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Speaker 1: Now, the coppers have stepped up their efforts to find

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Speaker 1: the missing Mater Corper dad Tom Phillips and his kids

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Speaker 1: by offering a reward of eighty thousand dollars for information.

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Speaker 1: Tom and his children, Jada, Maverick and Ember have now

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Speaker 1: been missing for two and a half years. The police

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Speaker 1: are also willing to consider immunity from prosecution if anyone

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Speaker 1: who has been helping Tom does come forward. Andy Saunders

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Speaker 1: is a police acting Detective inspector. Hey Andy, Hello, Andy,

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Speaker 1: do you reckon that there are people who know where

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Speaker 1: he is and aren't saying.

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Speaker 2: Yes? I do. That's one of the reasons we put

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Speaker 2: this reward up for a limited period of time to

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Speaker 2: encourage those people to come forward.

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Speaker 1: What makes you so sure of that.

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Speaker 2: On the investigation in the last two and a half years,

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Speaker 2: the information we've collected and the fact of a person

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Speaker 2: on their own with three children age between eight and ten,

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Speaker 2: they need some assistance, assistance for what everything, healthcare, food,

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Speaker 2: general well being.

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Speaker 1: What's the limited time you've got this up for.

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Speaker 2: It's up for a two week period. It's targeted directly

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Speaker 2: those people that have knowledge is to their whereabouts?

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Speaker 1: Do you reckon? I mean, is this going to flip

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Speaker 1: somebody who just sort of knows roughly but isn't involved.

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Speaker 1: Do you reckon it would actually flip someone who is

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Speaker 1: actively helping.

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Speaker 2: Well, it's a considerable amount. And if those people that

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Speaker 2: do have directcknowledge in a situation where they need that

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Speaker 2: sort of money, that they may well come forward.

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Speaker 1: Why are you doing it now?

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Speaker 2: Well, over the last two and a half years, we've

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Speaker 2: put a number of appeals out for information. Those appeals

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Speaker 2: that we have focused on the community, on people potentially

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Speaker 2: helping Tom, and on people that may have knowledge of

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Speaker 2: the whereabouts for the children. We haven't achieved the result

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Speaker 2: we've been hoping for it, and we feel now is

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Speaker 2: the time to offer an incentive those people.

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Speaker 1: Would you have thought of this started this? Would you

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Speaker 1: have thought that you'd have had this wrapped up by now?

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Speaker 2: Well, it's always our hope, but as you'd appreciate, the

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Speaker 2: environment out there is very challenging to put police on

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Speaker 2: the ground and conduct searches.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, because there has been I mean there has been

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Speaker 1: a little bit of criticism, kind of low level, but

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Speaker 1: it's been there that police aren't doing enough and that

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Speaker 1: basically what you do you need to do is just

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Speaker 1: go in hard and fill the place. Is that not

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Speaker 1: a possibility.

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Speaker 2: Well, one of the difficulties is that we believe Tom

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Speaker 2: Phillips to be armed and the risk of the community

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Speaker 2: and our staff, So we can't just flood the area

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Speaker 2: with massive amounts of place or search and rescue operatives.

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Speaker 1: Hey, we learned for the first time today that he

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Speaker 1: lost custody of his kids. When did he lose custody?

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Speaker 2: That was going through the family court. I can find

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Speaker 2: out dates. But effectively the family court has changed the

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Speaker 2: custody as of the children.

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Speaker 1: Is that what sparked him going on the run?

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Speaker 2: No, we don't believe so. At the time he went

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Speaker 2: on the run, he actually had custody of the children.

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Speaker 1: Oh okay, So he's lost custody as a result of this, has.

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Speaker 2: He Well that's the matter for the family court. But

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Speaker 2: effectively there's been here and the custody of the children

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Speaker 2: has now changed to O runner.

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Speaker 1: Toamareki alrighty okay, listen, what is it going to take

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Speaker 1: for somebody to get immunity?

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Speaker 2: Well, the immunity as effectively, if people are worried they

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Speaker 2: may have been committing offenses by assistant Tom. We encourage

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Speaker 2: him to come forward because our focus is not on

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Speaker 2: any offending they may have done. It's on the safe

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Speaker 2: return of the children.

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Speaker 1: Andy, thank you for your time. I really appreciate it.

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Speaker 1: Best of luck with us as Andy Saunder's Police Acting

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Speaker 1: Detective Inspector.

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Speaker 2: For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to

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