'This hell is heavy': Missing teen Pheobe Bishop's mother shares update as search continues
A community is rallying around an anxious family as police investigate a 17-year-old girl's "suspicious" disappearance after she missed a flight and vanished. Pheobe Bishop was last seen near Bundaberg Airport in southern Queensland about 8.30am on 15 May after booking a trip to Western Australia. She has not been seen or heard from since, with CCTV footage indicating she never entered the airport. A national park an hour's drive from the airport has emerged as "crucial" to the investigation, with homicide detectives and police divers called in. Her mother, Kylie Johnson, said her family was living in a "cyclone of uncertainty", and her young son was asking why his sister wasn't answering their calls.
"Your little man/brother asked yesterday, 'Why won't Phee take our calls? She always takes our calls!'" Johnson wrote on social media on Monday. "Mate, I wish I knew, but we have to believe that the police and the lights that our amazing community are leaving on will ... bring her home to us."
The Gin Gin property near Bundaberg, where Pheobe lived with two other people, has been declared a crime scene, along with a vehicle thought to have been used to take the teen to the airport. Queensland Police expanded their search about 40km south of Gin Gin to the Good Night Scrub National Park. The search continued on Monday with police encouraging anyone with information to come forward.
Johnson said the wait for answers was taking its toll. "As we enter day 11 of Pheobe still not being home, our numbness to our tears, to our hearts breaking and this hell is heavy," she posted on Facebook. "Not knowing what to say, what to do or even how to continue to live in this cyclone of uncertainty. "The tears come, the anger and frustrations come and most of all our hearts are shattering more and more each Day."
Queensland Premier David Crisafulli said every effort would be made to support the police search for Bishop. "Events like that rock the heart and soul of communities — they always do," he told reporters on Monday. "We want the community to know that we are thinking about them and we will give every resource that police need to do the job." Residents of the Gin Gin property where Pheobe lived have spoken to officers and are cooperating with police, who are treating her disappearance as suspicious. Pheobe is about 180cm tall with a pale complexion, long hair that has been dyed red and hazel eyes. She was last seen carrying luggage, wearing a green tank top and grey sweatpants.
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