Leaked messages from the housemate of missing teen Pheobe Bishop have emerged after she vanished without a trace in Queensland.
Pheobe, 17, was last seen on Thursday May 15, leaving a rundown home in Gin Gin near Bundaberg where she had been living with couple Tanika Bromley and James Wood.
Queensland Police 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.
Bromley’s 2011 silver Hyundai ix35 hatchback with registration 414-EW3 – the car Pheobe travelled to Airport Drive in – has been declared a crime scene along with the Gin Gin house.
Now Daily Mail Australia has obtained the private messages that Mr Wood sent hours after Pheobe was reported missing.
‘Hey hey how are you,’ asked a concerned friend on Friday 16 May at 9.45pm.
‘Yeah been better ayy darlz how bout you?’ Wood replied on Saturday 17 at 6.18am.
‘That’s not good any word on Pheobe at all?’ the friend asked.
James Wood sent a series of texts to a friend hours after the 17-year-old failed to board her flight from Bundeburg to West Australia
Pheobe was supposed to board a flight to Brisbane and then onwards to see her boyfriend – but police say she did not check in and she has not been seen since.
‘No nothing atm, but we are just printing up more flyers to go around and stick up every where and keep searching and hope she makes contact with someone ayy,’ replied Wood.
The worried friend said they had their ‘fingers crossed for her’ and questioned the whereabouts of any CCTV that may help with the investigation.
‘Surely the airport has footage,’ they asked, before Mr Wood replied the following morning.
‘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,’ he said.
Mr Wood was questioned by police last week after Phoebe vanished, but was released without charge.
Daily Mail Australia is not suggesting he was involved or considered a suspect – only that police had spoken to Mr Wood after Pheobe went missing.
Mr Wood told the friend he was frustrated that the police asked those questions.
‘I was like WTF, so yeah that’s nice to know that purely because I’m a male and look the way I do.’
Mr Wood has offered a reward for anyone who can reveal her location.
‘Any little bit of information can help, please if you know something, please contact her family,’ Mr Wood wrote on social media.
‘If you know where she is and can give her family a legit address to bring her home or make contact with her, you can (have) my fishing boat as a reward, 15 ft alloy tinnie with trailer and all.
‘It’s not much but it’s yours if you know where she is, and please homie (Pheobe) if you see this please just contact one of us and let us know you’re ok.’
Daily Mail Australia have obtained the private messages that Wood sent hours after Pheobe was reported missing.
Pheobe had moved in to the run-down Gin Gin property with Wood and his partner Tamika Bromley after a reported falling out with her mother
Police announced they had discovered an item of potential interest in the national park
On Monday, police announced that Pheobe’s other flatmate, Tanika Bromley, had been charged with multiple unrelated weapons-related offences.
During a search of the grey Hyundai ix35, police allegedly found a shortened firearm, ammunition, and two replica handguns. Additional ammunition was reportedly located at the Gin Gin property.
Bromley faces two counts of possessing explosives without authority, and one count each of possessing restricted items and unlawful possession of weapons.
Meanwhile, Queensland Police have been searching bushland with cadaver dogs at the Good Night Scrub National Park, about an hour away from where Phoebe was last seen.
On Monday, police announced that several items potentially linked to the investigation were discovered during the search of the park and they have been sent for forensic testing.
But in an explosive twist, officers revealed that key evidence may have been moved from the park before they began their search on Friday.
Though it’s unclear why Pheobe was living at the Gin Gin house, the final posts she made to social media before she disappeared suggested the troubled teen had fallen out with her mother and would not return home.
The couple’s neighbour, Shari Loughland, told Daily Mail Australia on Thursday that Pheobe had only been living there ‘for a few weeks, up to a month or two’.
However, it seems she was also having a hard time living at the Gin Gin property.
On Monday, police announced that Pheobe’s other flatmate, Tanika Bromley (pictured) , had been charged with multiple unrelated weapons-related offences.
Questions remain over why the young girl was living at the house, but final posts she made to social media before she disappeared suggested the troubled teen had fallen out with her mother and would not return home
A friend who wished to remain anonymous has shared the last messages they received from Pheobe, sent on Monday, May 12 before she went missing.
‘I’ve been better but I focus on the good s***,’ Pheobe said when asked how she was going.
‘I take off to WA in three days! Get out of this s*** home for a bit so that will be good, just packing atm (at the moment).’
Asked how long she was going for, Pheobe replied: ’10 days beautiful x’.
The Gin Gin property where Pheobe was living, cluttered with rubbish and a dilapidated bus, has been a hive of police activity during the probe into her disappearance.
When Daily Mail Australia visited the scene on Thursday, there was a pervading stench of decay emanating from the Milden St property, which witnesses speculated could be due to the dead dogs reportedly found at the home.
Early reports suggested police had discovered and removed four dead dogs from the scene, but one neighbour told Daily Mail Australia she believed as many as 13 of the animals had been found.
An IGA supermarket worker, who did not want to be identified, told Daily Mail Australia Pheobe visited the store on several occasions ‘looking worse for wear with no money’.
‘Why aren’t questions being asked about what happened to that poor child 10 weeks before this? Where were her parents?’ the worker asked.
Both Mr Wood and his partner Bromley were questioned by police and released without charge and Daily Mail Australia does not suggest either were involved in Pheobe’s disappearance
Investigators have asked for members of the public who may have seen a Hyundai ix35 in the Good Scrub National Park on May 15 to come forward
The visibly angry staffer said Pheobe ‘looked like no one owned her’ and was desperate for food, often ‘short changing’ them ‘to the point that I paid for her’.
‘People in this country have to prove they can look after animals or reptiles but not children,’ they said.
‘This town should be standing still but it’s not. It should be crawling with people but it’s not.
‘I’ve seen her parents but had no idea she belonged to them until after. She didn’t look like she belonged to anyone.’
Pheobe’s mother Kylie Johnson shared an emotional message on Facebook on Monday as the search for her missing daughter entered the eleventh day.
Ms Johnson said life was living a ‘heavy hell’ and explained the teen’s disappearance was taking a toll on everyone with her son asking why his sister won’t return his calls.
‘Not knowing what to say, what to do or even how to continue to live in this cyclone of uncertainty,’ she wrote.
‘The tears come, the anger and frustrations come and most of all our hearts are shattering more and more each day.
‘Your little man/brother asked yesterday “Why won’t Phee take our calls? She always takes our calls!”
