It's the kind of tale you can't quite make up.

New Zealand father Tom Phillips went missing with his three children, following a split and estrangement from his wife.

They were lost in the bush for 19 days — with police launching a large-scale land and air search — only for them to show up again, claiming they went 'off grid'.

Three months later, in December 2021, the father and his three children went missing again, but this time they did not return.

Almost four years after he disappeared from society, fugitive father Tom Phillips was shot dead by police.

Police Acting Deputy Commissioner Jill Rogers told a media conference that the force received word of a burglary at a rural farm store in the area where Phillips was believed to be — in Waikato, south of Auckland.

Police laid road

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