NSW Police will investigate a series of failures after officers mistakenly told the family of missing bushwalker Lily Hooper that the 18-year-old had been found alive after an eight-day search in the state’s Southern Highlands. That false report reached her parents at the search base on the edge of the Nattai National Park, where a family already living inside the machinery of a missing-person operation was forced to absorb one more blow from the people running it.
For almost 20 minutes on Thursday, Hooper’s family believed she had been found alive in dense bushland before being told police were still working to determine her condition. Shortly after, police confirmed she had been found dead. Commissioner Mal Lanyon apologised for the miscommunication that devastated her grieving parents, who had moments earlier celebrated what they believed was a miraculous survival. The sequence was brutal in its simplicity: hope handed down from above, then taken back.
Who Held the Information
A police officer at the search base told Hooper’s parents, Jim and Kirrily Hooper, that the teenager was alive after an SES volunteer found her during a ground search. Jim Hooper told reporters that he had never given up hope that his daughter would be found alive. On the eighth day of searching, he laid a "charm" — his daughter’s guitar and a pack of Tim Tams — under the marquee the family had turned into a makeshift home since August 12. He said, "She’s coming home," through tears before loved ones celebrated at the search base, and later said, "I’ve been beside myself ... we found her."
The family’s grief was shaped not just by loss, but by the chain of command that filtered the news. Lanyon said, "I don’t know exactly what was said to her parents at the time, but obviously her condition, when she was located, the initial information that had been reported and was communicated, was that she was alive." He added, "The communication may have passed through a number of hands." That’s the apparatus at work: one person finds, another relays, another announces, and the people waiting at the bottom get whatever version survives the trip.
The miscommunication may have been sparked by a radio code believed to be used by SES searchers to report that a body has been found, in which they refer to full, half or empty water bottles to signal whether a person is alive in the event family members may be monitoring the radio. A half bottle of water is believed to indicate a person’s condition is unclear. Hooper’s mother said police had told her she was found alive with half a bottle of water in her possession. Police do not use the code during their own searches.
What the Search Machine Did
Almost 1000 searchers had scoured dense bush in the national park looking for Hooper since she was reported missing on August 12, having left her home in Sydney’s south-west that morning to hike the Bonnum Pic walking trail. Police officers on horseback, motorcycles and from several units searched alongside Australian Defence Force personnel, NSW State Emergency Services volunteers and Rural Fire Service firefighters. Helicopters and thermal imaging technology had also been used during the search for the teenager, who had remained in contact with her family on the day she went missing.
Police found her Hyundai parked at the bottom of the challenging Bonnum Pic trail shortly after her family reported her missing. Authorities on Thursday evening were working to retrieve Hooper’s body from dense bush that Lanyon said could not be accessed via police helicopter. Specialist officers were exploring the possibility of carrying Hooper’s body out of the bush, given the difficulty to access the site where she was found, which was not on a clear walking track, and was a significant distance from her car. It is unclear what injuries, if any, she sustained or when she died. Lanyon said, "We’ll now work through a process, whether it’s manually, whether it’s on foot, to retrieve her body." He added, "We’d like to bring her back to be with her family."
NSW SES Assistant Commissioner Colin Malone said information transmitted over radio communications could be broken up in remote areas. Lanyon said, "That miscommunication, I unashamedly apologise for any additional trauma that may have caused Lily’s family, but certainly for the embarrassment and confusion that caused," adding that police sought to correct the information at the earliest opportunity. He said, "The miscommunication, obviously, was born out of elation that Lily had been found and her condition at that time was such that searchers were relieved and certainly those at the command base were elated."
The Officials Reacted After the Damage
Lanyon apologised to NSW Premier Chris Minns, who had earlier announced to a parliamentary budget estimates committee that Hooper was alive after he received the incorrect information. Minns said, "I’ve got some terrible news, and I apologise to the committee. But it seems as if the early advice was wrong, and Lily’s body’s been found, and she’s been found deceased." The information was passed from police to the premier via Police Minister Yasmin Catley, which Lanyon said was not unusual for a high-profile investigation.
Lanyon had spoken to NSW SES Commissioner Mike Wassing and would review the failure. He said, "This is not a circumstance I would like to see repeated." He added, "What’s important now is we look at the communication between all agencies to make sure we improve it." That’s the language of reform inside a system that already had almost 1000 people, helicopters, thermal imaging, police units, soldiers, volunteers and ministers moving through the same chain — and still managed to tell a family the wrong thing.
NSW Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane, who had earlier, citing media reports, posted on social media that the teenager had been found alive, said Hooper’s death was heartbreaking and an unimaginable loss. She said, "So many people had been hoping for Lily’s safe return and today’s news will be difficult and deeply felt." Federal Opposition Leader Angus Taylor, Hooper’s local member, published and then deleted a social media post indicating she had been found alive, later saying the incorrect reports of her survival made the family’s loss even worse. Taylor told parliament, "We can only imagine what Lily’s family is going through right now. Such news would be a nightmare for any parent, and we grieve for Lily’s wider family."
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the family’s loss was an unspeakable tragedy. He told parliament, "Lily Hooper had so much more to offer the world. Her passing, I have no doubt, will be felt very deeply." He added, "Our thoughts are of course with her family and loved ones on what is an incredibly sad and difficult day." MPs also rose for a moment’s silence.
Wollondilly Shire Mayor Matt Gould said the council’s performing arts centre and library would be lit up in purple for the rest of the week in Hooper’s memory, and flags on the council chambers would be flown at half-mast. He said, "They are small gestures, but I hope they help show in some way just how deeply Lily’s loss is being felt across our community, and how much Wollondilly is thinking of her family, friends and everyone who loved her."