Pheobe Bishop's last TikTok was a conversation with her younger self. Photo / Facebook
Pheobe Bishop's last TikTok was a conversation with her younger self. Photo / Facebook
One of the housemates of missing Queensland teenager Pheobe Bishop has been released on bail following multiple weapons-related charges.
Tanika Kristan Bromley, 33, was arrested on Sunday after police allegedly uncovered a cache of weapons during a vehicle search, including a shortened firearm, ammunition, and two replica handguns.
The searchof a grey Hyundai ix35 also led police to a property in Gin Gin, approximately 50km west of Bundaberg, where more ammunition was reportedly found.
Bromley now faces charges including possessing or acquiring restricted items, unlawful possession of weapons, and two counts of failing to hold the required authority to possess explosives.
Queensland Police have stated that the weapons are not directly connected to the ongoing investigation into Pheobe Bishop’s disappearance.
Bromley was granted bail on Tuesday after appearing via video link at Bundaberg Magistrates Court on consecutive days.
Bromley was reportedly already on bail at the time of Bishop’s disappearance, having faced Bundaberg Magistrates Court on March 28 in relation to the weapons charges.
She is due to reappear in Bundaberg Courthouse on June 23 to face charges related to both matters.
Texts reportedly sent by Bishop’s housemate the day after her disappearance have emerged, where the man discusses speaking with police.
The missing Bundaberg teenager was living with housemates James Wood and Bromley at a property in Gin Gin before her suspicious disappearance on May 15.
Police believe the pair drove the 17-year-old girl to Bundaberg Airport in Bromley’s Hyundai ix35, before she vanished.
Bromley and Wood have been interviewed by police and there is no suggestion they were involved in Bishop’s disappearance.
A reported text exchange between Wood and a concerned friend that began at 9.45pm on Friday, May 16 – the day after Bishop went missing - was published by the Daily Mail on Monday.
“Hey hey how are you,” the unidentified friend asked.
“Yeah been better ayy darlz how about you?” Wood replied.
“That’s not good any word on Pheobe at all?” the friend responded.
“No nothing atm [at the moment] but we are just printing up more flyers to go around and stick up everywhere and keep searching and hope she makes contact with someone ayy,” Wood replied.
Later in the reported conversation, the friend remarked that “surely the airport has footage”.
Wood responded: “I don’t know ayy but how’s this cause I was one of the last people to see her alive cops basically asked me if I did her in or hurt her at all ayy.
“I was like WTF, so yeah that’s nice to know that purely because I’m a male and look the way I do.”
Police plead for more information
Detective Acting Inspector Ryan Thompson provided an update on Tuesday regarding the ongoing investigation into the missing teenager.
“Several items have been seized and are undergoing forensic examination,” Thompson said during a press conference.
He added that police found no signs of a struggle at a national park site that was recently searched.
“We are still treating this as a suspicious missing person [case], we are speaking to a number of persons and they are providing us with information,” he said.
Thompson declined to specify the nature of the seized items or where exactly they were located.
He also urged the public to come forward with any information about the grey Hyundai ix35, owned by Bromley, and its movements during the days surrounding Bishop’s disappearance.
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Police believe Bromley drove Bishop to Bundaberg Airport in the Hyundai ix35 before the teen vanished.
The vehicle, which police believe Bishop was driven in prior to vanishing, had been seized earlier for a “number of examinations” before officers allegedly found firearms and ammunition inside it.
Inspector Thompson said that discovery was being treated as separate from the investigation but said police weren’t “ruling anything out”.
Bromley was arrested on Saturday, May 25, in Millbank and charged with the unrelated gun offences at the Gin Gin home.
Bromley faces two counts of authority required to possess explosives and one count each of possessing/acquiring restricted items and unlawful possession of weapons.
Her partner, Wood, reportedly attended court to support her.
Kylie Johnson with her 17-year-old daughter, Pheobe Bishop, who is missing after last being seen near Bundaberg Airport. Photo / Facebook
No arrests or charges have been made relating to the missing teenager.
The Hyundai ix35, with Queensland registration 414 EW3, was recently seen in Bundaberg with noticeably modified number plates. Photographs obtained by the Courier Mail show the original plates altered with black electrical tape and maroon paint to read 474 BW8, with “NSW” handwritten on the plates in black ink.
The Hyundai logo on the vehicle was also covered with a makeshift Toyota emblem.
Thompson confirmed that police were looking into the matter.
He also made a fresh appeal to the public for dashcam and CCTV footage of the Hyundai near the Airport Dr and Samuels Rd area in Bundaberg and also the Gin Gin area on May 15.
The car, along with a property in Gin Gin where Bishop was staying before her disappearance, were both declared active crime scenes.
CCTV footage posted online on Sunday showed a grey Hyundai ix35 – the same car model police allege Bishop travelled in on the day of her disappearance – driving along a back street of Gin Gin.
The CCTV footage was timestamped 10.30am on May 15 – two hours after Pheobe was alleged to have been dropped to Bundaberg Airport to fly to Brisbane.
The video has since been deleted by the original poster.
The bizarre images have emerged as police continue to search the greater Good Night Scrub National Park and the Gin Gin areas for Bishop.
Police recently expanded the operation after they found evidence may have been moved from the Good Night Scrub area prior to their arrival.
Some items of interest have been located during the search and will undergo forensic examination.
On Tuesday, Bishop’s mother, Kylie Johnson, published a post to Facebook that said she was “finding it hard to get out of bed” while the search for her daughter continued.
“To find the strength to put one foot in front of the other and know what to do, what to think or what to say,” she wrote.
“People have judgements, accusations and continue to say untruths. I’m not going to correct you or be investing what little strength I have to be correcting these statements or people.
