Police have blamed dense bushland and radio confusion for wrongly reporting to 18-year-old Lily Hooper’s parents, the New South Wales premier and the media that the missing bushwalker had been found alive.
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. She was reported missing that night, triggering a multi-agency search involving nearly 1,000 people, including hundreds of volunteers.
Eight days later, on Thursday morning, police media told reporters a “hiker” had been found.
At around midday, the premier, Chris Minns, 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: “Yes.”
The premier, reading the paper, said he had “fantastic news” that Hooper was “found in the bush with half a bottle of water with her”.
His remarks were published across media outlets. Less than 30 minutes later, Minns told the committee: “I’ve got some terrible news. I apologise … Lily’s body has been found.”
Minns had not realised his own initial statement may have contained a clue to the error.
On Friday morning, the SES commissioner, Mike Wassing, suggested the “half a bottle of water” phrase may have been a code used by search crews to convey sensitive information without alerting others potentially listening to official radio transmissions.
“It’s very common that code words are given to search and rescue crews,” Wassing told ABC radio. “My understanding is that that’s what has occurred in this situation.”
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.
Recounting the sequence of communication, he said officers soon shared that message with Hooper’s parents, who had spent a “great deal” of time at the search command post near the head of the Bonnum Pic walking trail, where the teenager’s car had been found.
Cassar said the hundreds of searchers, carrying handheld radios, faced communication challenges in the “thick, dense terrain”. They had “clear instructions” to report when they found anything, even an item of clothing, he said.
The SES assistant commissioner Colin Malone said the SES volunteers were from the “highly trained” bush search and rescue team.
“It’s very rugged and rough terrain up there and radio communication, like mobile phone communication, as we all experience, when you’re in black spots or tricky areas, the information does get broken up a little bit,” Malone said.
Wassing said on Friday this, plus confusion over any code, was likely a factor.
“We’re working through with police in terms of [the explanation],” he said. “[Was it] actually the aspects of the codes? Or is it the fact that [it was] really difficult terrain, some of the communication was very patchy as well, and so that may have also contributed.”
Within 10 minutes of the first message, the same SES volunteers made a second “more accurate” report, Cassar said. He said they would probably have been “very close” to Hooper’s body.
By then, the incorrect message had already begun to circulate publicly.
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.
“We sought to communicate, obviously, with the family and the media at the first opportunity,” Lanyon said.
“Elation,” he said, soon turned to “deflation – and obviously we know now, an impact on her family”.
“[I] apologise for any additional trauma that may have caused Lily’s family, but certainly for the embarrassment and confusion that caused.”
Minns later said in a statement that he received incorrect advice and “genuinely believed” he was sharing good news.
“My deepest condolences are with Lily’s family,” the premier said. “I am profoundly sorry to think that anything I said may have added to their heartbreak at an already devastating time.”
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.
“Initial reports that she had been found alive proved to be wrong and that makes the blow even worse,” Taylor said.
Lanyon said police would have reported the finding to the office of the police minister, Yasmin Catley, and then to the premier’s office.
“I can’t explain why it was so quick but what I can say to you is this search has been high profile,” he said.
Lanyon said he had called Minns to apologise for the “misinformation” he had received.
Asked on Friday who had been in contact with his office, the premier said he wouldn’t single out an individual.
“Ultimately, this is my responsibility and Mal’s responsibility, and we’re going to fix it,” he said.
Minns’ reference to a water bottle prompted speculation that search crews had used a code word in their initial report.
Asked how the “water bottle” phrase had been referenced, Cassar said on Thursday: “I can’t tell you because I don’t know exactly what was said.”
Lanyon said he could not explain the reference but communications would be reviewed and improved.
“This is not a circumstance I would like to see repeated,” Lanyon said.
“We will look at the relationship between police and the SES and we’ll work with other agencies to make sure communication failures don’t occur.”
The public breakdown in communications came a week after NSW police separately reported finding a “body” inside a suitcase which was determined the next day to have been a sex doll.
Lanyon denied the two incidents would impact public perceptions or trust in police.
“The police took exactly the right precautions [when] what we now know was a doll was found in a suitcase,” he said.
“I 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’s what was done.”
