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
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,