The housemate of a missing 17-year-old Queensland girl has been released after being interviewed by police in relation to her disappearance.
Pheobe Bishop was last seen in Bundaberg, Queensland on 15 May where she intended to board a flight. Police say she never checked in.
On Wednesday, her housemate, a 34-year-old man, was arrested and taken into custody. He was released with no charges early on Thursday morning.
Police are treating her disappearance as “suspicious”.
Initial investigation
Bishop was reported by police as missing on 16 May, a day after she was last seen on Airport Drive in Bundaberg.
Police conducted a search of Airport Drive where Bishop was last spotted but did not discover “the girl or any personal belongings.”
Following this, two crime scenes were established: Bishop’s residence in the town of Gin Gin, where she lived with Wood, and the car that she was seen in on Airport Drive. The car was seized by the police.
Late last month, Detective Inspector Ryan Thompson told media: “People don’t vanish — someone knows something and we’re urging anyone with information to contact police immediately.”
Search efforts
On 23 May, police conducted a search in the Good Night Scrub National Park south of Gin Gin.
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During that search, police took some items in for “forensic examination.”
This search has since been suspended and police continue to search the greater Gin Gin area.
Custody
On Wednesday, Bishop’s 34-year-old housemate James Wood was arrested and taken into custody. Police said he was “assisting with enquiries as part of ongoing investigations into [her] disappearance.”
Wood was released without being charged on Thursday morning.
Police said: “Detectives are continuing to run through several lines of enquiry as investigations continue, and will conduct physical searches when required.”
Response
Bishop’s mother Kylie Johnson said her family’s lives “have been changed for the worst”.
“This is a pain no person or family should ever have to experience. Pheobe was a beautiful, loving, kind person and every day not knowing where she has been is devastating for us.”
“I know that this investigation isn’t over. It will not be over for me until we find Pheobe. I still hold hope that Pheobe will come home but I have to consider the possibility that she also won’t.”
