Full tragic timeline of 3-week hunt for Pheobe Bishop – from airport disappearance to housemate arrests and horror find
PHEOBE Bishop mysteriously vanished over three weeks ago in a gripping disappearance case which puzzled the world.
The shocking story has been plagued by grim twists and heartbreaking pleas after the 17-year-old teenager went missing near an airport on May 15.
Before she disappeared, Pheobe had been living in the town of Gin Gin, which is north of Brisbane in Australia.
The sleepy neighbourhood has a population of about 1,100 people.
The teenager had been living in a derelict pad – which had a foul smell and was very noisy according to neighbours.
She lived there with two housemates: James Wood, 34, and Tanika Bromley, 33.
On the day she went missing, Pheobe was meant to board a flight to see her boyfriend in Western Australia.
Her housemates drove her to Bundaberg airport, but police said CCTV there never even saw her enter the terminal and she never actually checked in.
She was on her way to Perth to visit her “high-school sweetheart” boyfriend.
Pheobe reportedly made a last minute call to him at 8:30am mere moments before she was set to get on the flight to Western Australia.
A family member said: “She didn’t check in for her flight to visit her boyfriend who she spoke to on the phone at 8.30am.”
According to the Daily Mail, Wood said the couple had an explosive argument in the car with Pheobe over whether she could do her makeup before arriving at the airport.
He said they pulled over just under a kilometre from their destination.
Wood and Bromley then allegedly walked off and were away from Pheobe and the car for five minutes, according to the 34-year-old.
A missing person’s report was issued for her one day later on May 16.
Her worried sick sister, Kaylea Bishop, sent Wood and Bromley a simple text, demanding to know the whereabouts of her sibling.
She said: “Where is my sister?”
On the following weekend, her desperate mum Kylie Johnson made emotional pleas for anyone with information to come forward.
By May 18, over 400 missing person posters with Pheobe’s photo had been plastered across the Wide Bay region.
The next week, on Monday May 19, police launched their search for Pheobe.
It covered land along Bundaberg’s Airport Drive and the surrounding areas.
But mysteriously, police didn’t find any sign of the teen or her belongings.
Police, along with Pheobe’s mum, described her disappearance as out of character on May 20.
They also asked the public for information about the 2011 grey Hyundai ix35 hatch, owned by Bromley, that had been seen around Airport Drive at the time of Pheoebe’s disappearance.
The next day, police updated the case and said they were treating Pheobe’s disappearance as a suspicious.
They also declared two crime scenes – one being the run-down home she was living at, and the other being the infamous Hyundai she was driven to the airport in.
After inspecting the foul-smelling home, police found four dead dogs rotting inside.
But it was later understood that these four pups died of natural causes.
Airport Drive, Samuels Road and Gin Gin were also named as locations of interest.
On May 22, Detective Acting Inspector Ryan Thompson stressed the importance of public information.
In a chilling plea, he said: “People don’t vanish.”
The day after that, police revealed they were searching through bushland and waterways at Good Night Scrub National Park, near to where Pheobe was last seen.
This scan went on for the next two days, during which police dogs joined the hunt.
On May 25 Bromley was arrested in a major twist after police allegedly found weapons in her silver Hyundai.
On May 26, the search area was expanded – before cops made a harrowing revelation.
They believed evidence had been moved from the Good Night Scrub area before they arrived there.
And on this same day, a new number plate was discovered to have been suspiciously painted and taped over the notorious Hyundai’s original plate.
The gruelling search effort in Good Night Scrub National Park then continued from May 27 for five more days.
Disturbingly, the search appeared to lose hope as police said they would no longer be doing any more physical scans for Pheobe on Wednesday, June 4.
They said they would restart any searches only when they had relevant information.
But in a dramatic twist on the very same day – Pheobe’s housemate Wood was arrested.
However, no charges were made and he was released a day later on June 5.
And in yet another turn in the tale – Wood and Bromley were then both arrested and charged with murder on the same day Wood was released – exactly three weeks after Pheobe went missing.
They were each charged with one count of murder and two counts of interfering with a corpse.
Shocking footage released on Friday showed the moment police arrested Wood and escorted him out of an RV for the “homicide of Pheobe Bishop”.
Both Wood and Bromley appeared at Bundaberg Magistrates Court on Friday morning.
Outside the building, Pheobe’s heartbroken sister Kaylea Bishop said her sibling was “loved and missed” dearly.
Kaylea and Pheobe had a close relationship and were planning to move in together last year.
And in the latest heartbreaking update, human remains were found during a search for Pheobe.
They are yet to be identified, but police have spoken to Pheobe’s family regarding the harrowing discovery.
The body was found close to Good Night Scrub National Park, near Gin Gin, on Friday, June 6 at around 2:30pm.
Pheobe’s mum then made a heartbreaking statement.
She said: “I didn’t think my heart could break anymore than it did when you went missing, or when the charges were laid but this.
“This is ripping me apart.”
Pheobe had previously said online that she wasn’t living with her mum, and that she had been “in and out” of home for years.
Cops are now set to allege that Wood, Bromley and Pheobe were all in the car when it arrived at Airport Drive near Bundaberg Airport in the morning of May 15.
They believe that the trio never actually left the car.
Detective Inspector Craig Mansfield said: “Our evidence will outline the fact that three people arrived near to the airport, and three people never exited that vehicle.”
Wood and Bromley will appear in court on August 11.