Queensland Police confirm human remains found in bushland are those of missing teenager Pheobe Bishop
By Lottie Twyford and Johanna Marie for ABC News
Pheobe Bishop was last seen on 15 May when she failed to board a flight.
Photo:
Supplied
Australian police have confirmed human remains found almost two weeks ago are those of missing Queensland teenager Pheobe Bishop.
The 17-year-old from the Wide Bay area was last seen on 15 May when she failed to board a flight from Bundaberg airport.
Her housemates - James Wood and Tanika Bromley - have since been charged with one count each of murder, and two counts each of interfering with a corpse.
Police found human remains on Friday, 6 June in the Good Night Scrub National Park area near Gin Gin.
At the time, police had been unable to formally identify them, but said they were in contact with Pheobe's family.
Flowers, photographs and notes at the end of Airport Drive in Bundaberg, in memory of missing teenager Pheobe Bishop.
Photo:
ABC Wide Bay / Scott Lamond
In a statement released on Tuesday, Queensland Police confirmed the remains belonged to the missing teenager.
"Investigations into locating more items of interest in relation to this matter remain ongoing," it said.
Police said earlier this month that neither Pheobe's luggage nor mobile phone had been found.
Speaking on Tuesday, Bundaberg mayor Helen Blackburn said the formal identification was a "relief".
"We've been waiting to have the confirmation that it was Pheobe that was found... to have this now confirmed just means that we can move forward together," she said.
"The family will be able to lay her to rest in a respectful manner."
At the time of her disappearance in mid-May, Pheobe had been living in the town of Gin Gin, about four hours north of Brisbane, with her housemates.
Police allege all three were in the car on the way to Bundaberg airport, but the 17-year-old never made it into the terminal or onto the plane she was due to catch to Western Australia.
Her disappearance was declared suspicious on 21 May and the car and the house she had been living in were identified as crime scenes.
One of two crime scenes established six days after Pheobe Bishop went missing.
Photo:
ABC Wide Bay / Grace Whiteside
On 23 May, more than a week after she disappeared, police started searching Good Night Scrub National Park, an hour south-west of Bundaberg.
Cadaver dogs, water police, drones and State Emergency Service personnel combed through thick scrub and items of interest were collected for forensic examination.
That "physical" search was suspended after five days on 4 June.
Wood and Bromley were charged with her murder the next day, on Thursday, 5 June.
At the time, Pheobe's mother Kylie Johnson posted to Facebook "begging anyone that knows anything to come forward".
The next morning, Detective Inspector Craig Mansfield said police expected to find Pheobe's body in the greater Gin Gin area.
Detective Inspector Mansfield said police would allege her body "was moved more than once".
Suspected remains were found on the Friday afternoon, with police saying they hoped to bring "closure" to Pheobe's family.
Wood and Bromley's matters are due back in court in August.
- ABC
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero
,
a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
21 hours ago
- RNZ News
Dunedin police call for sightings of missing elderly man
Peter was last seen on Thursday, 19 June night. Photo: Supplied/ Police Police are appealing for sightings of a man missing in Dunedin. The 77-year-old man, named only as Peter, was last seen about 10.30pm Thursday night in the suburb of Kenmure. He was wearing grey trousers, a black or navy-coloured merino top, and black slip-on shoes. Peter was last seen in the Dunedin suburb of Kenmure. Photo: Supplied/ Police Police said he could also have a jacket and a beanie. They asked for anyone who saw Peter or had information on his whereabouts to call 111, and quote the reference number P062923985. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
2 days ago
- RNZ News
Six months out from social media ban, age-checking tech mistakes kids for 37-year-olds
Face-scanning technology tests could only guess age within an 18-month range in 85 percent of cases. Photo: Supplied/ABC Children as young as 15 were repeatedly misidentified as being in their 20s and 30s during Government tests of age-checking tools, sowing new doubts over whether the teen social media ban is viable. ABC News can reveal that face-scanning technology tested on school students this year could only guess their age within an 18-month range in 85 percent of cases. "It's definitely a problem," said Andrew Hammond, general manager of software consultancy firm KJR, which was tasked with running the trial. "So far, it's not perfect and it's not getting every child, but does that mean it's no good at all?" The full results of the age assurance technology trial were not expected to be released until later this year, but preliminary data had experts worried. "I don't think the ban is viable," said RMIT University information services professor Lisa Given, who had closely analysed the Government's policy. "Parents are definitely headed for a rude shock, in terms of what this legislation will actually deliver to them." Under the social media ban, more than 20 million Australians will be required to demonstrate they are 16 or older to log in to most major social media platforms. The ban is due to take effect in December, but the Government has yet to decide how it will be implemented, amid ongoing questions over whether age-checking technology is up to the job. The Government's technology trial, which has been running for eight months, was meant to provide some answers, but Professor Given said the public may be disappointed. "The accuracy level at 85 [percent] is actually quite low and an 18-month range is significant, when you're trying to identify a very particular age grouping," she said. "We are going to see a messy situation emerging immediately, where people will have what they call false positives, false negatives." Some students at Canberra's John Paul College, who previewed the technology as part of the Government's trial, were surprised, when their results were up to decades off the mark. Sixteen-year-old Andy was misidentified as 19, 37, 26, and 23 years old by various face-scanning tools he used. "I don't think the technology is ready yet to become a full-fledged primary defence system," he said. "It's pretty inconsistent." Seventeen-year-old Beth was given results ranging from 14-32. "I usually get told by other people that I don't look 17, I look older, so when it says 14, I thought… that's interesting." Her results from the other end of the spectrum were unwelcome for different reasons. "It's a bit insulting, because that's how old my aunty is," she said. "I don't want to look 32 just yet." Seventeen-year-old Nomi was especially concerned, when one tool mistook her for a 13-year-old. "I'm almost 18," she said. "If I try to sign up to an app and it tells me 'you're not meeting an age requirement', even though I am, that would be a problem for me." While the face-scanning results from the trial may not seem promising, Hammond said he was confident the ban would still work, because it did not rely exclusively on that tech. "If the solution to implementing the legislation was just facial age estimation, I'd say, 'Yep, it's probably not good enough'," he said. "However, it's just one of the tools in the toolkit that could be used." Age-verification providers are not discouraged by the early results either, arguing that other tech was always going to be necessary as a complement to get precise results. "You would never rely on age estimation for people who are literally at the age of 16," said Iain Corby from the Age Verification Providers Association, the industry body for age-check companies. "It was never going to be good enough for that," he said. One tool mistook Beth, 17, as being 32 years old. Photo: ABC News Corby said the early data reported by ABC News, showing an accuracy rate within 18 months for only 85 percent of students, is roughly what he expected. "I think even the best-in-class achieves about a year and a month, on average, above or below your real age." Among the methods tested were other age-estimation techniques that rely on biological traits, such as voice and hand movements, to guess the age of a user, but those methods struggled with the same accuracy issues and fewer companies offered the service. Another avenue was guessing a person's age based on their online activity, but that was also imprecise. Other tools offer a higher degree of certainty by inferring or even verifying a user's age, using data provided by third parties, such as banks, schools or healthcare providers. The strongest proof is a overnment-issued ID, such as a passport or a driver's license, but the legislation prevented social media companies from insisting on it. A last-minute amendment to the Bill, when it was passed back in November, meant platforms would be forced to offer users alternative methods to prove their age. That rule meant many Australians who could not easily provide those more reliable proofs might be forced to rely on less accurate methods, such as face scanning, if they wanted to use social media. "We do know, generally, that young people are going to be less likely to have a Government-issued ID that would satisfy some form of age verification," Given said. If facial scanning was on offer, under-16s who wanted to dodge the ban might be tempted to choose it anyway, in the hope they could fool it. "They might put glasses on, they might put make-up on, different hairstyle, different lighting, just to see if the system is actually able to accurately see that they're underage or over 16," Given said. The Government was expected to decide how the ban would work in the coming months, but one possible solution for the shakiness of facial scanning was a cascade-style system, similar to what we've see in bottle shops. Users might use face-scanning tech as a first hurdle and only be asked for further proof, if their result was within a 5-10-year margin of 16. "If you're within that margin for error, then you have to go to a second stage and find some other way of confirming that somebody is over the legal age," Corby said. Even so, everyone agreed it would not be perfect. "I'm optimistic, having seen the results," Hammond said. "Not necessarily making sure every 16-year-old doesn't get access, but making sure that most 16-year-olds don't get access to social media. "There's a number of solutions… and they have a level of accuracy. Now, whether the accuracy is good enough is a different question." Professor Given saw the end of the tech trial as an opportunity to reconsider the ban. "A responsible decision from Government would be weighing up the evidence in front of them and deciding whether that's actually a robust approach," she said. In the meantime, public expectations of the policy remained undeterred. "I think it's a really positive move for our young people," said John Paul College principal Craig Wattam. "I think that limiting their exposure to places that are potentially really dangerous is a really liberating thing." On the question of the tech's accuracy, he was also optimistic. "I guess this is the whole purpose of a trial," he said. "I'm confident that by the time we get closer to December… they may well have figured out more accurate ways to verify students' ages." A spokesperson for Communications Minister Anika Wells told ABC News the Government would be guided by advice from the eSafety Commissioner on how best to implement the ban. "We know that social media age-restrictions will not be the end-all, be-all solution for harms experienced by young people online, but it's a step in the right direction to keep our kids safer," they said. - ABC
RNZ News
2 days ago
- RNZ News
Fatally injured woman found in Christchurch not missing person Elisabeth Nicholls
Photo: RNZ / REECE BAKER An injured woman who died in Christchurch is not missing woman Elisabeth 'Lis' Nicholls, police say. The woman was found with critical injuries in a Riccarton car park on Wednesday afternoon. Emergency services were called about 4.40pm. The woman died while being taken to hospital. Police had earlier said a body had been found in the car park. The death is being treated as unexplained and a scene guard is in place at the car park where she was found. Police said speculation in the community that this may be related to missing woman Nicholls is not accurate. Nicholls, 79, suffered from dementia and disappeared after walking out of the Margaret Stoddart Retirement Village in Riccarton on 4 June. The last confirmed sighting of her was at the Chateau on the Park in Riccarton at 7.54pm the same day. She had been admitted to the facility for respite care on the same day that she disappeared. Searchers and police went door to door, reviewed CCTV footage and made extensive enquiries, but were unable to find her. A week later they expressed concerns for her welfare and this week they intended using a drone to help with the search.
