{"id":77664,"date":"2026-08-22T01:13:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T01:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/77664\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T01:13:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T01:13:12","slug":"lily-hooper-family-shows-remarkable-strength-and-forgiveness-after-communication-mix-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/77664\/","title":{"rendered":"Lily Hooper: Family shows remarkable strength and forgiveness after communication mix-up"},"content":{"rendered":"

The father of Lily Hooper<\/a> says he holds no anger towards towards police and the SES after the 18-year-old was wrongly reported to have been found alive<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Instead, Jim Hooper told 7NEWS he is grateful to them for never giving up on finding his precious girl during the eight-day search.<\/p>\n

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Family\u2019s incredible shows strength after Lily Hooper tragedy<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n

Jim and wife Kirrily have visited their daughter\u2019s body at the coroner\u2019s office after it was finally recovered from bushland in the Southern Highlands.<\/p>\n

A post-mortem will take place to work out how Lily died.<\/p>\n

A vigil has been held on Friday night at Oakdale in Sydney<\/a>\u2019s southwest, not far from the family home, as the community rallies around the grieving family.<\/p>\n

\"LilyLily Hooper\u2019s father says he holds no anger towards towards police and the SES after the 18-year-old was wrongly reported to have been found alive. Credit: 7NEWS<\/p>\n

Lily, an adventure and lover of the the outdoors, went for a bushwalk in Nattai National Park and never came home,<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was doing what you\u2019d want of every young person and that is getting out in the community, getting out in nature,\u201d Premier Chris Minns said.<\/p>\n

Lily never stopped. She worked part-time as a guide at BridgeClimb, had a huge circle of friends and a deep love of martial arts.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was a very talented, tough young lady, only 18 years of age. She was super tough on the mats, but yet she was still just such a lovely, sweet person,\u201d Mark Szalajko from Bujutsu Martial Arts said.<\/p>\n

The dedicated athlete trained the night before her fatal hike.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs she was leaving, she told us she\u2019d be back on Wednesday night to train BJJ and unfortunately that never happened,\u201d Szalajko said.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the company fostering Lily\u2019s dream of becoming a worldwide tour guide, said: \u201cLily was an absolute delight from the moment she joined the BridgeClimb family and lit up every space with her smile and enthusiasm.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was compassionate, a friend to all, motivated and had a positive impact on everyone she connected with.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Lily\u2019sLily\u2019s parents have visited their daughter\u2019s body at the coroner\u2019s office after it was finally recovered from bushland in the Southern Highlands. Credit: 7NEWS<\/p>\n

Hundreds of police and volunteers had scoured the dense bushland of Nattai National Park, almost 50 kilometres from her family home at Oakdale.<\/p>\n

Then came the devastating breakdown in communication on Thursday morning.<\/p>\n

Her family was told by searchers she had been found alive.<\/p>\n

Twenty minutes later came utter devastation, Lily had actually died.<\/p>\n

Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon promised<\/a> on Friday it will never happen again.<\/p>\n

\u201cYesterday\u2019s miscommunication, as tragic as it was, was not born out of ill will,\u201d Lanyon said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make sure this doesn\u2019t happen again.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a terrible set of circumstances. We will work through that.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Code word mix-up behind devastating police update on missing hiker<\/p>\n

2 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Top cop apologises after missing hiker\u2019s family wrongly told she was alive<\/p>\n

3 min read<\/p>\n

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