Police search bushland for missing teen as homicide detectives called in

Homicide detectives have been brought in to help investigate the disappearance of a teenage girl in central Queensland, with police searching remote bushland and creeks on Friday.

Pheobe Bishop failed to check in for her flight from Bundaberg to Western Australia about 8.30am on May 15.

She hasn’t been seen since.

This week investigators declared her home in the township of Gin Gin a crime scene, and seized a grey Hyundai ix35 SUV.

“As another day starts it’s getting harder to breathe and the numbness that we feel at the not knowing is eating at us,” Bishop’s mother Kylie Johnson posted to social media on Friday morning.

“I have no words to describe what this is doing to our family, to our friends and to our community.”

The property where Pheobe Bishop was living in Gin Gin has been declared a crime scene.Credit: Nine News

On Friday afternoon, Detective Acting Inspector Ryan Thompson told reporters the investigation continued but the search had been widened to include nearby Good Night Scrub.

Thompson said homicide investigators were also assisting, and the dive squad spent Friday scouring a creek in the scrub, which is part national park, part state forest next to Paradise Dam.

“Obviously as time goes by police have greater concerns,” Thompson said.

The 17-year-old was living in a derelict home with housemates who were not family members when she disappeared.

Pheobe Bishop, 17, pictured with her mother Kylie.Credit: Facebook

Thompson was tight-lipped on the investigation, but said there was no single suspect and numerous people being interviewed.

“She was a really relatable person to the rest of her family and a lovely young girl and we’re doing our best to find her,” he said.

The local rumour mill has gone into overdrive since her disappearance. Residents have flooded online forums with unsubstantiated claims about past incidents at the property.

A 33-year-old woman media outlets have identified as a housemate faced court on serious charges just days before the disappearance, this masthead has confirmed.

Police are searching Good Night Scrub in central Queensland for missing teenager Pheobe Bishop.

Tanika Kristan Bromley was accused of carrying a shortened firearm and knife in public in late February.

She faced Bundaberg Magistrates Court on May 12, and remains on bail ahead of another hearing on June 23.

Pheobe Bishop.Credit: Queensland Police

This masthead is not suggesting she was in any way linked to the disappearance.

The revelation came after reports emerged multiple dogs were found dead by investigators at the Gin Gin home.

Thompson said on Wednesday he did not have any information on the alleged discovery, and declined to comment on why Bishop had not been living with family.

Initial reports from police suggested housemates dropped Bishop at Bundaberg airport the morning she went missing.

Investigators are now exploring whether that happened, with CCTV confirming she never entered the terminal.

Police are calling for any footage taken that morning at nearby Airport Drive and Samuels Road to come forward.

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