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The housemate of missing 17-year-old Queensland girl Pheobe Bishop has been released without charge after police spent hours questioning him over the teenager’s “suspicious” disappearance.
James Wood, 34, was taken into custody on Wednesday and released several hours later without charge, police said in an update on Thursday.
Pheobe was last seen near Bundaberg Airport about 8.30am on 15 May after booking a trip to Western Australia to see her boyfriend.
CCTV footage showed Pheobe never arrived at the airport terminal.
Queensland Police detectives are trying to find out what happened to her.
“Detectives are continuing to run through several lines of enquiry as investigations continue, and will conduct physical searches when required,” police said in a statement on Thursday.
The search for Pheobe was scaled back on Wednesday after police had spent weeks combing several areas of interest in southern Queensland.
One of those areas was a property in Gin Gin where Pheobe had lived with Wood and a woman.
The Gin Gin property near Bundaberg and a grey Hyundai ix35, thought to have been used to take Pheobe to the airport, were declared crime scenes soon after her disappearance.
The police search initially focused on Good Night Scrub National Park, an hour’s drive from Bundaberg Airport, with homicide detectives, cadaver dogs, and divers called in.
Police have scaled back the search in bushland for Pheobe Bishop, as investigations continue. Source: Supplied / Queensland Police
Some items believed to be linked to the investigation were seized for forensic examination.
The search revealed evidence might have been moved from the national park before police arrived.
Pheobe’s mum Kylie Johnson has been posting on social media almost every day pleading for information about her daughter’s whereabouts.
Her latest update documented the heartbreaking toll the disappearance of Pheobe is having on the family.
“I don’t know if life will ever be the same again? I don’t know if I will ever look at the world the same way that I did before May 15th,” Johnson posted on Facebook.
“What I do know is that people have information on where you are Phee and we need that reported to police.”
The community rallied around the missing teen’s family during the search with a “Leave the Lights On for Pheobe” campaign.
Gin Gin locals posted photos on social media of their front lights switched on “to guide Pheobe home”.
Anyone with information, footage or sightings of the grey Hyundai between 15 and 18 May in the Gin Gin area has been urged to contact police.
Pheobe is about 180cm tall with a pale complexion, long hair that has been dyed red and hazel eyes.
She was last seen carrying luggage, wearing a green tank top and grey sweatpants.
