The search of a national park is “crucial” to an investigation into a missing teenager in south Queensland as police continue a land, water and aerial search more than a week after her disappearance.
On Saturday, Queensland police said they were relying “heavily” on information from the public for leads, after expanding the search for Pheobe Bishop to include the Good Night Scrub national park.
The park is about an hour’s drive from where the 17-year-old was last seen, carrying luggage near Bundaberg airport in southern Queensland at about 8.30am on 15 May after booking a trip to Western Australia to visit a friend.
She has not been heard from since, with CCTV footage indicating she never entered the airport or checked in for her flight. Police are treating the disappearance as suspicious.
A statement issued on behalf of Bishop’s family on Saturday appealed for anyone who may have heard from Pheobe, who they described as their “wild gypsy banshee”, to contact police.
“You can’t tame Phee’s spirit, empathy or fight for life. She is sassy, feisty and loves harder than anyone I’ve ever meet,” the statement read.
“Phee is the sunflower in a field full of wildflowers. She is an essential part of our lives and we need her home. We need to hear her music, feel her hugs and hear her voice.
“Pheobe would never not touch base with the people she loves. She would never go this long without contacting someone or anyone.”
The search coordinator, Sen Const Matthew Baker, told reporters on Saturday that police were continuing their search in the national park for Bishop. Nobody was in custody in relation to her disappearance and no items of interest had been found.
“Police and family are concerned for her welfare,” he said, urging anyone with dashcam or CCTV footage on 15 May to come forward.
“Police continue to rely heavily on information from the public to assist the investigation.
“The search of the Good Night Scrub national park area is crucial to the police investigation, and this includes dive squad searching waterways and land areas.”
Baker said police wanted to speak with anyone who may know Bishop and encouraged “anyone with information to contact police with any information, big or small”.
The Gin Gin property near Bundaberg where she lived with two other people had earlier been declared a crime scene, along with a car thought to have been used to take the teenager to the airport.
Her mother, Kylie Johnson, has been active on social media and has pleaded for locals to leave their porch lights on to “guide her home”.
Police have been searching the wider Gin Gin – a rural town on the Bruce Highway home to about 1,000 people – and Bundaberg areas since Bishop’s disappearance.
“Another day and minimal answers,” Johnson wrote on Facebook on Saturday morning. “Phee still isn’t home and someone somewhere has to know something.
“Phee Phee, we won’t stop looking for you till you’re home. I urge everyone in Gin Gin to keep their porch lights on tonight and guide our girl home.”
Other friends have written on Bishop’s social media accounts, with one, who described her as her “soulmate”, paying tribute to the “strongest person” with a “heart of gold”.
“Come home please, I miss you,” another wrote on her last TikTok post, with a third saying “we are all so worried about you”.
The investigation was being led by Bundaberg’s child protection and crime teams, with the assistance of the homicide unit and specialist police.
Police have searched the Gin Gin property where Bishop lived and seized a grey Hyundai ix35 thought to have been used to transport the teenager to Bundaberg airport, which they believed belonged to a resident of her home.
The couple who lived at the property with Bishop had spoken to officers and were cooperating with officers, police said.
Det Acting Insp Ryan Thompson said on Friday police were following up “all avenues of inquiry”.
“Just because we are deeming this suspicious doesn’t mean … anything sinister has happened,” Thompson said.Police continued to appeal for information, including any movement in the Good Night Scrub area on 15 May, particularly around Mingo Road and Gayndah Road.
Bishop was described as about 180cm tall with a pale complexion, long dyed red hair and hazel eyes.
