She immediately recognized each child, briefly captured on a phone camera as they walked single file across rough farmland.

“I’m so glad they’re all here.

“I am so relieved to see all three of my babies. They’re all alive.”

At the encounter in the Marokopa bush, which sparked a renewed police hunt for the fugitive father, the children spoke briefly to the hunters and asked if “anyone knew they were there.”

John McOviney said his 16-year-old grandchild was one of the pig hunters who came across the man and three children on his farm about 6:30 p.m. on Thursday.

He said they were all wearing masks and were only 20 meters away from the hunters.

“The kids asked, ‘Who else knows we’re here?’

“And then they just kept going. They were all packed and had large backpacks with them. I think the father kept them moving somehow.”

He said there was a lot of bush on his farm and it was “pretty isolated”.

Speaking to Newstalk ZB, McOviney said when his grandson saw Phillips carrying a gun, they did not pursue the interaction and instead he called 111 and immediately spoke to police. The video footage was forwarded to the police.

Yesterday police said they had determined a sighting last week of missing man Tom Phillips and his three children was “credible”.

Police were dispatched on Thursday evening after receiving a tip that Phillips had been seen with the three children in the bush west of Coutts Road in Marokopa.

“Patrols began in the area on Thursday evening and a search was launched the following morning,” Detective Inspector Andrew Saunders said.

“This is the first time all three children have been sighted, which is positive information and we know it will be reassuring for the children’s entire family.

“For operational security reasons, we are not providing any information about the time the police arrived on site or any specific information about the resources involved.”

Saunders said Thursday’s sighting opened “a positive line of investigation” that is now being reviewed by investigators.

“While we cannot go into detail, we would like to reassure the public that we have the resources to respond to any incoming information or reports of sightings.

“Our focus is very much on the safe return of Jayda, Maverick and Ember to their whanau and we are doing everything we can to achieve this,” Saunders said.

On September 11, 2021, Phillips disappeared for the first time with his three young children.

The family returned home three weeks later, but a warrant was issued for Phillips’ arrest on December 9 after he failed to appear in court.

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