Media blackout as family gathers privately to mourn murdered girl

A teen allegedly murdered by her housemates will be laid to rest in a funeral service on Monday afternoon as loved ones remember the “free-spirited” girl.

Family and friends donned in bright colours will farewell Pheobe Bishop in the southern Queensland city of Bundaberg, six weeks after the 17-year-old disappeared.

Pheobe was last seen near Bundaberg airport about 8.30am on May 15 after booking a trip to Western Australia to see her boyfriend.

Queensland teenager Pheobe Bishop.

Queensland Police allege her housemates, Tanika Bromley and James Wood, drove Pheobe close to the airport in a grey Hyundai, but no one left the car.

Pheobe was allegedly murdered and her body moved more than once from the Good Night Scrub National Park, an hour’s drive from the airport.

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Phone data had led officers to focus their search on the park before her remains were found on June 6.

Pheobe’s mother, Kylie Johnson, had promised throughout the long search to bring Pheobe home.

Johnson told the ABC she was “devastated this is something we have had to navigate”.

“I would tell people to hug their kids a little tighter, tell them you love them multiple times a day, watch that silly movie, dance to the song and capture every moment in your memories,” she said in a statement.

The family has requested a “media blackout” during the funeral service.

Candlelit vigils attended by hundreds have been held across Bundaberg and Gin Gin in recent weeks.

Her family celebrated Pheobe for being free-spirited, beautiful, loving and kind.

Wood, 34, and Bromley, 33, remain behind bars to front court on August 11, charged with murder and interfering with a corpse.

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