Missing teen hiker Lily Hooper found dead as NSW police apologise for miscommunication ‘born of elation’

Initial report from ‘thick and dense terrain’ where Hooper was located was she had been found alive but within 10 minutes a ‘more accurate account’ was relayed to police Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The body of missing 18-year-old bushwalker Lily Hooper has been found in a remote New South Wales national park more than a week after she set out on her hike. Police have apologised “unreservedly” for wrongly suggesting Hooper had been alive when she was found by SES search volunteers off the walking trail in the state’s southern highlands on Thursday morning. The assistant commissioner Joe Cassar said SES search volunteers initially reported at 11.30am that the teenager had been found alive in “thick and dense terrain” in Nattai national park about 90km south-west of Sydney. However, within 10 minutes, the search crew relayed a “more accurate account” to police confirming Hooper was dead. “There’s no playbook to communication,” Cassar told reporters in Moss Vale on Thursday afternoon. Her body was not expected to be retrieved for many hours, NSW police said. The commissioner, Mal Lanyon, told reporters in Goulburn on Thursday