Pheobe Bishop: Search for missing teen enters ninth day as mum shares heartbreaking message
Pheobe Bishop’s mum has shared a heartbreaking message as the search for the missing Queensland teen continues.
The mother of missing teen Pheobe Bishop has shared two emotional messages as the search for the 17-year-old enters its ninth day.
Ms Bishop was last seen being driven to the Bundaberg Airport by her housemates, James Wood and Tanika Bromley, on the morning of May 15 from a Gin Gin property.
She was meant to board a flight to Brisbane, and then onto Perth, to see her boyfriend – but she never got on the 8.30am flight.
The teen’s mother, Kylie Johnson, took to Facebook to deliver a heartbreaking plea on Saturday morning.
“Another day and minimal answers … Phee still isn’t home and someone somewhere has to know something,” she wrote.
“I’m absolutely begging anyone with any information to contact the Queensland Police Service.
“It could be the smallest of details you might even think it’s irrelevant information but it could be the key to bringing Pheobe home,” Ms Johnson added.
“Thank you to our Family, friends and community! Your thoughts love, respect and kindness are appreciated more then (sic) you could know or imagine.
“Phee Phee we wont stop looking for you till your (sic) home.
“I urge everyone in Gin Gin to keep their porch lights on tonight and guide our girl home.”
Ms Johnson then released a family statement via the Queensland Police on Saturday afternoon, describing the Bundaberg teen as her “wild Gypsy banshee”.
“Who is Pheobe? Phee has always been strong willed and followed her own beat to life,” the statement reads.
“I’ve always called her my ‘Wild Gypsy Banshee’. I’ve told everyone since Phee’s birth that she’s the one I always expected to call me from overseas saying, “hey Mumzie mate; I’m in Amsterdam and checking in”.
“You can’t tame Phee’s spirit, empathy or fight for life. She is sassy, feisty and loves harder than anyone I’ve ever meet.
“Phee loves beyond comprehension and is loyal to her siblings.
“Phee just loved life; music blaring, she’d say, ‘come on Mumzie, let’s dance.’
The family describe Pheobe as a “sunflower in a field full of wildflowers” and “an essential part of our lives”.
“We need her home. We need to hear her music, feel her hugs and hear her voice.
“Pheobe would never not touch base with the people she loves. She would never go this long without contacting someone or anyone.
“We are appealing to anyone who may have heard from Phoebe, or anyone who has information about where she may be, to please contact police.
It comes as members of the homicide squad and police dive squad have been sent in to help investigations into the disappearance of the 17-year-old.
The search has since moved to waterways in the Bundaberg area and on Saturday, into the Good Night National Park.
SES crews were seen looking through the dense bushland, 40 minutes south from where the 17-year-old was residing in Gin Gin.
Search co-ordinator Senior Constable Matthew Baker addressed the media on the search on Saturday at 11.30am.
“The search of the Good Night Scrubb National Park area is crucial to the police investigation and this includes dive squad searching waterways and land areas,” he said.
“Currently no one is in custody in relation to the matter and police continue to speak to anyone who may know Phoebe.
“I would encourage anyone with information to contact police with any information, big or small, and investigations are continuing.”
Senior Constable Baker urged anyone with dash cam or bush cam CCTV footage, including vision of the Mingo Road and Gander Road areas or that of a grey Hyundai iX35 that has been seized, to contact police.
The final post shared on social media by missing Queensland teenager Pheobe Bishop was a chilling conversation with her younger self.
According to the Courier Mail, Ms Bishop last posted to TikTok two days before her disappearance. She shared a version of TikTok’s ‘coffee with my younger self’ trend in which she described an imagined conversation between her current and past self.
“She sat down after giving every person in the cafe a dirty look … I walked in greeting everyone with a smile and being greeted by one,” the post said.
“She didn’t speak, she could barley (sic) look me in the eyes. Her responses were short and so was her temper.
“I asked are you okay and she replied ‘like you care’. I said I am you, and she stopped and stared.
“She started to bawl, as she quickly jumped across the table into my arms.”
The post went on to say that the teen has been focusing on finding herself.
In a separate social media post from March, Ms Bishop said, “I’m not built for this town, these aren’t my people”.
Ms Bishop was last seen en route from the Gin Gin residence – where she was staying with local couple Tanika Bromley and James Wood – to Bundaberg airport.
She did not check-in for a booked flight and has not been seen or heard from since.
Detective Acting Inspector Ryan Thompson said on Friday divers began searching waterways in the Bundaberg area in the search for the missing teen, but had not yet found any items or luggage that belonged to her.
He said police were also now searching the Good Night Scrub National Park, with a focus on rural areas west of Gin Gin.
“We are searching for any evidence or any information that might assist police in helping to try and find Pheobe,” he said.
He again asked anyone who was in the vicinity of the airport at the time Phoebe disappeared to come forward.
“No little bit of information is too much, and we will keep trying to follow through those avenues of inquiry,” he said.
“We’re trying to search areas that we’re receiving public information from, and we’re making sure that we’re covering all those areas.”
Ms Bishop’s mother Kylie Johnson shared a heartbreaking message to her daughter, saying as each day passed, it was getting “harder to breathe” and she felt numb not knowing where her daughter was.
“We would do anything just to hear your voice, to have you curl up in my lap and hold you tight,” she said.
“I have no words to describe what this is doing to our family, to our friends and to our community.
“What we need right now from everyone is to hold your loved ones tight and tell them you love them.”
A “pervading stench of decay” lingers around the property where missing teenager Pheobe Bishop lived before her suspicious disappearance.
Media attending the Gin Gin property on Thursday have reported a disgusting smell emanating from the dilapidated home, which remains an active crime scene as police continue to investigate the disappearance of the 17-year-old.
The Courier Mail earlier this week reported bags of rubbish were piled up outside the property and multiple dogs – reportedly dead – were seen being removed by detectives.
The Daily Mail reported a neighbour believed as many as 13 animals had been found.
Detectives were at the crime scene scouring the residence for more clues on Friday, as the search for the teen entered its eighth day.
Rubbish and various items could be observed scattered around the home, and a bus with the words ‘let it ride’ was parked on the nature strip.
Court documents reveal flatmate Ms Bromley has been on bail since February this year on charges of unlawful possession of a shortened firearm, unlawful possession of a weapon category a, b or m, and unlawful possession of a knife in public.
According to court documents, the alleged offences occurred in Emerald.
Ms Bromley first fronted Bundaberg Magistrates Court on March 28 and is due back in court
on June 23.
Along with the Gin Gin property, a grey Hyundai ix35 believed to be the car she travelled to Airport Dr in was also declared a crime scene on Wednesday.
Police are also appealing to the public for dashcam and CCTV footage of the grey Hyundai ix35 with Queensland registration 414EW3 near the Airport Drive and Samuels Road area in Bundaberg and also the Gin Gin area on May 15.
Inspector Thompson said they had not yet located any items or luggage that belonged to the Pheobe and public information would be vital to forwarding the investigation.
“You may have the small piece of information that leads us to finding Pheobe,” he said.
“People don’t vanish – someone knows something and we’re urging anyone with information to contact police immediately.
“We’re still working together to piece together her movements on that day.”
Inspector Thompson said Pheobe was a “really relatable person to the rest of her family and a lovely young girl”.
“And we’re trying our best to find her,” he said.
“We never give up hope.
“Police are keeping all options open, we’re certainly very hopeful that she is still alive.”
A Queensland police spokesman said on Friday no one is in custody in relation to the investigation.
Originally published as Pheobe Bishop: Search for missing teen enters ninth day as mum shares heartbreaking message
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