Hold My Sweet Tea
Where True Crime collides with chilling ghost stories and Southern folklore. Join us, sip sweet tea, and uncover shocking tales of murder, mystery, and the supernatural, all with a healthy dose of Southern charm and a touch of sass!
Hold My Sweet Tea
Ep. 47-Murder in Gin-Gin: The Disappearance of Phoebe Bishop
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
The quiet Queensland community of Gin-Gin became the center of a horrifying murder investigation when 17-year-old Phoebe Bishop vanished on what should have been a joyful journey to visit her boyfriend. Her excitement about the trip made her disappearance all the more alarming when she never boarded her flight.
What began as a missing person case quickly spiraled into something far more sinister. Phoebe had been living with two adults—Tanika Bromley (33) and James Wood (34)—after moving out of her family home due to strained relationships. While initially claiming they'd dropped the teenager at the airport, surveillance never captured Phoebe's arrival. Instead, their car was spotted on back roads near the airfield, and their story began to unravel under police questioning.
The investigation led authorities to a property later dubbed a "house of horrors"—a dilapidated home with dead animals strewn across the yard, garbage piled everywhere, and a stench so overwhelming that neighbors kept windows closed even during the Australian heat. The only clean area was Phoebe's room, packed for a trip she'd never complete, with a suspiciously damaged doorframe suggesting a violent entry.
Particularly haunting are Phoebe's social media posts before her death, revealing a young woman desperate to escape her circumstances: "When I die, get my dad to lower my coffin so he can let me down one last time," she wrote, capturing her feelings of familial abandonment. To her aunt, she described her living situation as a "hell house" she couldn't wait to leave behind.
Just weeks after her disappearance, police arrested Bromley and Wood, charging them with murder and interfering with a corpse—suggesting they'd moved her body multiple times. A third suspect, Kieran Middlehauser, faces charges as an accessory after the fact. Human remains confirmed to be Phoebe's were discovered near Good Night Scrub National Park.
As court proceedings scheduled for August 2025 approach, the question remains: what motivated these individuals to murder a vulnerable teenager who simply wanted to start fresh? Join us as we explore this heartbreaking case that continues to unfold.
Source Material:
Christian Harrison, Bray Jonica, Smith Karley, June 12, 2025, Phoebe Bishop alleged murder: Details emerge about “dead dogs” outside Gin Gin Home, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14804443/Pheobe-Bishop-James-Wood-dead-dogs.html
Bahr, Jessica, June 8, 2025, ‘This is ripping e apart’ The tragic timeline of Phoebe Bishop’s disappearance,https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/the-tragic-timeline-of-pheobe-bishops-disappearance/krxvotwe2
ABC NEWS, July 1, 2026, Third person charged in relation to alleged murder of Queensland teenager Phoebe Bishop, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-02/qld-pheobe-bishop-third-peson-charged-accessory-to-murder/105484616
NDTV news desk, May 29,2025, 17 year old teenager posted about "finding herself" before she went missing, https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/phoebe-bishop-17-year-old-australian-posted-about-finding-herself-before-she-went-missing-8528581
Jackson, Blair, June 15, 2025, Tragedy that separated Phoebe Bishop from her boyfriend before her alleged murder,
Intro and Irish Church Scandal
Speaker 1On May 15th 2025, life in the gin-gin Queensland community would be forever changed. This is Hold my Sweet Tea Top of the morning to ya. I'm Pearl.
Speaker 2Good morning, I'm Holly.
Speaker 1So I read something this morning when I first woke up. Ooh, what a way to wake up the tea.
Speaker 1Yeah, wake up the tea.
Speaker 1Yeah, there is some stuffs happening in ireland that has a little, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot a Apparently, between like the 1920s and the 1970s, you know, there was like this whole unmarried women being pregnant thing, and it is believed that they thought that these unmarried pregnant women were evil, basically, and they were a danger to men.
Speaker 1Burn the witch. So, needless to say, they were put into these homes oh gosh, where priests and nuns were, obviously and these babies were born and they were either like trafficked to america I would assume locally as well, if there were like families that couldn't have babies, yes or they were basically neglected to death. They died. There is a literal septic tank being dug up so that they can remove and identify these babies. A literal septic tank, yeah, being dug up so that they can remove and identify these babies and bury them in a dignified way.
Speaker 2I did see an article about that. Yeah, how stinking, disgusting, yeah, and there's like a lot.
Speaker 1Yeah, a lot. They say like 800 ish, but I can only imagine there's probably more somewhere else. Yeah, because I'm sure that wasn't the only place. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2So yeah, yeah. And for the catholic church, who doesn't believe in abortion, right, why would you neglect these babies to death? Mm-hmm, because you think these women are evil and that's their evil spawn. Yeah, see, I would have been burned at the stake immediately. I would have been. They would have been like which I'd be like. Yep, sure I am.
Speaker 1It's just crazy, because I'm like you said, there's just the ways of the pro-choice, pro-life, whatever. Whichever way you go, I mean there's an argument on either side, Right? But the Catholic Church stance has never really wavered.
Speaker 2No so.
Speaker 1I'm like how? Why? So? Women can't choose, but you can, right, the church can. The church can choose for you. Right, we're going to let your child be born. We're just going to kill it after that, right.
Speaker 2To let it suffer to death, mm-hmm, crazy.
Speaker 1It's like in my brain, I guess it kind of reminded me of like a kill shelter for animals. So I'm going somebody doesn't come.
Speaker 2Okay, somebody doesn't come, get you soon enough, you're just gonna die. Euthanized in the worst way.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2So yeah, that's a little bit crazy and controversial and disturbing morning for me. But you know, on a lighter note, out of Ireland that's where Robert Sheehan is from, who plays Klaus on Umbrella Company, on Umbrella Academy. I'm sorry, holly's love the man, I would join his cult, I'd love me some Klaus, just the character you know. Like, I'm sure Robert Sheehan is a nice guy, but like the character he plays and the look, there we go. So yeah, good morning, good morning, catholic Church, church, dead babies and klaus.
Speaker 1What you got for us today, what a little cocktail we had right, a little mixy mix yeah so today we're going to talk about something very recent, and also in australia, since, um, you know, we have listeners there, right in the south down under. Yeah, so there's a uh, 17 year old named phoebe bishop who went missing on May 15th 2025.
Speaker 2Oh, so very recent.
Speaker 1Yes, just a couple months ago, so the most recent thing we've done thus far.
Speaker 2I feel like, because we usually do stuff from. Yeah, the past and like way, way back.
Speaker 1Yeah, or things that have recent updates but, happened a long time ago.
Speaker 2Oh, okay, so this is fresh.
Speaker 1This one is very fresh and very fast moving. Ooh, I like that. Now it's not over by any means, so I mean down the road, we could do an update once they sort it all out, yeah, but it's pretty disturbing the things that have come to light thus far. So on May 15th 2025, around 830 in the morning, phoebe Bishop was supposedly dropped off at the airport where she was going to board a plane, first to Brisbane, then on to Perth to meet her boyfriend. His name is Levi, he's 18 years old. She never made it onto the plane. Phoebe had been living in Jen Jen with James Wood, who's 34, the boyfriend of her other housemate, tanika Bromley, who's 33, for some time. So her mom and herself, phoebe's mom, kylie, and kind of had like a little bit of a falling out, I'd say and I mean she's 17, it's it's the year of I know everything you know so, but I guess all of her other siblings had also kind of moved out of the house.
Speaker 1So I don't know if maybe there was just some tension family tension. And so she moves out and moves in with these two grown folks. But to make it make a little more sense, Tanika Bromley actually worked with Phoebe's mother.
Speaker 2Oh, ok, so it's not like she didn't know her, yeah, so it's not like it's a, you know, complete strangers.
Speaker 1She knew the woman, didn't really know the woman's boyfriend, but she's, you know, she's not like moving in with strangers An acquaintance, yeah, yeah, in central Queensland and, like I said, go to Western Australia to visit her boyfriend. So he used to live in Gingin. However, his mother was tragically killed in a car accident and so his father had made the decision to move them to the other side of Australia because the kids would have to pass the scene of the accident on the bus on the way to school every day and he's like it was just really the memories in the area. It was just like too much for their family. So they moved for that reason. But he, you know they, phoebe and Levi stayed in touch, doing the normal teenager thing staying on the phone all night long, like falling asleep on FaceTime.
Speaker 1You know what those youngins be doing these days Right, right, right, so that normal stuff, but she never actually was seen on any surveillance video from the airport. She never checked in at the terminal, never got on the airplane, none of that.
Speaker 2And was never seen dropped off.
Speaker 1Never seen dropped off. Now, her housemate's car was seen in the area of the airport on some back roads. Ooh, three people went near the airport on some back roads. Ooh, three people went near the airport and those three people never got out of the car. Hmm, those housemates told police that she was like last seen when they dropped her off at 830 that morning, wearing a green tank top, gray sweatpants with a black suitcase. Hmm. And then when they're re-questioned they actually change their story up a little bit. Well, james Wood does. He says well, she never actually got dropped off at the airport. She started to panic in the car and so Tanika and myself pulled over, parked the car, got out of the car to give her some space and some time by herself, and when we came back to the car she was gone, so we just drove off, yeah.
Shifting Stories and Investigation
Speaker 2So we just left. We didn't try to look for her, we just were like she's all right, let's go yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah, so the next day, after you know, her mom finds out she's never made it to her boyfriend's, her boyfriend has, like, told her mother, you know, like she called me.
Speaker 1It sounded like there were screaming, yelling in the background and then it all of a sudden went silent and that's the last thing I heard from her. So the next day, that would be you know, may 16th A missing persons alert was issued by the Queensland police and her mother would also plea with the public to contact family or police with any information on Phoebe. Like, if you've seen her anywhere, please tell us. Her mom actually said it was really unlike her to not be in contact with people and she knows how excited she was about going to see her boyfriend. They had planned to go camping and stuff and so she was like so ready for this trip and she's like it would be weird for talk to people.
Speaker 1So may 21st police are continuing to urge everyone with information to come forward. They asked for anyone who may have like surveillance around their homes anywhere near the airport, uh, or even like dash cam video, and they told everyone, you know that the car that the housemates were driving was a gray Hyundai ix35. I got some fun, interesting things to tell you about said car.
Speaker 2Okay, momentarily Never heard of that one.
Speaker 1Yeah, it's like I guess it's kind of hatchback-y, looking like smaller SUV. Detective Inspector Ryan Thompson expressed the concerns that the police had for her safety, as it was not like her to not have contact with anyone. He also shared that Phoebe's housemates were questioned and that they were being cooperative. She also shared that Phoebe's housemates were questioned and that they were being cooperative. The property and the car were still both declared a crime scene. Based on the fact that that's kind of the last place that she was. They were cooperative to a point.
Speaker 1There is footage of the car, like said, near the airport and at the airport. Their license plate is their actual regular license plate, so it's it's like 414. I don't remember the letters, but I only remember the numbers in the beginning, but I'll tell you why in a minute. So later, when this car is caught again somewhere else and you guys have to go like find videos on YouTube, because I'll try to link it. But it's like I cracked up laughing, not because this was like I mean, obviously this is a very serious case, yeah, but I laughed at the makeshift way in which they tried to disguise the car later. So they use like tape and spray paint and they change the license plate number, so they turn the letters into other numbers or letters and they like the 414 is now 474. They literally took off the Hyundai symbol on the back above the license plate and had drawn on some I don't know what gray material, a toyota symbol.
Speaker 2Wow and it is obvious that it is handmade. That is what caused me to laugh, because I'm like are you freaking kidding me if you're gonna try to disguise something, at least do it the proper way, not yeah, drawn and go snatch one off another car.
Speaker 1This no, oh wow.
Speaker 1So I was just like they're obviously panicking obviously yeah, because they know they've done wrong so on may 23rd the search for phoebe had expanded to include divers and the search would also stretch to include a national park. At that point in time there were no persons of interest, but the search area had expanded like 40 kilometers south of Jinjin into the Goodnight Scrub National Park. The reasons for this is because there are cell phone pings from Phoebe's phone that led them to check that area Now in in the beginning, like they had searched and then they had called off search stuff because of whatever. But the renewed search due to phone ping information expands On May 31st there would be like more pleas from the family. Her sister, poor baby. That child cries on TV the whole time and a video statement is released by Phoebe's mother, kylie Johnson, again asking anyone with any information to please contact the police. She wanted to let the world know that her daughter was a beautiful, loving and kind person. She always saw the good in people. Her mom made sure to thank the police and share that she still held out hope that her daughter would come home, even though she realized that she may not. She continued to explain that if the worst case scenario had played out, she at least wanted to know where her daughter was that if the worst case scenario had played out, she at least wanted to know where her daughter was.
House of Horrors Discovery
Speaker 1So in a huge development on June 5th, wood and Bromley would be arrested and charged with murder. Now they had been brought in and charged with some weapons charges before that. I feel like that was the police getting an idea that something was up, but they found a, a sawed off shotgun and some other replica weapons inside the car. Yeah, and so they had arrested Bromley on that and then arrested Wood on some other weapons charges. They told them that they could not stay together during this investigation. So I guess Wood, the guy, just decided he was living in his car while all this panned out. But beyond being charged with murder, they would also be charged with two counts of interfering with a corpse, because it appears that her body has been moved at least twice.
Speaker 1When they do find it At the point that they're arrested, though they have not found her remains Right. So they announced that their next court appearance is going to be August 11th. Okay, that is, that still stands true. But the very next day, on June 6th, police would actually locate the human remains, so it wasn't very long. They were found in a search near the national park. It was really close to the entrance actually.
Speaker 1At that time the remains were not formally identified, but were presumed to be Phoebe Right. The scene was then secured. A press conference would be held on June 7th, where Detective Inspector Craig Mansfield would tell reporters that, after testing, the remains were confirmed to be human. They hadn't finished the full test, but they did confirm that they were human remains. Further testing would continue in order to formally identify who the remains belonged to. They explained that snippets of information and phone data allowed for the discovery of this location that was not too far from the original search area. Police had believed all along that her body was moved several times before it was found. In Bushland, the home that Phoebe was residing in with Wood and Bromley was dubbed a house of horrors. A sickening stench emanated from the dilapidated house. There are vids of this too, so you guys can actually see it's like horrible.
Speaker 2Are you going to link those? Yes, because I want to go see.
Speaker 1There are like there's like rubbish. They say I say trash. They say rubbish, trash. Either way, trash it way, trash it's all over the yard. There's like a refrigerator outside.
Speaker 2Yeah, what in the like freaking American garbage is that?
Speaker 1American rubbish story Right, or Australian rubbish story at this point. But yeah, it's like.
Speaker 2The stuff that you see on the news in america.
Speaker 1You know all these like people that live in squalor and it's like, and then they find like dead bodies of everything right on their property well you know, neighbors said that 11 animals were in the home. They even claimed that the stench was so bad around there that they had to close all their windows and doors because of the smell of rotting dogs in the heat. They actually found four dead dogs strewn about the property outside, not attempted to be buried or anything, just laying there rotting in the yard.
Speaker 2I hate these people. Uh-huh Hardcore.
Speaker 1Another neighbor talked about the clutter and rubbish on the property and said that there had been a lot of noise from howling dogs and parties as well. And I'm like you're inviting people into your house for a party Right with dead animals in your yard and all that stuff Gross, yeah.
Speaker 2And then the people who go to these parties.
Speaker 1Ew exactly so. It was said that wood had told a friend that the dogs found dead at the home were actually puppies that had died of natural causes. Apparently they were infested with hookworms and the treatment hadn't been able to work before they passed.
Speaker 2Okay, well get a shovel, dig a hole at least and put them in it Like, don't leave them just their bodies strewn about.
Speaker 1Yeah, and they said like the entire house is full of trash. Clothes are everywhere Rotting food, there's dog poop Chains that I assume were for the dogs, I don't know, but they're all over the floor. They said that it was obvious that phoebe's room was like the cleanest part of the house right 17 year old. Her stuff was all packed up in there and it made it look like she was going. She had planned to return but, like they said the weirdest thing, her doorframe was busted, like someone had like forced their way into her room at one point. So that was crazy. There is a third person that has recently been charged with two counts of accessory after the fact to murder. His name is Kieran Daniel Middlehauser. He allegedly interfered with the investigation by using Phoebe's phone, like to try to throw off police Right to ping it somewhere else.
Speaker 1There's another report that said he had also used her bank card. You know, just trying to make them throw off the trail. But they haven't actually figured out how he's connected to the other two. But obviously they know each other.
Speaker 2My thing is like they're trying to cover all this up. What are they gaining from this?
Speaker 1What did they gain from killing this girl? Right, and the the weirdest thing is is like this woman has known her yeah, knew her mother, knows her mom and other people in her family. She's worked with bb's cousin and and stuff like that, so it's not like she's no stranger to the family in general. I mean, motive has not been clearly defined either, so we don't know why at all. Mittelhauser is also facing charges of unlicensed driving, fraud and drug possession. There's a bunch of stuff about her aunt and her mom her mom, her mother sister.
Speaker 1They don't talk to each other either, so they've been estranged for a long time and they're saying, like in around april 26, that phoebe had sent a bunch of text messages to her aunt talking about how she couldn't wait to get out of this shithole. Called it like a hell house.
Speaker 1I would say so yeah, all of that talking about her trip to go see her boyfriend and that if things go as planned, I won't be back. She also there's text messages where she said to her aunt that she had actually asked her father if she could live with him and he told her no.
Speaker 2Wow.
Phoebe's Troubled Life and Future Plans
Speaker 1Yeah, there was a lot of stuff like on things that she would post to social media, like how she was reflecting on her relationship with her mom and her trying to just like find herself, and it seems like she was super depressed, yeah, and like she, I don't know, it's like hauntingly sad. She actually posed questions to her younger self like do me and mom get along? And did we finally make her proud? And she would reply to her own question saying that she her mom is who she's talking about will never be proud. We don't see or talk to her, but it's better like this. And then talking about how her siblings have moved on and live separate lives. And in another tiktok post she wrote when I die, get my dad to to lower my coffin so he can let me down one last time.
Speaker 1Oh, that's sad so I'm like lord, this poor girl. So I mean, and it's crazy because there's so many people who are like she's so loved, she's she wasn't feeling it, yeah, obviously. So I feel like she like that, combined with her living conditions and everything else, like I can't blame her for wanting to no, not to get out of there.
Speaker 1And you said there's still like the august date is still yes on, so yeah, so that'll be the the time to find out all the things of whatever, like what they've investigated and what's going on yeah, what else they have may dig up and find um, in march she had actually posted I'm not built for this town, these aren't my people. So you know she was. She had plans to get out of there. Yeah, she was moving, she was. She had plans to get out of there.
Speaker 2Yeah, she was moving on, she was going to live her life and do her own thing.
Speaker 1And her boyfriend's father had actually said that. You know, obviously this has traumatized his son. He's lost his mom. Now he's lost his girlfriend and he had actually purchased her a gift that he was going to surprise her with when she got there. Because she was so interested in photography he had bought her like a thousand dollar camera, spent bunches of monies yeah, poor guy for her, though that's just.
Speaker 2That's tragic that this girl who was trying to get her life together yeah, I mean, somebody intervened and took it from her.
Speaker 1Doing her best to be an adult, independent adult, yeah, at 17.
Speaker 2Yeah at 17. Yep, that's sad. Yeah, I can't wait to hear any developments that come along about this, because yeah, so we'll revisit it after stuff starts. I need to know why they did this.
Speaker 1Yeah, I know, and that's the biggest thing for me is like it doesn't make sense, Like why would you do this to her Right? Why would you do this to that family that you've worked with and known, and who else have you done this to? Yeah, and I mean the animal abuse.
Speaker 2Yeah, that's some sadistic stuff there.
Speaker 1And wait till you see the video.
Speaker 2Oh yeah, I can't wait to see. You'll have to send me the link so I can, but I'll, yeah, I'll text you the links to those and then I'll.
Speaker 1I'll also include them, obviously, in the show's source material. So if you guys want to check it out, you can I mean google works wonders too. There's a ton of videos, but I'll I'll send you direct links, holly. Thanks, yeah, so you didn't even know I was doing this till this morning. I know until this morning Like usually we tell each other I'm doing blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 2We give it like a little brief, like this is what I'm doing, this is where they're from.
Speaker 1Yeah, blah, blah, blah, that's it.
Speaker 2And then we do the story. So I didn't even know. Nope, it was a good one. Holly didn't know we were just singing yesterday. Scotty doesn't know your own trip, you know.
Speaker 1Oh, my goodness. And speaking of singing our theme music yeah, it's by Patti Salzetta, and we want you guys to share our podcast.
Closing Thoughts and Podcast Info
Speaker 2Absolutely with everyone. And if you're listening in Australia, share, share, share.
Speaker 1Everywhere.
Speaker 2Because we would like to be all the way down Tell the cashier at the grocery store.
Speaker 1Yes, write it down for them.
Speaker 2Yeah, they'll be like. What does that mean? Just go with it, hold my sweet tea. Podcast.
Speaker 1Yeah, go listen. I mean, I got a drink at Sonic this morning and gave our card with the QR code to the girl who brought me my drink.
Speaker 2Nice.
Speaker 1Here's a tip Listen to our podcast. That's right, it's delightful. Yeah, so share, share, share, yes, absolutely Follow, follow, follow, subscribe, subscribe, subscribe. I can't say that word that fast. Subscribe, subscribe, subscribe.
Speaker 2And where can they contact us at, if you want to send us a massage. A massage.
Speaker 1Oh, I would like a massage, oh my gosh. But a message we have an email steeped at hold my sweet teacom, and you can message us on any social media platform that we actually subscribe to ourselves, not x no not that, no, or snapchat. We don't have, like an official, hold my sweet tea. Snapchat, yeah. So because we don't want those kind of photos no, no, no, I do not want to be solicited, no but hold, my sweet tea is a drunken bee production and you guys stay safe out there.
Speaker 2And just because we're dipping doesn't mean you can't keep sipping. Bye, thank you, bye.