Bishop hasn’t been seen or heard from since failing to catch a booked flight in Bundaberg, Australia, on May 15
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NEED TO KNOW
- The housemate of missing 17-year-old Pheobe Bishop has reportedly been taken into custody nearly three weeks after the teenager vanished while heading to the airport to catch a booked flight in Bundaberg, Australia
- James Wood, 34, has been assisting police with their investigation, but hasn’t been charged, according to multiple reports
- Hours before he was taken into custody, Wood spoke to Daily Mail Australia about the day he and his partner took Bishop to the airport on May 15
The housemate of missing Australian teenager Pheobe Bishop has been taken into custody almost three weeks after she disappeared after failing to check in for a booked flight, according to reports.
On Wednesday, June 4, Queensland Police confirmed James Wood, 34, had been taken into custody, but no charges against him have been made, per local outlets including the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), news.com.au and 9 News.
“A 34-year-old man has been taken into custody and is currently assisting police with enquiries as part of ongoing investigations into the disappearance of Pheobe Bishop,” Queensland Police told PEOPLE in an email.
“No charges have been laid,” they continued, adding that they could not confirm the identity of the man who had been placed into custody.
The update came shortly after police paused the physical search for Bishop, news.com.au reported, after she was last seen on Thursday, May 15 at around 8:30 a.m. local time after being dropped off to catch a flight at Bundaberg Airport in Queensland.
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Queensland Police Detective Acting Inspector Ryan Thompson previously said that the teen was dropped off near the airport by “associates” but didn’t enter the terminal, according to the ABC, adding that she “had a flight booked to Brisbane and then on to WA [Western Australia] to visit a friend.”
According to Daily Mail Australia, Wood spoke to the outlet just hours before his police custody about driving Bishop toward the airport with his partner, Tanika Bromley, on the morning of Bishop’s disappearance.
Wood claimed that Bishop, who was reportedly planning to get on a flight to see her boyfriend, had been “furious” after sleeping “through her alarm” on the morning of her trip.
Wood said Bishop had been worried about what to wear, adding that “she was so worked up about seeing her boyfriend for the first time and she wanted to look good,” per the outlet, so he said he gave her a pair of new gray tracksuit bottoms to wear.
He said Bishop had been concerned about missing the flight, the outlet reported.
“We just wanted to get her checked in and thought if we can just get there she will calm down,” Wood told Daily Mail Australia of the drive. “Tanika grabbed her makeup bag next to her and passed it back and told her to take anything she needed.”
“Her plane was stopping in Brisbane and we told her that the airport had everything she needed and she can take her time and do the makeup in the toilets,” Wood added, per the outlet, stating that they ended up stopping the car on Airport Drive, just over half a mile from the terminal.
“We wanted to give her five minutes – give her her own space to do what she needed to do,” he told the outlet, adding, “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.”
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He claimed that when the pair returned to the vehicle, Bishop and her bag were gone, according to the publication. Wood stated that they looked for the teen for a while, but when they couldn’t find her, they assumed she’d boarded the flight.
The Gin Gin home where Bishop had been living prior to her disappearance was previously declared a crime scene, according to police.
Police also said that a gray Hyundai ix35 was also an active crime scene, with officers previously asking the public for help finding dashcam and CCTV footage of the car, license plate number 414EW3, “near the Airport Drive and Samuels Road a
Bishop’s mom, Kylie Johnson, has been posting multiple updates on Facebook amid her daughter’s disappearance, as well as reading an official family statement in a video recently released by police.
“Hi, I’m Kylie. I’m Pheobe’s mom. Our lives have been changed for the worse after the sudden disappearance of my daughter, who was last seen on May 15,” she began in the video, which was posted on a crime watch Facebook group for the Queensland area on Saturday, May 31.
“This is a pain no person or family should ever have to experience,” she continued. “Pheobe was a beautiful, loving, kind person, and every day not knowing where she has been is devastating for us.”
Johnson thanked police for their investigation and her community for its support during the speech, as well as making a final, emotional plea, while publicly considering the chance that her daughter was no longer alive.
“I still hold hope that Pheobe will come home, but I have to consider the possibility that she also won’t,” she said in the video. “If the worst-case scenario has happened, I at least need to know where she is resting. I need to know where Pheobe is. My daughter wouldn’t just disappear.”
