Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon has blamed miscommunication for why Lily Hooper’s family was initially told she was still alive.

He has apologised “unashamedly” for the grief and trauma the mistake has caused.

“The miscommunication was born out of elation that Lily had been found,” he said.

There’s been significant backlash over the police’s handling of the discovery, after the family and media were told she had initially been found alive, with many questioning how they got it so wrong.

Assistant Commissioner Joseph Cassar says it was only a few minutes between the initial news and the subsequent update.

He says how they got the news wrong will be part of a brief to the investigator.

“The initial information that the searchers believed that she was alive that’s what was communicated but, like I said, between the eight to ten minutes we were able to give them an update which that was a more accurate account of the discovery of the body we believe to be Lily,” he said.

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