IDAHO FALLS — Though authorities have yet to identify the human remains found inside a vehicle recovered by a famous scuba team from the Snake River in Idaho Falls Sunday morning, a local father believes they belong to his teenage son that went missing over four years ago.

“I don’t think he grabbed someone else and put them in the car,” Allen Hall said when asked how sure he was that the remains found on Sunday morning were of his son, Matthew Jedediah “Jed” Hall, a 16-year-old Idaho Falls boy who was last seen driving on a winter morning in 2018.

The elder Hall’s statements are a dark contrast to earlier sentiments the father expressed as he held out hope over the years that his son, who police said took with him a 9mm handgun and various camping and survival gear before departing, was still alive and in hiding somewhere.

Additionally, about five hours before Jed was reported missing around 7 a.m. on Jan. 22, 2018, “Jed was seen on security cameras at American Heritage Charter School, his school just outside (Idaho Falls) city limits. Jed broke a window to enter the school, left a note, a necklace and money in a friend’s locker, exited the school, then left in his vehicle,” Idaho Falls police previously said about the case. Police added that Jed’s parents found a note from him saying “he may attempt suicide.”

But in spite of the notes, Allen Hall said, “Suicidal people have certain tendencies, and Jed didn’t have any of those tendencies.”

The catalyst for a change in the Hall family’s feelings about Jed’s disappearance was the discovery of his vehicle, a 2009 gray Nissan Versa hatchback, which was located in the Snake River just south of the Johns Hole boat ramp at River Parkway and Highway 20 in Idaho Falls.

“We were totally shocked,” Allen Hall said in response to Jed’s car being found.

Both of Jed’s parents, Allen and Amy Hall, were present when the vehicle was located and recovered Sunday.

The discovery was made by crew members of the Bend, Oregon-based Adventures With Purpose, a team of scuba divers with sonar equipment. Adventures with Purpose said in a YouTube video posted Sunday afternoon that they had been aware of the case for some time but initially opted against investigating because of the many unique circumstances in the case, including that a private investigator hired by the Hall family learned in 2020 that a detective in Stockton, California, did a search for Hall’s license plate four days after Hall was reported missing.

The Idaho Falls Police Department published detailed notes regarding Jed’s missing persons case, which included specific records about the license plate search in California.

”Records show that a specific Stockton PD Detective ran Jed’s license plate on January 27th, 2018 at approximately 3:00 p.m. from a desktop terminal in the Stockton Police Department Headquarters building. That it was run from a desktop is significant because it means it is unlikely that the Stockton detective ran the vehicle because she came across it in person during the course of her duties in the Stockton community. After speaking with staff at the Stockton Police Department, it was determined that it was unlikely that the Stockton detective had actually come across the vehicle in the Stockton area and more likely that she had either mistyped another vehicle plate associated with her duties or that she had received the (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children) entry or (Attempt to Locate) bulletin as a partner agency located in the Western States and was checking to see if Jed was still actively missing. This is a common practice among law enforcement agencies.”

A little over 18 months after first learning of Jed’s disappearance, Adventures with Purpose decided the fact Jed’s cell phone had pinged off a nearby cell tower shortly before his disappearance was a major factor that led them to take another look at the case.

”I’m going to say that 95 percent of the time we have a cell phone ping we are going to solve the case,” an Adventures with Purpose crew member said in the YouTube video. “That’s what we had here, that X-factor that brought us within a 5-mile radius and then narrowed it down .43 miles from the cell phone tower to the boat ramp.”

The scuba team with a talent for sleuthing has received national media attention for its successes, having solved 21 missing person cold cases since 2019. CNN did a story on Adventures With Purpose in February, saying the dive team started with “a mission to clean up trash in lakes and rivers.”

Since then Adventures With Purpose “has found countless clues hidden beneath the water’s surface, and become a lifeline for families desperate for answers,” CNN stated.

Adventures With Purpose divers cooperated with the Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office and Idaho Falls Police Department when they located Jed’s vehicle. Human remains were found inside the vehicle, Idaho Falls police reported.

Adventures With Purpose posted via Facebook on Sunday that “a full autopsy will need to be conducted before confirmation can be made that Jed has been brought home. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Jed’s family during this difficult time.”

Adventures With Purpose said it began searching the Snake River near Jed’s last known cell phone ping around 9 a.m. Sunday. About 20 minutes later, the group’s divers located Jed’s Nissan, identified via its license plates, in 8 feet of water 50 feet from shore and 75 yards downstream from the Johns Hole boat ramp.

The vehicle was removed from the river by Adventures With Purpose with help from local law enforcement and Hendrickson’s Towing.

Bonneville County Coroner Rick Taylor says he met with detectives on the case on Monday morning and have created a plan to identify the recovered remains. First, officials will attempt to identify the remains using dental records, of which the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children are in possession of Jed’s records, Taylor said. If dental records aren’t enough to lead to positive identification, Taylor said a DNA sample from an immediate family member was recently obtained and can be used to see if the human remains recovered on Sunday match in a related way.

Adventures With Purpose is not the first dive team to search for Jed.

Idaho Falls police stated, “Investigators have coordinated with dive teams to search various areas of the Snake River that runs through Idaho Falls and Bonneville County searching for Jed or his vehicle. Investigators have traveled to other states and have even investigated tips that Jed may be in other countries.”

But it took Adventures with Purpose to locate the biggest clues in the cold case to date: Jed’s vehicle and possibly his remains.

After Sunday morning’s discoveries, it looks like one more family has been added to the growing list of cold cases that Adventures with Purpose have helped solve.

”Hug the ones you love for you never know when it might be the last time you see them,” Adventures With Purpose said.