Deceased
Elizabeth O'Pray
Demographics
76y, female
Date of death
2016-03-08
Finding date
2019-12-13
Cause of death
dehydration, hypothermia and exhaustion
AI-generated summary
Elizabeth O'Pray, a 76-year-old woman with a history of transient ischaemic attack and early cognitive difficulties, became lost while walking in bushland near Katoomba, NSW on 7 March 2016. Despite extensive police search efforts and mobile phone contact, she was never found alive. The coroner concluded she died between 8-10 March 2016 from dehydration, hypothermia and exhaustion. A critical issue emerged: mobile phone location technology (the Osprey system) provided inaccurate directional information that initially misdirected search resources southward when the patient was likely northwest of the serving cell tower. Although police eventually recognized the inaccuracy and redirected efforts appropriately, initial reliance on the flawed Osprey data and delays in obtaining technical verification from Optus contributed to suboptimal search coordination in critical early days. The underlying causes were a software bug in the JSpectrum Location Based Service and a 200-meter discrepancy in the recorded cell tower location.
AI-generated summary and tagging — may contain inaccuracies; refer to original finding for legal purposes.
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