Updated August 20, 2026 — 7:49pm,first published 11:47am
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NSW Police will investigate a series of failures that resulted in officers mistakenly informing 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.
Commissioner Mal Lanyon on Thursday was forced to apologise for the miscommunication that devastated her grieving parents, who, moments earlier, had celebrated what they believed was a miraculous survival.
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.
“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,” Lanyon said.
A police officer at the search base, on the edge of the Nattai National Park, told Hooper’s parents, Jim and Kirrily Hooper, that the teenager was alive after an SES volunteer found her during a ground search.
An elated 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 had 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. It was to beckon their daughter out of the bush.
“She’s coming home,” he said through tears before loved ones celebrated at the search base.
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.
“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,” Lanyon said, adding that police sought to correct the information at the earliest opportunity.
“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.”
NSW SES Assistant Commissioner Colin Malone said information transmitted over radio communications could be broken up in remote areas.
Lanyon on Thursday afternoon 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.
