2 days ago
Sister's emotional plea at candlelight vigil for alleged murder victim Pheobe Bishop
Alleged murder victim Pheobe Bishop's sister has made an emotional plea to people who gathered to celebrate the life of the Bundaberg teenager.
Hundreds of people attended a second candle lit vigil in two days paying tribute to the 17-year-old whose body is believed to have been found in dense scrub land on Friday.
Bishop's older sister, Kaylea Bishop, made an emotional plea for everyone to cherish their siblings through the good and the bad.
'I want to tell everybody, as much as your siblings p*** you off and grind your gears — because god, they know how to do that — don't take them for granted,' she said.
'Love every minute of it.'
Kaylea said she would pay $1,000,000 to have her sister walk through the door and 'punch her on the arm'.
'Don't take it for granted, just cherish it,' she said.
'Love the good and the bad. Worship it all. Capture the memories.'
Community leaders, friends, family and supporters joined the vigil in Buss Park in central Bundaberg, in the coastal Wide Bay-Burnett region of southern Queensland, on Monday night.
Bundaberg Mayor Helen Blackburn said people had gathered to remember Bishop 'not just for how she passed, but for how she lived'.
'Her passing has left a silence we all feel deeply,' Backburn said.
'In the midst of this sorrow something beautiful has happened, we have come together, we've paused our busy lives, set aside our differences and stood side-by-side.
'In times like these, the true character of a community is revealed.'
Bishop's mother, Kylie Johnson, highlighted the importance of programs such as the Making a Difference (MAD) Camp and Y School in Bundaberg — both of which had positive impacts on her daughter's life, Johnson said.
MAD Camp aims to help teenagers struggling with everyday challenges and to 'build positive relationships and find a sense of hope, purpose and meaning', while the Y School offers alternative, holistic education that places a priority on the mental and emotional health of students with a 'trauma-aware' approach to teaching.
Johnson also thanked people from her community and overseas for their support, saying Bishop would be 'proud that she got to travel the world without even leaving Australia'.
'She'd be blown away by that support,' she said.
Candles, flowers, photos and glass jars filled with prayers and memories written on paper were placed in the park as those gathered listened to music chosen by Bishop's family.
The event marked three and a half weeks since Bishop went missing on her way to Bundaberg Airport.
She was preparing to fly to Western Australia on May 15 to visit her boyfriend but failed to check in.
After weeks of searching, human remains believed to belong to Bishop were discovered in dense bushland in an area of the Good Night Scrub Park near Gin Gin, a rural town about 50m west of Bundaberg, on Friday afternoon.
The remains are yet to be formally identified, with police confirming it will take ' significant' forensic examinations before investigators will be able to identify Bishop's cause of death.
Police have still not found her luggage or her phone.
Bishop's housemates James Wood, 34, and Tanika Bromley, 33 have each been charged with one count of murder and two counts of interfering with a corpse.
Investigations are ongoing.
