The housemate of missing 17-year-old Pheobe Bishop has tried to hide her face and ignored questions after she was seen out in public for the first time since the teen vanished.
Tanika Bromley, 33, arrived at Gin Gin police station for a check-in as part of her bail conditions for her firearms charges at about 11.20am on Wednesday.
A hooded Bromley entered the station through a back entrance, with two police officers appearing to assist her in getting in and out of the station.
She remained silent when asked: ‘What happened to Pheobe? Where is she? Did you really drive her to the airport?’
Bromley was accompanied by another woman who drove her away in a silver Toyota Hilux.
It comes after Bromley faced court after a night in jail over a weapons haul allegedly found in the car at the centre of the teen’s disappearance.
Pheobe was last seen on May 15 leaving a rundown home in Gin Gin, near Bundaberg, where she had been living with Bromley and her partner James Wood.
Police launched an intense search for Pheobe in a nearby bushland area, scouring it for several days with cadaver dogs – but on Wednesday, cops confirmed they had suspended the search.
Tanika Bromley, 33, arrived at Gin Gin police station on Wednesday as part of her bail conditions for firearms charges
A hooded Bromley entered the station through a back entrance, with two police officers appearing to assist her in getting in and out of the station
Bromley was accompanied by a woman who drove her away in a silver Toyota Hilux
‘The search at the Good Night Scrub National Park has been suspended… Investigations are ongoing and police are continuing to run out several lines of inquiry,’ a police spokesperson said.
‘In addition to investigative work, physical searches will continue as needed and as information is provided.
‘The greater Gin Gin area remains the focus of the investigation.’
After Bromley’s appearance on Wednesday morning, her parents’ house just north of the police station on the Bruce Highway remained quiet. So too did the run-down house where Bromley once lived with Mr Wood and Pheobe. Bromley is not staying at either location while out on bail and her whereabouts remain unclear.
Queensland Police say the pair told detectives they drove Pheobe to Bundaberg Airport for an 8.30am flight to Brisbane and then on to Perth, where she planned to meet up with her boyfriend.
Pheobe’s housemates told police they dropped the teen off at the airport in Bromley’s 2011 silver Hyundai ix35 hatchback, but no CCTV of her at the airport has been found.
Forensic experts have since pored over the Hyundai and the home in Gin Gin after detectives declared both a crime scene as the hunt for the teenager continued.
The Hyundai was later spotted on the streets of Bundaberg on Monday with eagle-eyed locals discovering tape and paint had been used to change the number plate from 414-EW3 to 474-BW8.
On Tuesday, Bundaberg Magistrates Court heard police found a shortened firearm, ammunition, and two replica handguns in the car.
Police have suspended a search in Good Night Scrub National Park (pictured)
Missing teen Pheobe Bishop’s housemate Tanika Bromley (pictured) faced court charged with firearm offences
During a search of Bromley’s grey Hyundai ix35 – which is at the centre of the investigation into the teen’s disappearance – police allegedly found a shortened firearm, ammunition, and two replica handguns
The Hyundai was later spotted on the streets of Bundaberg on Monday with eagle-eyed locals discovering tape and paint had been used to change the number plate from 414-EW3 to 474-BW8
It comes just two months after Bromley was accused of having a sawn-off shotgun and a flick knife in the car when she was stopped by police near Emerald, 500km inland from Gin Gin.
Magistrate John McInnes told Bromley, 33, that she appeared to have ‘an unhealthy interest in short firearms’.
He added that Bromley was a victim of domestic violence and not the ‘prime mover’ in procuring firearms.
‘You have been subjected to coercion, violence and duress reoccurring,’ Mr McInnes said.
‘You have been victim of domestic violence… I suspect you might not be the prime mover here.
‘I think you’re are a person who may not go out and procure a firearm if left to your own devices.’
The court was told police also found additional ammunition at the Gin Gin property.
Bromley was charged with two counts of authority required to possess explosives and one count each of possessing/acquiring restricted items and unlawful possession of weapons.
Pheobe Bishop was last seen on May 15 and was reported missing when she failed to board a scheduled flight from Bundaberg to Brisbane and then to Perth where she was going to meet her boyfriend
The search for Pheobe has entered its 12th day
Mr McInnes granted Bromley bail but imposed strict conditions.
Bromley must adhere to a curfew from 9pm to 6pm at a Gin Gin address and will need to report to the local police station three days a week starting from Wednesday, hence her appearance on Wednesday morning.
She is also restricted from having any contact with Mr Wood.
The fresh charges come just one week after she appeared before the same court on May 12 for the previous weapons charges, allegedly discovered in the car in February.
Bromley is due to appear again in Bundaberg Courthouse on June 23.
Mr Wood was seen for the first time since Pheobe’s disappearance when he left the courthouse on Monday.
Daily Mail Australia earlier revealed the private messages that Mr Wood sent hours after Pheobe was reported missing.
Bromley is under strict bail conditions and has been restricted from having any contact with her partner James Wood
Pheobe had been living at a property in Gin Gin – which has also been declared a crime scene – with Bromley and Mr Wood before she vanished without a trace
‘Hey hey how are you,’ asked a concerned friend on Friday, May 16, at 9.45pm.
‘Yeah been better ayy darlz how bout you?’ Wood replied on Saturday May 17 at 6.18am.
‘That’s not good, any word on Pheobe at all?’ the friend asked.
‘No nothing atm, 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,’ 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 Pheobe vanished, but was released without charge.
Bromley (pictured) lived at the Gin Gin address with her partner James Wood, and Pheobe Bishop
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, Kylie Johnson (pictured)
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,’ he wrote.
Mr Wood has offered a reward for anyone who can reveal Pheobe’s location.
On Wednesday Queensland Police officially called off their search of bushland with cadaver dogs at the Good Night Scrub National Park, about an hour away from where Pheobe was last seen.
But detectives revealed that key evidence may have been moved from the park before they began their search on Friday.
On Monday, several items potentially linked to the investigation were discovered during the search of the park and they have been sent for forensic testing.
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.
Pheobe’s housemates told police they dropped the teen off at the Airport in Bromley’s 2011 silver Hyundai ix35 hatchback.
Pheobe’s mother Kylie Johnson shared an emotional message on Facebook on Tuesday as the search for her missing daughter entered the twelfth day.
‘Finding it hard to get out of bed today,’ Ms Johnson wrote.
‘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.
‘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.
‘We as a family are just trying to go through the motions of waiting for Phee to come home.’
