A third person has been arrested and charged following the alleged murder of Queensland teenager Pheobe Bishop.
Kieren Daniel Mittelheuser, 30, has been charged with two counts of accessory after the fact to murder.
He will face Bundaberg Magistrates Court on Wednesday.
‘It will be alleged the man used the victim’s mobile phone to interfere with the investigation,’ a Queensland Police Service spokesperson said.
‘Following extensive investigations, police arrested the man shortly after 7pm last night in Bundaberg West.’
Pheobe, 17, went missing near Bundaberg Airport about 8.30am on May 15, after booking a trip to WA to visit her boyfriend.
On June 6, police discovered the Gin Gin teenager’s remains near Goodnight Scrub National Park. It is alleged her body was moved more than once.
Pheobe’s former housemates, 33-year-old Tanika Bromley and 34-year-old James Wood, were charged with her murder on June 5.
They are being held in jail on remand while they await their next court appearance. Neither has entered pleas.
Wood is now being held at Brisbane Correctional Centre, and Bromley is in Brisbane Women’s Correctional Centre.
On Monday afternoon, Pheobe’s family held a private funeral for the teen in Bundaberg before a cremation at the Springfields Crematorium.
A large crowd gathered to farewell the teenager, with one mourner seen chasing after the hearse as other attendees tried to hold her back.
Pheobe’s funeral notice described her as the ‘beloved daughter of Kylie and Ray, Kevin and Stacey. Dearly loved sister of Jamie, Jesse, Kaylea, Ruby-Leigh, Aybel and sister-in-law to Janay. Loving aunty to Tallullah. Much loved niece, cousin and friend to many’.
Her mum Kylie Johnson said she was ‘devastated’ to farewell her daughter.
‘This is absolutely everybody’s worst nightmare. However, we promised to get Phee home and give her a send-off that Phee would approve of and that’s what will happen,’ Ms Johnson said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Pheobe’s maternal aunt Caz Johnson took to social media on Monday to point out that she had not been invited to the funeral.
‘It was nice to say goodbye to Pheobe my own way, since I was asked, please don’t go to the funeral to keep the peace,’ Caz said.
‘It makes my blood boil that people from South Windsor (are) driving up to attend Pheobe’s funeral when they couldn’t be there to help her when she needed it.’
Caz and Pheobe’s mother have frequently butted heads in public since the teen’s disappearance in May.
It began when Caz went on Network Ten’s The Project to share disturbing texts from the teen sent before she went missing, and make allegations about her tumultuous upbringing.
She revealed Pheobe sent text messages out of the blue on April 26 to say her mother had told her to ‘get out’, but didn’t want to talk about the matter as it was ‘a long story’.
‘Up s*** creek but s*** happens,’ Pheobe wrote, in texts shown on Ten.
‘I’m flying the f*** out of here to see my boyfriend.
‘If it goes to plan I’m not coming back. I can’t do s*** anymore. I need to get out of this hell hole.’
Caz Johnson also said that Pheobe had an unsettled childhood, regularly changing schools and having to deal with new stepdads coming in and out of her life.
But Pheobe’s mother reacted immediately on social media after The Project segment aired, saying her sister knew ‘nothing’ about her daughter.
Caz Johnson ‘hasn’t spoken to my children or myself for the last 13-14 years’, she wrote.
‘She knows nothing about Pheobe and who she was as a person.’
The pair later clashed in June over whether or not Pheobe had a disability.
Before she disappeared, Pheobe made reference on social media to borderline personality disorder (BPD).