National Park Service says it will scale back search for LouAnn Merrell, step-grandson
After days of extensive searching, the Park Service pulls back
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The National Park Service said Thursday that it would search for the missing pair in a limited mode after days of extensive searching.
Video of the area in which Merrell and Standefer went missing, provided by the National Park Service.
The National Park Service is scaling back the search for LouAnn Merrell, 62, and her 14-year-old step-grandson, Jackson Standefer, according to a press release from Grand Canyon National Park.
The two lost their footing on a family trip in the Grand Canyon on Saturday, and were swept away in a Tapeats Creek in a remote part of the canyon.
The National Park Service has used boats, a helicopter, and ground crews to search for Merrell and Jackson.
The teen’s mother, Julie Standefer-Merrell, posted on Facebook that she was “hopeful for a miracle,” the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported. The post was not publicly available on her Facebook page.
Merrell is the wife of Merrell founder Randy Merrell, and Jackson is an eighth grader at the McCallie School in Chattanooga, Tenn.
A billboard asking for prayers for Jackson’s safe return appeared in Chattanooga this week, the Times Free Press wrote.
