Tributes have begun to pour in for Pheobe Bishop after police searching for the missing Bundaberg teenager found human remains.
Police today confirmed the remains, found yesterday on a back road near the Good Night Scrub National Park, about an hour away from Pheobe’s home in Gin Gin, are human.
Further testing is being carried out, but police believe they belong to the 17-year-old.
Her mother, Kylie Johnson, said the news has ripped her apart.
“I didn’t think my heart could break anymore than it did when you went missing, or when the charges were laid but this, this is ripping me apart,” she said yesterday.
Pheobe’s best friend, Mikayla Howarth, has paid tribute and set up a floral memorial in Camden, in Sydney’s south-west.
“I’ve never met anyone in my entire life who had such a kind heart that she had,” Howarth told 9News.
“She was so beautiful, and every room she walked into just lit up, and she was just so happy.”
Pheobe’s community is holding a candlelight vigil tomorrow in Gin Gin. People are being asked to wear bright colours and butterflies.
“I think the community is absolutely reeling,” Bundaberg mayor Helen Blackburn said.
“We’ve had a few horrific weeks here in our Bundaberg region, and this is very unlike anything that we’ve had to experience before.”
Bouquets and letters are piling up on the road where Pheobe is believed to have been last seen, near Bundaberg Airport.
“Forever 17,” some of the letters read.
Pheobe’s housemates, 34-year-old James Wood and his partner, 33-year-old Tanika Bromley, were charged with one count of murder and two counts each of interfering with a corpse after they were arrested in Bundaberg on Thursday night.
Pheobe went missing after she failed to check in and board her flight to Western Australia from Bundaberg Airport on May 15.
Three crime scenes have been declared — Pheobe’s home she shared with her housemates in Gin Gin, her housemate’s grey Hyundai and the site where the remains were found near Good Night Scrub National Park.
Investigations remain ongoing.
Police continue to appeal for any information about Pheobe or the movement of her housemate’s grey Hyundai IX35 with registration 414EW3 between May 15 to 18 in the greater Gin Gin area.
