Missing Bundaberg teenager Pheobe Bishop with her mother Kylie Johnson. Picture / Supplied
Police have arrested the male housemate of Pheobe Bishop as part of their investigation into the 17-year-old’s disappearance.
James Wood, 34, was taken into police custody in Bundaberg on Wednesday and is assisting police with inquiries. No charges have been laid.
The development comes shortly after Queensland Police stopped the physical search for the teen, who went missing three weeks ago.
Shortly before his arrest, Wood broke his silence about the last time he saw the missing girl as he drove her to Bundaberg Airport for a flight to Perth.
He told the Daily Mail on Wednesday that Phoebe had been complaining and having emotional outbursts before they left for the airport.
He said she was stressed about not wearing any makeup and missing her flight to Western Australia to visit her boyfriend.
Wood said their housemate, Tanika Bromley, passed her makeup bag to Phoebe and told her to take what she liked, but the teen kept arguing.
Wood said he told Bromley to pull over when they were about 1km from the airport.
“We wanted to give her five minutes, give her her own space to do what she needed to do,” he told the Daily Mail.
“We walked to the end, it was maybe five minutes, maybe it was three minutes or maybe it was eight but that’s about how long we were gone.”
He said when they returned to the car, Phoebe and her bag were gone.
They thought she had walked to the airport and drove there to check, but did not see her.
They then decided to check surrounding roads in case she had walked off in another direction.
He said this would have been the moment when CCTV footage picked up his car heading towards the Good Night Scrub National Park.
Wood insisted that he did not hurt Pheobe and assumed she had boarded the flight.
The search for the missing teenager, who has been missing since May 15, spanned her home in Gin Gin near Bundaberg, and the Good Night Scrub National Park.
Police on Wednesday announced they had called off the physical search for the teenager.
“There are currently no physical searches for Pheobe at this stage, however, physical searches will happen as needed and as information is provided,” the spokesman told NewsWire.
“Investigations are ongoing and police are continuing to run out several lines of inquiry.”
The update comes after the teenager’s mother said she knows “people have information” that needs to be reported to police. Kylie Johnson issued an emotional plea on Facebook on Wednesday stating she is “starting day 20 with you still missing Pheobe”.
“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,” Johnson wrote.
“What I do know is that people have information on where you are Phee and we need that reported to police.”
Johnson also shared a picture of Pheobe alongside a police appeal for information regarding her whereabouts or footage of a grey Hyundai ix35 with Queensland registration 414 EW3.
Police believe Pheobe was travelling in the Hyundai – owned by her housemate – to the airport before she disappeared.
Johnson has posted daily about the search for Pheobe and has received comments from vicious online trolls.
“My posts aren’t public to defend myself or react to negative comments. In fact negative comments also draw conversations and that’s what we as a family need to bring Phee home,” she posted last week.
“Hell I will take any conversation if it has my baby walking down our driveway or calling any of us.
“So please don’t be mad at the trolls. They have a role to play just like the amazing people who honestly just want our Phoebe home.”
The trolling spiked after Johnson appeared in a video posted online by Queensland Police appealing for information and expressing her distress, which prompted social media users to critically analyse her tone and demeanour.
“People wanted a statement, they got one yet still question me as a mother?” Johnson posted.
“If anyone would like to be in this position please step in and show me how to do this? Show me what a perfect parent looks like,” she said, defending herself.
“Show me how to navigate this? Show me how to deal with the unknown and the uncertainty? Show me how to use perfect language and emotion in a situation that no parent ever wants to be in.”
Police and State Emergency Services spent five days searching nearby Good Night Scrub National Park for any sign of the missing teen, before the operation was suspended on May 28.
Despite the search of the national park being suspended, police stressed the investigation was ongoing and they had “other areas” of interest.
In a statement to skynews.com.au on Saturday, a Queensland Police spokesman said: “The greater Gin Gin area remains the focus of the investigation.”