The five key questions that must be answered in the hunt for Pheobe Bishop – as mystery surrounding the missing teen deepens

More than two weeks after missing 17-year-old Pheobe Bishop was last seen in Queensland’s Bundaberg region, unsettling questions about her fate remain.

Retired detective Charlie Bezzina, who spent 38 years with Victoria Police including 17 years as a homicide investigator and team leader, has been following the case.

He’s drawn on his years of experience to give Daily Mail Australia an insight into what may be happening behind the scenes on the investigation into her disappearance.

Pheobe was due to fly from Bundaberg to Brisbane and then on to Perth to visit her boyfriend on May 15 but did not board her flight and was not sighted at the airport.

Her housemates, Tanika Bromley and her partner James Wood, have been charged with unrelated firearm offences and the home they shared with Pheobe at Gin Gin has been sealed off, with forensic experts sent in.

Bromley and Wood told detectives they drove Pheobe the 40 minutes from Gin Gin to the airport in a silver Hyundai ix35 hatchback, which was also seized.

The couple has not been charged with any offence related to Pheobe’s disappearance and Daily Mail Australia does not suggest either is involved in any way. 

Police have used cadaver dogs to search bushland in Good Night Scrub National Park, about an hour away from where Pheobe was last seen.

Pheobe Bishop was due to fly from Bundaberg to Perth on May 15 but there is no evidence she ever reached the Queensland airport terminal. Police are investigating whether her disappearance is a case of foul play 

Pheobe has not contacted family or friends and not accessed her bank account or social media. 

She has not used her phone since a last-minute call to her boyfriend before she was due to fly out to meet him.

Bezzina told Daily Mail Australia detectives were right to be treating Pheobe’s disappearance as a potential homicide and not simply a runaway teen.

‘These type of jobs are problematic in themselves, given the high number of missing persons that occur during the year state-wide and Australia-wide,’ Bezzina said.

‘You need to look at the circumstances.’

Since Pheobe vanished, a picture has emerged of an unsettled girl who had a strained relationship with her family and had been in and out of home for years.

She had found accommodation with Wood and Bromley in a dilapidated house surrounded by rubbish from where a number of dead dogs were removed by police.

In March, Pheobe had posted a video on TikTok saying she was not ‘built for this town’ and that those around her were not her ‘people’. 

Pheobe’s mother, Kylie Johnson, has said she was going through hell not knowing what had happened to her daughter: ‘The tears come, the anger and frustrations come and most of all our hearts are shattering more and more each day.’

Pheobe had been living with James Wood (above) and his partner Tanika Bromley at a run-down house in Gin Gin

Is Pheobe dead or alive? 

Police say there is no evidence Pheobe was ever dropped off at Bundaberg Airport. They have not found her luggage and there is no CCTV footage of her at the terminal.

‘What we have here is a lady who was due to fly out, and she never made that flight, which is of concern,’ Bezzina said.

‘So that would heighten the anxiety of investigators to say, “Well, why hasn’t she met that flight?” 

‘They would be gleaning as much information as possible in relation to her background, the facts of her living [circumstances], associates, friends, family and that type of thing to establish whether foul play has occurred.

‘Whatever picture has been built up by the police would be indicative of their continued response in relation to it. 

‘Whilst it may appear sinister to us, there’s been no indication of foul play, like any bloodstains.’

Detective Acting Inspector Ryan Thompson has confirmed police were investigating reports Pheobe had been fighting with someone in the car on the way to the airport and was kicked out of the vehicle.

Pheobe’s housemates, Tanika Bromley (above) and James Wood, have been charged with unrelated firearm offences. They are not accused of involvement in Pheobe’s disappearance

Asked whether police believed Pheobe had met with foul play, he said they were not ruling out any scenario. 

Anyone with dashcam footage of the silver Hyundai in the Airport Drive, Samuels Road and general Gin Gin area on May 15 has been urged to contact investigators. 

Where are police searching and why?

Police began a search of Good Night Scrub National Park last Saturday, nine days after Pheobe went missing. They introduced cadaver dogs to the bushland on Sunday.

That search was suspended on Wednesday when police announced the ‘greater Gin Gin’ area remained the focus of their investigations.

‘You can only go where the evidence takes you,’ Bezzina said. ‘And clearly, the evidence has taken them to a particular location.

‘It is indicative that they’ve got certain intelligence in relation to why they’ve gone to that particular area. 

‘They’ve started the ground search with cadaver dogs and cadaver dogs are looking for human remains, which is indicative of possible foul play.’

Bezzina said police would not have begun searching the national park until they had a good reason to do so, given the vastness of the bushland in the area.

Police began a search of Good Night Scrub National Park last Saturday, nine days after Pheobe went missing. They introduced cadaver dogs to the bushland on Sunday

‘You just can’t go and say, “You know what? We’ll just look in this search area.” It’s got to be fact-driven in relation to the amount of resources you would then place in there. 

‘So, I wouldn’t be critical of the police taking those days [before commencing that search].

‘Because at the end of the day, it’s all about costings and justifying it to command and saying, “We need to give a full concerted effort to search in this location.”‘

Acting Inspector Ryan Thompson said on May 27 police were trying to establish if evidence had been removed from the national park after they ‘received information’. 

What if Pheobe has just run away?

Bezzina said the worst mistake police could make in the case of a missing person was to have closed minds and therefore be complacent.

‘It’s quite easy to get tunnel vision,’ he said. 

‘To say, “Ah well, she’s a 17-year-old, she’s got no family ties. She’s a bit of an itinerant type of person. She comes and goes, and whatever her background may well be.” 

‘The biggest flaw investigators can make is having a closed mind and saying, “Well, you know, she’s just a runaway.”‘

Retired detective Charlie Bezzina said investigators would be pushing their inquiries as hard as possible because time was vital in missing persons cases

Bezzina cited the case of William Tyrrell, the three-year-old boy who disappeared from Kendall on the NSW mid-north coast in September 2014. 

‘Time and time again, investigators pay a significant penalty by not doing the job appropriately and to the full extent,’ he said.

‘When they do find a person is deceased and they say, “Jeez, what have we lost in the meantime?”

‘So you’ve got to go full bore. You’ve really got to and put in as much resources as you can.’ 

Are police putting in enough resources? 

Bezzina noted the investigation into Pheobe’s disappearance was being handled by senior criminal investigators. 

‘I think from what I’m reading in the media, they are going full out,’ he said. ‘They are committing resources to it. 

‘They’re looking at her bank movements, telephone, any other places that they might be able to track her in her movements, and they’ll continue.’ 

Bezzina said it was vital that senior investigators drive their junior officers to chase down every lead and then review that information.

‘You’ve got to follow every avenue,’ he said. 

‘And that’s what separates a specialist squad like the homicide squad or the missing persons unit, because they know the pitfalls, as opposed to a general detective.’ 

Pheobe had found accommodation with Wood and Bromley at their home which had piles of trash littered in its grounds when police sealed it off and sent in forensic experts 

What’s next in the investigation? 

Bezzina said investigators would be pushing their inquiries as hard as possible because time was vital in missing persons cases.

‘As time goes on, we lose evidence, we lose witnesses, we lose memory, and we lose the impact from the community being involved,’ he said.

‘So it’s keeping it alive in the community mind to be able to say, “We need you – you are the eyes and ears of us as investigators.”

‘it’s really keeping that interest up and keeping that momentum up, from a team leader to your frontline investigators.’

Bezzina said it appeared police were doing all they could to find Pheobe and anyone who might be responsible if she has met a grim fate.

‘It’s heartening to see that the police have taken this action given the thousands upon thousands of people that do go missing,’ he said. 

‘I can’t see any criticism for what the police are doing. It takes time. It’s not a quick fix. It is being methodical, and there’s no going back. 

‘We have got an individual, a 17-year-old individual, that for no apparent reason that we know of has gone missing, which is a cause of concern.

‘And the buck stops with the police to give the family answers one way or the other.’ 

Charlie Bezzina has for the past 14 years been assisting the family of 12-year-old Terry Floyd who went missing from Victoria’s Central Highlands in June 1975.

He is a major contributor to the podcast The Boy in the Goldmine which re-examines Terry’s disappearance.

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