as it was too dark.
A green drum strapped to the back of the vehicle was definitely not theirs, she says.
Carter says Phillips worked on the farm around 2007, when he was a young man away from home for the first time and they had a “good experience” with him.
“He was a good junior shepherd, he was really responsible, he was always on time, you could rely on him like nothing else.”
She doesn’t think it was Phillips who stole the quad; it’s more likely one of the many contractors and other people who pass through, she reckons.
Whoever it was, knew to avoid the family’s dogs.
“It could have been anyone, we literally have 10 or 15 people come here a day.”
She says they’ve made a complaint to police, who are “investigating everything they can”.
Asked if the Carters’ quad bike could be the one used in the superette burglary at about 2am on August 27, Saunders says: “We are still working to identify the quad bike used, and any tools used such as the grinder.
“We frequently scan across offences within the wider area and assess what offending might be attributed to Tom.
“We continue to investigate the [superette] burglary.”
School caretaker Josh Watkin, who lives on a rural property west of Piopio, says there’s been a lot of crime in the area.
“There’s always something going on down here. Bikes go missing, farm equipment.
“A couple of weeks back there was a bull butchered … it was there one night and then only the carcass was left the next morning.”
Could it have been Phillips?
“It could have been anyone. You get all sorts of people living out here. It seems like a lot of effort for [Phillips] to be coming in and out, doing all these little bits and pieces.”
The burglary in Piopio has made police reconsider where Phillips and his children are based.
Most searches have focused on the Marokopa area where Phillips’ parents have a farm, but it would take well over an hour to travel from there to Piopio along back roads, including goat tracks.
Could that be done at night, in winter, on a quad bike, with a child? Locals are split - some reckon no way, others say it’s doable.
“I’ve driven a quad bike to Marokopa from here, easy, it’s about 45 minutes,” says farmer Doug Holmes, whose property at Mangaotaki is about 15 minutes west of Piopio.
It’s surprising how many people in the village believe that it wasn’t Phillips who broke into a freezer at the back of the superette using a power tool and stole milk.
“That’s not him in those videos, no way, nah,” says a woman working at a gas station.
“He’s getting the blame for everything, and it’s not him, that’s what’s annoying me.
“The police can’t do their job properly, so they’ll pinpoint everything [to Phillips].”
She believes Phillips should be left alone.
“I don’t know where he is, I know people that do, and I’ve never asked them where.
“People are helping him because they believe those children are safer with him.”
Others find that view unsavoury.
A woman working at a craft store says it’s “disgraceful” that people are helping Phillips.
“I don’t know why they’re protecting him. A lot of people in Piopio are behind him, I don’t know why.
“It’s dreadful, he’s a mongrel and I wish they’d hurry up and catch him. To bring your children up like that is a shocking thing.”
A woman in the Mangaotaki area says “most people around here” are dubious that Phillips is behind the break-ins, and that he’s “not that stupid”.
She thinks police have tunnel vision, fingering Phillips for every crime in the area.
“If you wanted to do a burglary right now, if you got a tall person and a short person you’ll get away with it, no-one will even be looking for you.”
At a remote property an old kuia says “the whole community is not kosher with it” - meaning the police focus on Phillips.
She says Phillips and his supporters are worried that the children will be taken off him “and put in a different home”.
“I have relatives who know him, and grew up with him, there’s no way they’re gonna give him up, not for all the money in the world.
“They already offered big money [$80,000 reward] - nobody wants that money. All we want is the children to be fine.”
She says Phillips knows the whole district.
“This was his playground, this is where he grew up. I’m amazed with him - he could teach a lot of skills, and a lot of parents a lot of things.”