The mother of the three missing Marokopa children believes the exchange between a pig hunter and her daughter last week was a cry for help.
A video captured by the pig hunters north of Awamarino in Waikato last Thursday showed a man followed by three children in wet-weather gear carrying camouflaged backpacks and wearing masks.
The group could be seen 20 to 30 metres away from the hunters, trekking through rough, overgrown terrain before disappearing behind a hill.
A still from a video taken by pig hunters on 3 October, purported to be fugitive father Tom Phillips and his three missing children. Photo: Supplied / John McOviney
Police described the sighting as "credible" and started patrols that night but a full search wasn't started until the following day. They searched for three days with air support, but found nothing of significance.
The children's mother, known as Cat, speaking exclusively to Mata Reports presenter Mihingarangi Forbes, says she believes the short interaction between a 16-year-old pig hunter and a child she believes to be her daughter, Jayda, was her calling out for help.
The pig hunter reported that after his group ran across three children and a man carrying a gun, one of the children said "Who knows we're here?"
Cat said this was Jayda raising attention while knowing she had to be careful of her dad's reaction. Cat told Mata Reports Jayda was asking: "Does anyone know we are here, is anyone coming for us".
From left: Ember, Maverick and Jayda Phillips. Photo: Supplied / NZ police
She said that while she did not hear the tone of her voice she thought Jayda was "putting it out there and she's asking a question, she's trying to say something without saying something".
She added that Jayda would be worried about repercussions from her father, Tom Phillips.
Cat with her children before their disappearance. Photo: Supplied
Describing how she felt about the situation with Jayda, the oldest of the three missing children but middle child of Cat's five children, she said: "She's amazing, she's my beautiful big girl".
Cat is worried she's grown up too fast but is also proud of her. "She's so strong and she'll be the mother; she's taking care of my other two babies. She is taking care of them and keeping them safe the only way she can in this situation."
She has no doubt it is her children she can see in the pig hunters' video and it was "good" to see them after almost three years.
"It's the best news anyone could hope for."
She received a text from police to alert her to the latest sighting, but she was left in the dark on how they were responding to it.
Cat believes police should have got officers to the scene within an hour as well as putting up a helicopter and using sniffer dogs.
She believes the system has "failed miserably" in how it has responded to the disappearance of her children.
"I had faith in our system and I feel like such a fool now. It's failed my children ...I feel like they're being treated like they're irrelevant, like they're nobody, like they don't matter but they do... They deserve so much more."
This included the chance to have proper healthcare, have friends and go to the beach instead of being isolated.
She said she was dumbfounded by the support her ex-partner was receiving.
"Nobody can comprehend and I wouldn't wish this situation on anybody, not even on my worst enemy. It's wrong."
Until the encounter last week, Phillips and his three children Jayda, now 11, Maverick, nine, and Ember, eight, have not been seen together since 12 December 2021.
Cat also says she was the first person to spot Tom Phillips at a Bunnings store in August 2023.
She recognised her former partner as she walked past a ute in the Hamilton Bunnings carpark.
Cat says Phillips drove off and she gave chase before losing him when he cut in front of a bus.
Cat says during winter she feared for how her children would survive in wet freezing conditions.
"It's just wrong on so many levels."
In June she made an emotional appeal asking people to help find the children so they could be returned to her.
Cat, the mother of the missing Marokopa children. Photo: Supplied / Police
It followed the police's launch of an $80,000 reward for information that would help discover their whereabouts. The offer has run out without providing the critical breakthrough.
At the time police also released a video of Cat in which she said: "They are just innocent children. They do not deserve to be treated this way.
"They do not deserve the life that is being provided to them right now."
She also criticised her estranged husband, accusing him of child neglect, endangerment, abandonment and abuse.
"None of this is okay. My babies deserve better."
Police said at the time that the reward had resulted in more than 100 pieces of new information via phone calls, emails and personal approaches to them.