\u201cOur family is absolutely devastated that our beloved daughter Lily is missing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would like to thank all the emergency services and volunteers for their support and continued commitment to the search, not only during the day but throughout the night.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hooper\u2019s family said they \u201cdesperately\u201d want to find the teenager as search teams continue to scour the bushland.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe desperately want to bring Lily home safe, and we ask, as the search continues, to keep our family and Lily in your thoughts.<\/p>\n
Search teams have been working across rugged terrain for the past week. Photo \/ NSW SES<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also ask for privacy and understanding as our family navigates this unimaginable situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The statement asked members of the public not to join the professional search effort following a series of offers.<\/p>\n
Nearly 100 Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel have now been deployed to assist the multi-agency search effort, which involves trail bikes, horses, dogs and helicopters.<\/p>\n
Army survival instructor Gordon Dedman told ABC News that while the search area presents significant challenges, ADF soldiers will be familiar with the locality.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very steep ravines, thick bush, and it can get really cold in winter,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven just basic soldiers will have the ability to know that terrain, going through on foot and doing extensive line searches.\u201d<\/p>\n
Described as an experienced bushwalker, Dedman said Hooper had the benefit of access to drinking water throughout the national park.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst-aid issues and clothing are the two big things, because with the proper clothing, you can even hug against a tree [to stay warm].\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cOur family is absolutely devastated that our beloved daughter Lily is missing. \u201cWe would like to thank all…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":573730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[192,806,85,13982,33452,34464,2109,42,87596,177136,2883,10937,78,65016,6501,43,1527,19098,5659,1870,46803,5163,8229,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-573729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-are","tag-as","tag-australia","tag-continues","tag-devastated","tag-entered","tag-family","tag-headlines","tag-hiker","tag-hooper","tag-hope","tag-hunt","tag-in","tag-lily","tag-missing","tag-news","tag-return","tag-safe","tag-say","tag-search","tag-seventh","tag-teen","tag-they","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}