Police suspend search for missing Queensland teenager Pheobe Bishop

Australia Broadcast Center

2 days ago

Police have scaled back the search for missing Queensland teenager Pheobe Bishop but have not ruled out further searches if more information comes to light.
The 17-year-old from Gin Gin, about four hours north of Brisbane, has not been seen or heard from since Thursday, May 15.
Pheobe was meant to board a flight from Bundaberg to Western Australia, but police said airport CCTV showed she never entered the terminal.
Police declared the teenager's disappearance suspicious on May 21.
Two crime scenes were declared — the car in which she was believed to have been travelling to the airport in, and the house where she had been living in Gin Gin.
More than a week after Pheobe disappeared, police began searching Good Night Scrub National Park, an hour south-west of Bundaberg.
Cadaver dogs, water police, drones and State Emergency Service personnel combed through the thick scrub for five days and items of interest were collected for forensic examination.
Police would not disclose any items they located there.
They said while they were no longer conducting any "physical searches" for Pheobe, they would recommence "as needed and as information is provided".
Police are still investigating several lines of enquiry, including asking for information about the movements of a grey Hyundai ix35, registration 414 EW3, in the greater Gin Gin area between May 15 and 18.
As the search was suspended, Pheobe's mother Kylie Johnson launched a fresh appeal for information about her daughter's disappearance.
"Starting day 20 with you still missing Pheobe," Ms Johnson posted on social media.
"I don't know if life will ever be the same again? I don't know if I will ever look at the world the same way that I did before May 15th.
"What I do know is that people have information on where you are Phee and we need that reported to police."
Sarah Wayland, strategic social work leader and trauma expert at CQ University, said not much was known about the long-term impacts of a missing loved one.
Professor Wayland said there was little funded support for the families of missing persons in Australia.
"What I've found over the years is that there's a lot of families who have that lived experience of having someone missing, that set up foundations or charities," she said.
"They've been trying that very piecemeal approach of offering support to families rather than there being one national service available."