Missing teen's housemates to face murder charges

West Australian

a day ago

The housemates of missing teen Pheobe Bishop are set to appear in court after being charged with the 17-year-old's murder.
James Wood, 34, and Tanika Bromley, 33, were arrested in southern Queensland's Bundaberg area on Thursday night.
It marked three weeks to the day after Pheobe missed a flight and vanished.
Wood and Bromley were also charged with two counts each of interfering with a corpse.
Pheobe's remains are yet to be located, police said.
Pheobe's mother Kylie Johnson said on Thursday night her family had been "shattered".
Ms Johnson had been posting on social media almost every day since her daughter's "suspicious" disappearance pleading for information.
"Our world has just been shattered into the most horrific place I've ever been…" she wrote on Thursday night.
"I need my baby home to put her to rest! I'm absolutely begging anyone that knows anything to come forward.
"We need to put her to rest, we need to put her to peace."
Wood and Bromley are set to appear in Bundaberg Magistrates Court on Friday.
Police will address the media at a press conference in Bundaberg from 9am AEST on Friday.
"Detectives continue to investigate this matter, and physical searches will continue as needed as information is provided," a Queensland Police statement said.
Pheobe was last seen near Bundaberg airport about 8.30am on May 15 after booking a trip to Western Australia to see her boyfriend.
CCTV footage indicated Pheobe never arrived at the airport terminal.
Wood had previously been taken into custody on Wednesday but was released several hours later without charge.
The search for Pheobe was scaled back on Wednesday after police had spent weeks combing several areas of interest in southern Queensland.
One of those areas was a property in Gin Gin where Pheobe had lived with Wood and Bromley.
The Gin Gin property near Bundaberg and a grey Hyundai ix35, thought to have been used to take Pheobe to the airport, were declared crime scenes soon after her disappearance which police described as suspicious.
The police search at one stage focused on Good Night Scrub national park, an hour's drive from Bundaberg airport, with homicide detectives, cadaver dogs and divers called in.
Some items believed to be linked to the investigation were seized for forensic examination.
The search revealed evidence might have been moved from the national park before police arrived.
Wood and Bromley had earlier been charged with unrelated weapons offences.
The heartbreaking toll of Pheobe's disappearance had been documented by Ms Johnson's social media posts as they held onto hope.
"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," Ms Johnson posted on Wednesday.