A fugitive father who disappeared with his three young children three years ago into the New Zealand wilderness has been spotted trekking with them through remote farmland in a chance encounter with pig hunters.

Tom Phillips and his three children, Jayda, 11, Maverick, 9, and Ember, 8, were identified in grainy footage wearing camouflage gear and backpacks while tramping single file in the mountainous ranges of Te Anga on New Zealand’s North Island.

The last sighting of the family was in Dec 2021 before they suddenly dropped off the grid in what has been dubbed the “Marokopa mystery”.