Never-before-revealed connection is exposed between Pheobe Bishop’s MUM and key witness housemate – and why there is a painful rift between the pair

Pheobe Bishop’s mum was a close friend of the missing teen’s housemate, who is now a key witness in the police hunt for Pheobe after she vanished two weeks ago.

Daily Mail Australia can reveal Tanika Bromley was once good mates with Pheobe’s mother Kylie Johnson and even worked for her NDIS support company.

Kylie is also believed to have been a guest at Bromley’s country wedding to her now-former husband Shaun Kraay in 2016.

But friends have now revealed the pair fell out, with Ms Johnson making Bromley redundant from her role at Smileys Support Coordination last year. 

Pheobe then moved in with Bromley and partner James Wood at their Gin Gin property, near Bundaberg in central Queensland, about a month ago, after she moved out of her mother’s home in the rural town.

Bromley, 33, and Wood, 34, are the last-known people to see the teen before she disappeared on May 15. 

The couple told detectives they gave Pheobe an early morning lift to Bundaberg Airport for flights to Western Australia where she planned to meet her boyfriend.

The housemates told police they dropped the teen at the airport in Bromley’s 2011 silver Hyundai ix35 hatchback, but no CCTV of her at the airport has been found.

Pheobe’s boyfriend has since told friends he received a call from her as she was being driven to the airport – but he was unable to hear anything before it cut off. 

Tanika Bromley (left) is a former employee of Pheobe’s mum Kylie Johnson (right)

Pheobe Bishop (pictured with her mother Kylie) was last seen on May 15 leaving a home in Gin Gin, Queensland, where she had been living with Tanika Bromley and her partner James Wood

He did not realise anything was wrong, and went to the airport to meet her as planned but waited there in vain for hours.

Bromley describes herself as a support worker on several online profiles. 

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Smiley’s and the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, which handles registrations for support workers, for comment. 

Final posts that Pheobe shared to social media before she went missing suggested she had fallen out with her mother and would not return home. 

Ms Johnson has made frequent pleas on social media for help finding Pheobe, but she has not commented about Bromley and Wood, or any other specifics of the disappearance, saying last week that she did not want to ‘jeopardise the current police investigations’. 

On Thursday she made yet another appeal, sharing a widely circulated CCTV image, obtained by police, of Bromley’s Hyundai.

‘Share this poster! Save it to your phone, talk to anyone and everyone in the rural community in Gin Gin and surrounding areas,’ she said.

‘Someone has seen this car between May 15-May 19. The people we need to show this to are the ones with limited access to social media and or don’t have it at all.’ 

Tanika Bromley (pictured on this week reporting to police as part of her bail conditions after she was charged with unrelated firearms offences ) and her partner James Wood are the last-known people to see Pheobe Bishop before she vanished

Pheobe Bishop was last seen on May 15 and was reported missing when she failed to board a scheduled flight from Bundaberg on a trip  to meet her boyfriend in Perth

Texts Pheobe sent to friends before she vanished also indicated she was unhappy living with Bromley and Wood.

‘I’m flying the f*** out of here to see my boyfriend,’ she told her maternal aunt, Caz Johnson, on April 26 in texts shown on Network Ten.

‘If it goes to plan I’m not coming back. I can’t do s*** anymore. I need to get out of this hell hole.’ 

Caz Johnson also said that Pheobe had an unsettled childhood, regularly changing schools and having to deal with new stepdads coming in and out of her life.

But Pheobe’s mother reacted immediately on social media after The Project interview with Caz aired on Wednesday night, saying her sister knew ‘nothing’ about her daughter.

Bromley this week tried to hide her face and ignored questions from reporters as she was seen in public for the first time since Pheobe went missing.

She arrived at Gin Gin police station for a check-in as part of her bail conditions for her firearms charges at about 11.20am.

Hooded Bromley entered the station through a back entrance, with two police officers appearing to assist her in getting in and out of the station.

Missing teen Pheobe Bishop’s housemate Tanika Bromley (pictured) faced court charged with firearm offences

Pheobe had been living at a property in Gin Gin – which has also been declared a crime scene –   with Bromley and Wood before she vanished without a trace

Bromley was accompanied by another woman who drove her away in a silver Toyota Hilux. 

She is under strict bail conditions, after police allegedly discovered a haul of weapons in the Hyundai used to give Pheobe a lift to the airport.

On Tuesday, Bundaberg Magistrates Court heard police found a shortened firearm, ammunition, and two replica handguns in the car.

The court was told police also found additional ammunition at the Gin Gin property. 

Bromley was charged with two counts of authority required to possess explosives and one count each of possessing/acquiring restricted items and unlawful possession of weapons.   

Magistrate John McInnes said Bromley was a victim of domestic violence and not the ‘prime mover’ in procuring firearms. One of her bail conditions is that she not see Wood.

The new charges came just two months after a separate incident where Bromley was accused of having a sawn-off shotgun and a flick knife in the car when she was stopped by police near Emerald, 500km inland from Gin Gin.

Police have suspended a search in Good Night Scrub National Park (pictured)

Cadaver dogs (pictured) had been brought in by police to search the bushland

Queensland Police confirmed on Wednesday night that Wood, 34, was also charged with unrelated weapon offences on Sunday. 

He is facing one count each of unlawful possession of weapons Category D/H/R (short firearm) and authority to possess explosives, and is due to appear in Bundaberg Magistrates Court on June 13.

Police launched an intense search for Pheobe in a Good Night Scrub National Park as part of their investigation, scouring it for several days with cadaver dogs. 

But on Wednesday, cops confirmed they had suspended the search, sparking community fears that the trail for Pheobe had gone cold. 

‘Investigations are ongoing and police are continuing to run out several lines of inquiry,’ a police spokesperson said.

During a search of Bromley’s grey Hyundai ix35 – which is at the centre of the investigation into the teen’s disappearance –  police allegedly found a shortened firearm, ammunition, and two replica handguns

‘In addition to investigative work, physical searches will continue as needed and as information is provided.

‘The greater Gin Gin area remains the focus of the investigation.’ 

Daily Mail Australia does not suggest that Bromley or Wood were involved in Pheobe’s disappearance. 

 

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