The troubled world of Tom Phillips and the community he divided

The end of the Tom Phillips saga left a small Waikato community sifting through nearly four years of division.

Phillips disappeared with his three children in late 2021, remaining at large across rugged bush country while police searches came and went. Locals were caught between sympathy for the children, fear of what might happen, and suspicion that some in the district knew more than they said.

That suspicion corroded relationships in a place small enough that everyone is connected to everyone. Some residents describe conversations that stopped years ago and have not resumed.

With the search over and a police officer seriously injured, the community faces the harder task: working out how to talk to each other again, and what the children who were taken will need from the adults around them.