Lily Hooper’s mum reveals more details on tragic search

The mother of a Sydney teenager who died while hiking in the NSW Southern Highlands has shared more details on the desperate search for her daughter.

Lily Hooper, 18, went missing on August 12 after going on a bushwalk in the Nattai National Park.

She was found after an eight-day search, but Lily’s family was originally told she had been discovered alive before authorities confirmed she was dead.

In a new interview, the Hooper family say they hold no ill will towards authorities who “threw the kitchen sink” at finding Lily alive.

They also shed light on what caused the teenager’s death.

“Preliminary reports have said Lily had a fall, she had an accident that first afternoon... she died the day she went missing and was found lying peacefully in dense bushland,” Kirrily Hooper, Lily’s mother, told The Daily Telegraph.

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“In hindsight we now know she passed quickly and she didn’t suffer in the cold.”

Kirrily said she was taken aback by the natural beauty of the area Lily had been walking in.

“We went to the trail with a police officer when Lily was still missing, desperately looking for answers... we couldn’t take our eyes off it, it’s stunningly beautiful,” she said.

“I could see why Lily wanted to do it”.

Her family were at the search site when Lily’s body was found on August 20.

Police are still investigating the circumstances that led to the family incorrectly being told Lily had been found alive.

“It is a common practice to have a code for the circumstances of missing persons,” SES Commissioner Mike Wassing said, adding that police usually set up such code words.

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NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon had expressed regret to the Hooper family in the aftermath of the miscommunication.

“The miscommunication was born out of elation that Lily had been found and her condition at that time was such that searchers were relieved,” Lanyon told media earlier this month.

“Tragically, that miscommunication then led to a deflation.”

The incorrect information reached NSW Premier Chris Minns, who interrupted budget estimates to share the news, though he later corrected himself and expressed his condolences to the Hooper family.

“I am absolutely devastated and profoundly sorry that anything I said may have added to the grief that [Lily’s] family has gone through,” he said on August 21.

“I know they’ve gone through hell over the last week.

“Lily was a fantastic person with a close family and this will be devastating for them.”