Reissue: “We know the family, we know the cop”: Mayor speaks of close-knit Marokopa community

In the early hours of Monday morning, a man police were hunting for nearly four years was shot and killed in a stand-off on a rural Waikato road.

That man was Tom Phillips, who in December 2021 vanished into the Marokopa bush with his three children, Jayda, Maverick, and Ember.

There have been numerous sightings over the years of the fugitive father - the last was in August when he and another person believed to be one of his children, were seen on CCTV breaking into a Piopio superette.

The Front Page travelled to the King Country and spoke to Waitomo District Mayor John Robertson about how the community has fared and what we can learn from the ordeal.

Follow The Front Page on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

You can read more about this and other stories in the New Zealand Herald, online at nzherald.co.nz, or tune in to news bulletins across the NZME network.

Host: Chelsea Daniels
Editor/Producer: Richard Martin
Producer: Jane Yee

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.