Police have issued a new update in the investigation of the missing teenager who never boarded her scheduled flight.
Pheobe Bishop, a 17-year-old girl from Queensland, was scheduled to fly from Bundaberg to Western Australia via Brisbane on Thursday, May 15, to visit a friend. But she never checked in or boarded her 8:30AM flight and hasn’t been seen since.
Acting Police Inspector Ryan Thompson confirmed her last known location was Airport Drive, near Bundaberg Airport.
However, there is no CCTV footage showing her entering the terminal. “We’re still working together to piece together her movements on that day,” Insp Thompson said, The Independent.
He revealed that “associates” dropped the teen off at the airport, but what happened outside the terminal remains a mystery.
“As time goes on, the more worried the family is and the more concerned police are becoming,” he added, per Daily Mail. “We are keeping an open mind in relation to the investigation.”
Detectives have seized a silver Hyundai ix35 hatchback with registration 414-EW3, believed to be the vehicle Pheobe travelled in to the airport.
They’ve also declared her previous residence - a property in Gin Gin, west of Bundaberg - as a crime scene.
Police reportedly removed several dead dogs from the property, which also contains a large house bus and is scattered with rubbish.
A land search around Airport Drive and the surrounding bushland was conducted on Monday, but turned up none of Pheobe’s belongings.
Her phone and social media have gone silent since the day before her disappearance, and her bank account has shown no activity since May 14.
Pheobe is approximately 180cm tall with a pale complexion, long dyed red hair, and hazel eyes. She was last seen wearing a green tank top and grey tracksuit pants, and was travelling with luggage.
Her mother, Kylie Johnson, has been vocal throughout the ordeal, putting up over 400 missing person posters around Bundaberg and beyond. On Wednesday, she shared an emotional plea: “As we enter another day with Pheobe still missing our heart's are breaking more and more. Phee we just need to know that you're ok? We just need to hear your voice!”
She continued, “I'm begging anyone that has anything to contact Police Link 131 444. We as a family are thankful for the message of support and offers of assistance. Right now we are grasping onto hope and just trying to breath.”
Johnson dismissed suggestions that her daughter had run away, calling the theory completely out of character. “If you knew Pheobe you would know that she is free spirited and loves hard! She is loyal to the core and cut throat,” she wrote.
She added that the teen had just marked the anniversaries of the deaths of close family members and a best friend, making her sudden disappearance even more unlikely. “She would never leave her family without contact - especially this week. [She] would never not contact us at this emotional time," Johnson shared.
Volunteers have already searched riverbanks and bushland near the airport.
In another Facebook post, Ms Johnson expressed her gratitude and shared a gut-wrenching message to her daughter: “Honestly have no words to describe our heartbreak, heartache or fear that we won't see or hear from her again.”
“Flea, Flea, my heart tells me that you won't see this, but I love you more than anything in the world. Would be homeless just to hear you say ‘Hey Mummzie what's doing’... I would honestly sell my soul to hear those words.”
Authorities continue to review CCTV and are appealing to anyone with dashcam footage from Airport Drive, Commercial Street, or Samuels Road to come forward.
Insp Thompson affirmed: “We do have associates that are assisting police with our inquiries… and this is why we're trying to narrow down that timeline in relation to where Pheobe could be.”