Police found a body in the Southern Highlands on Thursday after an eight-day search for Hiker Lily Hooper, bringing a grim end to the hunt for the 18-year-old Sydney teenager. The body was found at about 11:30 local time in dense vegetation and is believed to be hers, although it has not yet been formally identified.
Hooper left her home in Sydney on 12 August for a walk in a nearby national park and was reported missing later that night after she did not return home by 10pm. Her car was later found in a car park at the bottom of a challenging trail in the Nattai National Park, and the search that followed drew support from PolAir, the Rescue Unit, the Trail Bike Unit, the Mounted Unit and the Dog Unit, along with the Rural Fire Service, the National Parks and Wildlife Service and almost 100 members of the Australian Defence Force.
The scale of the effort reflected how hard the ground was to cover. The body was found in thick bush, and police said it would likely have to be carried out on foot, a detail that shows how difficult the search was even before the outcome became clear. In Australian bushland, dense vegetation can slow movement, block sight lines and make every step a manual search, especially when crews are trying to work through steep or narrow terrain.
The ending was made worse by confusion earlier on Thursday, when New South Wales Premier Chris Minns first told a parliamentary hearing that Hooper had been found alive. He later corrected himself and said that Lily's body had been found and that she was deceased. Assistant Police Commissioner Joseph Cassar said there was a period of between eight to 10 minutes before her parents were given an updated report, and he said he did not know exactly what was said to the family. Asked about the mistake, he said that if he could turn the clock back, he would certainly do so.
That error deepened the blow for a family already facing the worst possible news. Anthony Albanese paid tribute to Lily Hooper in parliament and called her death an unspeakable tragedy, while Angus Taylor said the initial incorrect reports that she had been found alive made the family's loss even worse. Police still have to formally identify the body, but the search has ended with what investigators believe is the teenager who left home eight days ago and never came back.
