The third person hit with charges linked to the disappearance and murder of teenager Pheobe Bishop has been unmasked as a keen fisherman who goes by ‘The Crabman’.
Police charged 30-year-old Kieren Daniel Mittelheuser with two counts of accessory after the fact to murder, alleging he used Ms Bishop’s mobile phone to interfere with investigations.
Mittelheuser was taken into custody outside a local fast food outlet in Bundaberg West, in south east Queensland, around 7pm on Tuesday.
The arrest occurred one day after family and friends farewelled the 17-year-old at a private service.
He has also been charged with drug possession, driving while disqualified, failing to appear, breaching bail and fraud.
The fraud charge refers to the use of a credit card that is linked to the accessory after the fact charge, Bundaberg paper NewsMail reported.
Mittelheuser is a father but is not believed to have lived with his child recently. He appeared nonchalant on his social media, posting a day before the teenager’s remains were found that he didn’t care whether his foot hung off the bed or not.
Ms Bishop was last seen near Bundaberg airport about 8.30am on May 15 after booking a trip to Western Australia to see her boyfriend.
Kieren Daniel Mittelheuser, 30, has been charged with being an accessory after the fact to murder
Ms Bishop went missing on May 15 near Bundaberg Airport
A massive search was launched by authorities that included Good Night Scrub National Park
Queensland Police allege that housemates Tanika Bromley and James Wood drove her close to the airport in a grey Hyundai, but no one left the car.
She was allegedly murdered and her body was moved more than once from the Good Night Scrub National Park, an hour’s drive from the airport.
Phone data led officers to the national park where her remains were found on June 6.
Wood, 34, and Bromley, 33, remain behind bars and will front court on August 11, charged with murder and interfering with a corpse.
Mittelheuser did not appear in person but instead dialled in by phone for his court mention on Wednesday.
Mark Zeller, a solicitor with Indigo Law, acted as duty lawyer.
He did not apply for bail and no pleas have been entered.
Mittelheuser will next appear in court via video link on August 25.
James Wood, 30, has been charged with Ms Bishop’s murder and taken into custody
Tanika Bromley, 33, was arrested shortly after Wood and charged with murder
Mittelheuser goes by the moniker ‘The Crabman’ online
Multiple candlelit vigils attended by hundreds have been held across Bundaberg and Gin Gin in recent weeks, remembering how Ms Bishop lived life to the fullest.
Six weeks after Ms Bishop disappeared, family and friends laid the ‘free-spirited’ teen to rest while donning bright colours at a service on Monday.
None of those alleged to be involved with her murder have yet entered any pleas.
Ms Bishop was reported missing in late May, prompting a wide search of bushland and the home she shared with Bromley and Wood.
Wood was taken into custody first on June 6 where he has been assisting police with their inquiries.
Bromley was taken into custody soon after where she was charged with the same offences as Wood.
The pair are each charged with murder, and two counts each of interfering with a corpse.
Police allege Ms Bishop was killed, her body transported in a grey Hyundai, and moved twice before being buried in remote national parkland.
A vigil was arranged by family and friends of Ms Bishop (pictured)
