The father of a young woman who went missing in dense bushland in southern NSW has broken his silence, pleading for support from the public in an impromptu radio interview.<\/p>\n
While 2SM Breakfast Host Tim Webster was fielding calls on Monday morning, a man who identified himself as the father of missing hiker Lily Hooper, 18, said he had decided to \u201cbite the bullet\u201d and speak publicly about the search.<\/p>\n
Audibly choking back tears, Ms Hooper\u2019s father said he was \u201cvery upset\u201d and he wanted people to \u201ccross their fingers\u201d as the search for the missing teen entered its fourth day.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to find her today. I\u2019m going back to her now, I\u2019m just putting my boots on, and I just want everyone to throw love and energy because we\u2019ve gotta go and find her,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got to find this kid. She\u2019s got to be in there somewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Hooper\u2019s father has searched for his missing daughter but until now has refrained from directly addressing the media.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been very quiet, I don\u2019t post anything on social media or anything like that and I thought \u2026 I\u2019m just going to bite the bullet and ring up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just want everyone out there to cross their fingers and hope we find her today because it\u2019s been too long.\u201d<\/p>\n
NSW Police said Ms Hooper left home about 8am on Wednesday morning to hike in Nattai National Park, and when she hadn\u2019t returned home by 10pm that night, she was reported missing by her family.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout 11pm, Lily\u2019s car was found parked on Wanganderry Rd, near the start of the Bonnum Pic Walking Trail at High Range, and a command post was established,\u201d police said.<\/p>\n
\u201cInitial inquiries indicate Lily reached the summit of Bonnum Pic about midmorning; however, there\u2019s been no further contact since that time.\u201d<\/p>\n
NSW Police Chief Inspector Brendan Bernie said \u201cno trace of Lily\u201d had yet been located as of Monday morning, citing difficulties for rescuers navigating the terrain of Nattai National Park.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s quite dense with bushland and there\u2019s a dense tree canopy which also hinders our aerial searching. However, we\u2019re on the ground, there\u2019s a good support from the local community and our volunteers are doing a fantastic job,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
According to AllTrails, the Bonnum Pic track \u201crequires significant self-reliance\u201d due to post-bushfire regrowth, making parts of the trail overgrown and difficult to follow.<\/p>\n
Police Rescue, NSW Ambulance, Fire and Rescue NSW, SES and members of Lily\u2019s family have been working throughout the weekend to find her.<\/p>\n
Volunteer rescue squads from as far north as Cessnock have also been mobilised to help in the search.<\/p>\n
The search will continue on Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The father of a young woman who went missing in dense bushland in southern NSW has broken his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[47840,55661,40816,44015,50426,89180,31771,104931,46779,104914,104917,104903,77684,104929,37420,44757,1206,104918,104933,22,21,104897,35454,35614,47279,44740,46299,3063,10153,104923,36694,104905,104901,104900,5301,39908,104913,92343,52,60822,104922,104911,104921,104895,37532,104920,104910,104928,37045,36526,104912,104904,99947,379,104906,104925,12582,2021,104902,104915,74974,35860,7350,1047,104896,104899,5663,104932,39193,104919,70065,4381,62439,35279,44131,45310,104907,104930,53493,47374,39477,65925,40564,104927,37118,36692,104909,104924,37679,104908,104916,104898,40084,82409,104926,104894,22441],"class_list":["post-73374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-s-car","tag-s-dad","tag-s-family","tag-s-father","tag-10pm","tag-11pm","tag-31771","tag-2sm-breakfast-host-tim-webster","tag-8am","tag-a-command-post","tag-a-dense-tree-canopy","tag-a-devastated-father","tag-a-fantastic-job","tag-a-good-support","tag-a-man","tag-a-young-woman","tag-air","tag-alltrails","tag-an-impromptu-radio-interview","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-bonnum-pic","tag-bushland","tag-calls","tag-cessnock","tag-dense-bushland","tag-difficulties","tag-father","tag-fire-and-rescue-nsw","tag-follow-police-rescue","tag-her-family","tag-her-today","tag-her-volunteer-rescue-squads","tag-high-range","tag-hike","tag-his-daughter","tag-his-missing-daughter","tag-his-silence","tag-home","tag-initial-inquiries","tag-its-fourth-day","tag-its-sixth-day","tag-lily","tag-love-and-energy","tag-members","tag-midmorning","tag-missing-hiker-lily-hooper","tag-missing-lily","tag-monday","tag-morning","tag-ms-hooper","tag-my-boots","tag-nattai-national-park","tag-newswire-news","tag-no-further-contact","tag-no-trace","tag-nsw-ambulance","tag-nsw-police","tag-nsw-police-chief-inspector-brendan-bernie","tag-our-aerial-searching","tag-our-volunteers","tag-parts","tag-people","tag-police","tag-post-bushfire-regrowth","tag-rescuers","tag-ses","tag-significant-self-reliance","tag-silence","tag-social-media-or-anything","tag-southern-nsw","tag-support","tag-ta","tag-tears","tag-that-night","tag-that-time","tag-the-bonnum-pic-track","tag-the-bonnum-pic-walking-trail","tag-the-bullet","tag-the-father","tag-the-ground","tag-the-local-community","tag-the-media","tag-the-missing-teen","tag-the-public","tag-the-search","tag-the-search-audibly","tag-the-search-the-search","tag-the-start","tag-the-summit","tag-the-terrain","tag-the-trail","tag-the-weekend","tag-their-fingers","tag-this-kid","tag-wanganderry-rd","tag-wednesday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}