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Body Found Last Week Positively ID'd As Missing Teen Hiker

Mark McOmie

A body found last week has been positively identified as that of a 14-year-old hiker who went missing more than two weeks ago while in the bottom of the Grand Canyon during a family trip.

The Coconino County Medical Examiner's Office confirmed Monday that the body was that of Jackson Standefer of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

But they say the teen's cause of death and manner of death still are pending.

The boy was crossing a creek on April 15 when he and his step-grandmother, LouAnn Merrell, lost their footing and were swept away.

Merrell remains missing.

Standefer's body was found last Friday by a commercial river trip.

He was an eighth-grade student at The McCallie School, an all-boys boarding institution in Chattanooga.

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