Body found in Grand Canyon likely boy swept away with step-grandmother

Grand Canyon National Park officials said Friday that a body found is likely that of a 14-year-old hiker who went missing in the park two weeks ago with his step-grandmother.

According to the New York Post, Jackson Standefer of Chattanooga, Tennessee, was swept away along with LouAnn Merrell when the two were crossing a creek on April 15 and slipped into the water. After a week of intensive searching by land and air and even a motorized inflatable boat, the search was scaled back.

The body was discovered by commercial river trip participants and transported to a medical examiner, the Post reported.

Authorities recovered some photographs of Jackson and Merrell from his GoPro camera.

Standefer was an eighth-grade student at The McCallie School, an all-boys boarding institution in Chattanooga. A school spokesman said he was active in outdoors programs, crew team and a Christian youth group.

Merrell, the boy's step-grandmother, is the wife of Merrell Boot Co. co-founder Randy Merrell and lives in Utah. She is still missing.

Cox Media Group