{"id":575677,"date":"2026-08-21T08:18:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T08:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/575677\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T08:18:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T08:18:13","slug":"investigation-to-follow-traumatic-nsw-hiker-mix-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/575677\/","title":{"rendered":"Investigation to follow traumatic NSW hiker mix-up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Police and the emergency service will review their communications protocols after a tragic mix-up in the search for a missing teen.<\/p>\n

Nearly 1000 searchers scoured the dense Nattai National Park for signs of 18-year-old Lily Hooper over eight days before a volunteer found her body on Thursday morning.<\/p>\n

But for an estimated 10 minutes, her family were told of, and celebrated, their daughter’s miraculous survival<\/a>.<\/p>\n

NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon apologised for the “embarrassment and confusion” caused by the miscommunication.<\/p>\n

\"Lily<\/p>\n

Lily Hooper was found dead eight days after going missing in the NSW Southern Highlands. (Source: NSW Police)<\/p>\n

He committed the force to a review of the communications failure alongside the State Emergency Service.<\/p>\n

“I’ve spoken to the Commissioner of the SES. Together, we will look at the communication, obviously with a view to improving that,” he said.<\/p>\n

“This is not a circumstance I would like to see repeated.<\/p>\n

“Communication is always a challenge, and in remote areas, from time to time, it can be challenging to get the right communication through.<\/p>\n

“We want to make sure it’s as simple and accurate as possible.”<\/p>\n

He apologised for any “additional trauma” caused to the family, who had expressed their relief to media while believing Hooper to be alive.<\/p>\n

The miscommunication wound its way through police ranks to the NSW premier on Thursday, he additionally revealed.<\/p>\n

Chris Minns had expressed relief at mistaken reports of Hooper’s survival during a parliamentary hearing before having to rescind his statements.<\/p>\n

\"Searchers<\/p>\n

Searchers looking for Lily Hooper gathered for a briefing. (Source: NSW SES Woolondilly Unit)<\/p>\n

Lanyon said the message “would have gone through police commands”.<\/p>\n

“The normal process it goes through a range of police commands to the Minister for Police, and then to the Premier’s Office,” he said.<\/p>\n

The NSW premier later issued a statement apologising to the family.<\/p>\n

“I genuinely believed I was sharing good news,” Minns said.<\/p>\n

“I am profoundly sorry to think anything I said may have added to their heartbreak at an already devastating time.”<\/p>\n

Hooper disappeared on August 12 after leaving her home to go on a hike.<\/p>\n

The teenager from Oakdale, in Sydney’s southwest, did not return that evening and could not be contacted on her mobile phone, triggering a wide-scale search.<\/p>\n

Her car was discovered at the Bonnum Pic trail head the same night she went missing, but earlier on Thursday Assistant Commissioner Joseph Cassar said the teenager was found a long way from her vehicle.<\/p>\n

“I can’t give you the exact distance but … it wasn’t on a clear, walkable track,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s thick, dense bush and a lot of it is steep cliff area.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police and the emergency service will review their communications protocols after a tragic mix-up in the search for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575678,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[85,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-575677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-australia","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575677","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=575677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}