Police Apologise After Family Of Missing Australian Hiker Was Wrongly Told She Was Alive

Police Apologise After Family of Missing Australian Hiker Was Wrongly Told She Was Alive Police in New South Wales have apologised “unreservedly” to the family of 18-year-old hiker Lily Hooper after they were mistakenly told she had been found alive following an eight-day search. Hooper disappeared on August 12 after leaving her home in Oakdale, south-west of Sydney, for a solo hike in Nattai National Park in the New South Wales Southern Highlands. Her vehicle was later found near a walking trail, triggering a major multi-agency search involving police, emergency services, Australian Defence Force personnel and hundreds of volunteers. Search teams faced steep terrain, dense vegetation and difficult cliff lines. On Thursday morning, an SES searcher located a body in thick bushland at about 11:30 a.m. Police initially received information that Hooper had been found alive and that information was passed to her family. For several minutes, Hooper’s family believed the eight-day ordeal had ended with their daughter being rescued. However, searchers subsequently provided a more accurate update confirming that the teenager had died. Police said the body was believed to be Hooper’s, although formal identification was still pending. NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon described the incident as a tragic miscommunication and apologised to the family for the additional trauma caused by the incorrect information. He said the error was “born out of elation” as searchers initially believed they had achieved the outcome everyone had hoped for. NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Joseph Cassar said the family was led to believe Hooper was alive for approximately eight to 10 minutes before the information was corrected.The incorrect information also reached NSW Premier Chris Minns, who was appearing before a parliamentary committee when he was handed a note saying Hooper had been found. Minns initially announced that she had been found alive before receiving the devastating correction. The premier later apologised, saying he had genuinely believed he was sharing good news and was profoundly sorry if his statement had added to the family’s heartbreak. The circumstances surrounding Hooper’s death and the communication failure will now be examined as part of the investigative and coronial processes. Police have said the immediate priority is recovering her body from the difficult terrain and returning her to her family. The tragedy has prompted renewed attention to the challenges of coordinating information during large-scale search-and-rescue operations, particularly in remote areas where difficult terrain and communications problems can complicate the flow of information between teams and command centres. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Angus Taylor also paid tribute to Hooper in Parliament, with Albanese describing her death as an “unspeakable tragedy.”