As a year passes since Tom Phillips failed to show for his court appearance, the mystery remains over the whereabouts of the Marokopa man and his three young children.

Phillips was due to appear in court on January 12 last year on a charge of causing wasteful deployment of police personnel and resources after going missing for the first time around September 11, 2021.

At the time serious concerns were raised for Phillips and his children Jayda, 9, Maverick, 8, and Ember, 6 but they returned safe 18 days later.

His no-show in court sparked a warrant for his arrest to be issued.

However, Phillips and the children have not been seen since December 9, 2021, and are still missing.

Before his court date, police were monitoring but not searching for the Waikato family.

People waited outside Te Kuiti District Court in January last year for Tom Phillips to appear at his first court hearing, he never showed up. Photo / Mike Scott

The children’s half-sister Jubilee Dawson told the Herald that she is frustrated.

“He should drop the kids back and then go back into the bush and do what he wants,” she said bluntly.

Former military and police officer Chris Budge said it was not surprising that Phillips did not show up for his court date.

Budge, who was privately investigating the disappearance last year, said he recently received a call of a possible sighting of Phillips and the children and another call from a person who has overheard information about their possible whereabouts.

He said a woman believed she saw Phillips and the children at a central North Island service station and said this information has been passed on to the police. Budge said the woman also called 105.

Budge said he contacted the service station chain to ensure they would secure any CCTV footage that could help police.

Meanwhile, Budge a woman travelling on a train in Waikato overheard a conversation that she believed related to the whereabouts of the family.

“People are keeping their eye, people are thinking about it and certainly looking at a male and three kids. All we can ask is that they keep doing that and hopefully the police can put those jigsaw puzzles together,” he said.

Tom Phillips, Jayda Phillips, Ember Phillips and Maverick Callam-Phillips Photo / NZ Police

Budge is urging Phillips to give him a call and said he is willing to help him work everything out.

“If you’re out there, Tom, or somebody sees the article, give us a call and I will help mediate something. There’s no benefit to me in any way shape or form, it’s all about the kids,” he said.

“There is a way out of this, absolutely.”

Police said they were continually following leads on the family’s whereabouts, although multiple reports of sightings across the country had been followed up with no success.

They said it was possible Phillips had found shelter and was being supported by other people.

Waikato West area commander Inspector Will Loughrin said they were appealing to Phillips or anyone assisting him to bring this matter to a close.

“We have to recognise that Tom and his children lived a very isolated lifestyle and had limited use of social media or mainstream forms of communication. We believe that Tom is being supported by a person or people, and this is allowing him to continue to exist without any electronic trace,” he said.

- Additional reporting RNZ