Latest news with #CharlieBezzina
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- General
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE 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 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.' 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. 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. '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.' 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.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- General
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Top cop answers the question on everyone's mind after a mother was bashed, stripped and kidnapped in front of her kids before she was burned alive
A high-profile detective has revealed the investigation into the gruesome murder of a mother could be hampered by terrified witnesses being too scared to speak out. Thi Kim Tran, 45, was grabbed at gunpoint from her Bankstown home, in southwest Sydney, by a group of five masked intruders on April 17 at about 10.30pm. She was forced to strip in her driveway and dragged to a waiting SUV while her eight-year-old son was bashed with a baseball bat and left for dead. Tran's body was found in the burnt-out vehicle near Beverly Hills, about 6km from her home, an hour later. Former Victoria Police homicide detective Charlie Bezzina told Daily Mail Australia the case was a shock to him and 'off the Richter Scale'. '(Australians) are not used to that level of crime and I say that because it involves assaults allegedly on children. Of all the cases I've dealt with, I've never had that,' he said. Police said on April 22 that their inquiries found Ms Tran and her children were 'likely targeted' due to her partner, Tung Nguyen's involvement in a criminal network. When asked why the investigation has taken so long, with no arrests made since that revelation, Mr Bezzina said witnesses may be too afraid of the alleged assailants. 'Any investigations undertaken into the underworld becomes very, very difficult because of a "cone of silence",' he said, a reference to prohibiting communication. '(The incident) sends a very clear message to all that the offenders have got no scruples which would send even more fear to anyone who might assist police.' It's believed a Vietnamese drug cartel messaged Mr Nguyen ransom countdown messages 20 minutes, 10 minutes and five minutes before Ms Tran's body was set alight. 'It's unclear if he was out of service range or what, but he didn't receive them,' a police source told The Daily Telegraph. Mr Bezzina said a cartel's alleged involvement could mean the murder was also a 'broader warning' to other criminals that the group is 'not to be messed with'. The former detective said those allegedly involved could also have fled the country which will further complicate the investigation. 'More often than not, the people who may well be involved depart overseas (if) the police get a whiff of who they (are),' he said. 'The problem is, in the early stages of investigation, (detectives) may have no idea to be able to put an alert on any points of departure.' NSW Police Homicide Squad commander Detective Superintendent Joe Doueihi has previously revealed a gang was behind the savage murder. He said officers believed there was a 'conflict' between Mr Nguyen and 'upper echelons' of the organised crime network. 'This woman and her children were in no means involved or had knowledge of what their partner or their father was up to,' Det Supt Doueihi said. Mr Nguyen has been assisting investigators and has not been charged in relation to Ms Tran's death. Det Supt Doueihi alleged Mr Nguyen had worked for the organised crime group for 'several months' before the attack. He was previously known to police for minor drug-related offences, he said. Mr Bezzina warned there is a 'high possibility' the case might not be solved, claiming police 'can't really rely upon information coming forth'. 'But police won't be disheartened by that,' he said. 'They will just soldier on and continue as best they can. They will be going all out given the endless nature of this case.' Victoria Police executed a search warrant in April last year at an alleged drug lab in Springdallah, a rural Victorian town almost 1,000km from the Bankstown home. Officers seized items consistent with the manufacture of prohibited drugs and the property has been a key part of the investigation, sources said. They claimed a group of men had burst into a farmhouse on the property where drugs were being manufactured just weeks before Ms Tran's death, looking for Mr Nguyen. Mr Bezzina said the intelligence on the alleged lab was a 'positive sign'. 'It's a hard slog, especially dealing with these type of group of criminals,' he added. 'But the potential is always there (for police) to be able to solve it. They'll never give up.'
Daily Mail
25-05-2025
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Top cop reveals the crucial time frame detectives have missed in their search for Pheobe Bishop - and why the chances of finding her are dwindling by the second
A former Aussie detective has shared the crucial time frame police have now missed as the search for Pheobe Bishop in Queensland continues. The 17-year-old was last seen leaving a home in Gin Gin, Bundaberg, where she had been living with couple Tanika Bromley and James Wood, on May 15. Detectives believe the pair drove Pheobe the 40 minutes to Bundaberg Airport where she was supposed to board an 8.30am flight to Brisbane and then onto Perth where she planned to meet up with her boyfriend. Former homicide detective Charlie Bezzina has told Daily Mail Australia that with Pheobe now being missing for 10 days, detectives have missed a key time frame. 'Like any missing person the significant percentage of success would be within the first 24 hours,' he said. 'The longer it goes on, the more chance of success diminishes unfortunately as the loss of possible evidence and clues increases. 'In respect to missing persons, unlike America there is no 24 hour rule that you have to wait, police are guided by the circumstances of the individual and what they are told by their loved ones.' In a telling update, cadaver dogs have been brought in as the search for missing teenager Pheobe continues. Queensland Police deployed the canines at the Good Night Scrub National Park just outside of Gin Gin, an hour away from where Pheobe was last seen, on Sunday. Questions remain over exactly why she was living at a house with the Ms Bromley and James Wood. Social media posts made by Pheobe before she disappeared suggested the troubled teen had fallen out with her mother and would not return home. The couple have been questioned by police and were released. No charges have been laid over Pheobe's disappearance and Daily Mail Australia does not suggest Mr Wood and Ms Bromley were involved. On Saturday, police began conducting a land, water and aerial search of the Good Scrub National Park. Queensland's State Emergency Service crews are combing through the bushland, while police divers search waterways.
