Dive Team Recovers Body Of Idaho Teen Who Went Missing Four Years Ago

A dive team recovered the body of missing Idaho teen Matthew Jedediah Hall from a vehicle located in an Idaho Falls river four years after his disappearance.

The remains were recovered on May 1, and days later, on May 4, they were positively identified as Hall’s, the Idaho Falls Police Department (IFPD) announced in an update on the teen’s missing person page.

Hall, who was 16 years old when he disappeared, left his home between 2:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. on January 22, 2018, in a Nissan Versa, IFPD said. He took a 9mm handgun and camping and survival equipment with him while also leaving “a note stating that he intended to attempt suicide,” the release said. 

Oregon-based underwater sonar search and recovery dive Adventures with Purpose (AWP), which works with law enforcement and families around the country to investigate cold cases free of charge, announced it had found the vehicle on May 1, East Idaho News reported.

AWP embarked on the search at the Johns Hole boat ramp on the Snake River in Idaho Falls, near where Hall’s cellphone last pinged, the outlet noted. The effort was aided by the IFPD and Hall’s parents, Allan and Amy, the AWP said on its YouTube channel. Within 20 minutes, a vehicle was located in eight feet of water, some 75 yards downstream and 50 feet off the shoreline.

“Diving on the car, it was confirmed that the vehicle was the Nissan AWP was searching for,” the organization said. 

Doug Bishop, a lead diver with the team, told East Idaho News he did not have words the describe the moment Amy and Allan learned that the vehicle was found:

No true words can describe their reaction (when the vehicle was being pulled out of the river). As a parent of a 16-year-old that’s still hoping that their son is going to drive down the driveway any day still, seeing the vehicle that they have been looking for, for four years for the first time — no true words can describe that.

Bishop and another team member identified remains inside the Nissan after it was brought to land, the AWP said. 

Evidence suggested the vehicle had been there since the time of the teen’s disappearance, as Bishop told East Idaho News: 

There was scientific proof that the vehicle has been there for that long. There was nothing alarming about the vehicle other than the front end rear window was out which is strictly due to current, extreme temperatures there in Idaho Falls in the winters and the debris that floats down the river. It was what it would have looked like in other scenarios that we’ve dealt with.

Bishop emphasized that the recovery of Hall’s body does not bring closure to the family, but it does carry answers: 

There are answers. It’s never closure. You never get over losing someone you love. However, when we lose somebody and we don’t know what happened, that’s the ultimate nightmare. So in any capacity, Allen and Amy now have the answers they need to tear down those walls and move forward as terrible as that is. They now know,” Bishop said.

“While this is not the outcome we had hoped for we appreciate all those who have assisted in this investigation and the effort to provide answers to Jed’s family and loved ones,” said IFPD Chief Bryce Johnson. “Our hearts are with the Hall family and all those who knew and loved Jed at this time.”