{"id":862015,"date":"2026-08-20T12:52:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T12:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/862015\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T12:52:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T12:52:13","slug":"from-elation-to-terrible-news-in-10-minutes-how-the-confusion-over-missing-bushwalker-lily-hooper-unfolded-new-south-wales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/862015\/","title":{"rendered":"From \u2018elation\u2019 to \u2018terrible news\u2019 in 10 minutes: how the confusion over missing bushwalker Lily Hooper unfolded | New South Wales"},"content":{"rendered":"

Police have blamed dense bushland and radio confusion for wrongly reporting to 18-year-old Lily Hooper\u2019s parents, the New South Wales<\/a> premier and the media that the missing bushwalker had been found alive.<\/p>\n

Hooper had last been seen on 12 August after leaving home for a hike in the rugged bushland of Nattai national park, 90km south-west of Sydney<\/a>. She was reported missing that night, triggering a multi-agency search involving nearly 1,000 people, including hundreds of volunteers.<\/p>\n

Eight days later, on Thursday morning, police media told reporters a \u201chiker\u201d had been found.<\/p>\n

At around midday, the premier, Chris Minns<\/a>, was handed a piece of paper while addressing a parliamentary committee. He asked if it was accurate, to which the secretary of the cabinet office, Kate Boyd, said: \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The premier, reading the paper, said he had \u201cfantastic news\u201d that Hooper was \u201cfound in the bush with half a bottle of water with her\u201d.<\/p>\n

His remarks were published across media outlets. Minutes later, Minns told the committee: \u201cI\u2019ve got some terrible news. I apologise \u2026 Lily\u2019s body has been found<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Questions immediately centred on how such a serious error could have been made.<\/p>\n

SES search volunteers had told police they believed they had found Hooper alive at 11.30am, the police assistant commissioner Joseph Cassar told reporters in Moss Vale on Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Recounting the sequence of communication, he said officers soon shared that message with Hooper\u2019s parents, who had spent a \u201cgreat deal\u201d of time at the search command post near the head of the Bonnum Pic walking trail, where the teenager\u2019s car had been found.<\/p>\n

\"VehiclesVehicles drive along road near NSW national park where Lily Hooper\u2019s body was discovered<\/p>\n

Cassar said the hundreds of searchers, carrying handheld radios, faced communication challenges in the \u201cthick, dense terrain\u201d. They had \u201cclear instructions\u201d to report when they found anything, even an item of clothing, he said.<\/p>\n

The SES assistant commissioner Colin Malone said the SES volunteers were from the \u201chighly trained\u201d bush search and rescue team.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very rugged and rough terrain up there and radio communication, like mobile phone communication, as we all experience, when you\u2019re in black spots or tricky areas, the information does get broken up a little bit,\u201d Malone said.<\/p>\n

Within 10 minutes, the same SES volunteers made a second \u201cmore accurate\u201d report, Cassar said. He said they would probably have been \u201cvery close\u201d to Hooper\u2019s body.<\/p>\n

By then, the incorrect message had already begun to circulate publicly.<\/p>\n

The police commissioner, Mal Lanyon, told reporters on Thursday afternoon that police had hurried to share the initial report after searching for Hooper for eight days.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe sought to communicate, obviously, with the family and the media at the first opportunity,\u201d Lanyon said.<\/p>\n

\u201cElation,\u201d he said, soon turned to \u201cdeflation \u2013 and obviously we know now, an impact on her family\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI unashamedly apologise for any additional trauma that may have caused Lily\u2019s family, but certainly for the embarrassment and confusion that caused.\u201d<\/p>\n

Map showing Bonnum Pic walking trail. <\/a><\/p>\n

Minns later said in a statement that he received incorrect advice and \u201cgenuinely believed\u201d he was sharing good news.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy deepest condolences are with Lily\u2019s family,\u201d the premier said. \u201cI am profoundly sorry to think that anything I said may have added to their heartbreak at an already devastating time.\u201d<\/p>\n

skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter | When needed<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

Angus Taylor, the opposition leader, had reportedly published and then deleted a social media post indicating she had been found alive. He addressed the miscommunication while paying tribute to Hooper in parliament.<\/p>\n

\u201cInitial reports that she had been found alive proved to be wrong and that makes the blow even worse,\u201d Taylor said.<\/p>\n

Lanyon said police would have reported the finding to the office of the police minister, Yasmin Catley, and then to the premier\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t explain why it was so quick but what I can say to you is this search has been high profile,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Lanyon said he had called Minns to apologise for the \u201cmisinformation\u201d he had received.<\/p>\n

Minns\u2019 reference to a water bottle prompted speculation that search crews had used a code word in their initial report.<\/p>\n

Asked how the \u201cwater bottle\u201d phrase had been referenced, Cassar said: \u201cI can\u2019t tell you because I don\u2019t know exactly what was said.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nattai national park is about 90km south-west of Sydney. <\/a><\/p>\n

Lanyon said he could not explain the reference but communications would be reviewed and improved. Police, the SES and the premier\u2019s office declined to comment on whether coded terms had been involved in the miscommunication.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a circumstance I would like to see repeated,\u201d Lanyon said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will look at the relationship between police and the SES and we\u2019ll work with other agencies to make sure communication failures don\u2019t occur.\u201d<\/p>\n

The public breakdown in communications came a week after NSW police separately reported finding a \u201cbody\u201d inside a suitcase which was determined the next day<\/a> to have been a sex doll.<\/p>\n

Lanyon denied the two incidents would impact public perceptions or trust in police.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe police took exactly the right precautions [when] what we now know was a doll was found in a suitcase,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI accept later on it was [determined] not a body, but I think the community would expect the police to treat crime scenes seriously and preserve evidence, and that\u2019s what was done.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police have blamed dense bushland and radio confusion for wrongly reporting to 18-year-old Lily Hooper\u2019s parents, the New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":862016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-862015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=862015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/862016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=862015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=862015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=862015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}