It was a freezing January morning in Idaho Falls, Idaho, when Matthew Jedediah “Jed” Hall disappeared.

At just 16 years old, Jed was smart, kind, and endlessly curious — a young man who loved flying, science, and serving his community through the Civil Air Patrol.

But on January 22, 2018, without warning, Jed vanished in the middle of the night.
His note was brief. His car was gone. His phone went silent at dawn.

For years, his parents — Amy and Allen Hall — clung to hope. They believed their son might have run away to start a new life, maybe even join the French Foreign Legion, as Jed once half-joked.

But as time passed, hope and heartbreak began to blur together.

Then, in 2022, a team of volunteer divers arrived in Idaho Falls — and changed everything in less than half an hour.

The Night He Disappeared

January 22, 2018.

At 2:30 AM, security cameras at American Heritage Charter School captured Jed breaking a window to enter the building. He left behind $1,000 in cash, a handmade necklace, and a note in a friend’s locker — then vanished into the cold Idaho night.

By morning, his parents realized he wasn’t getting ready for school. In his room, they found a note — one that hinted at despair, confusion, and the possibility that Jed was planning to leave everything behind.

His car, a gray 2009 Nissan Versa with license plate 8BEF732, was gone.

Police launched a massive search. They combed through wooded areas, scanned highways, interviewed classmates, and tracked Jed’s phone.

At 6:48 AM, the phone stopped pinging — less than half a mile from the Snake River.

Dive teams searched the river and nearby lakes. Nothing.

For four years, the case grew cold.

The Family That Refused to Give Up

Amy Hall, Jed’s mother, kept the porch light on for years — just in case.

“We thought maybe he’d joined the military, or just needed time,” she said. “Every day, I’d look at the driveway and imagine him pulling in.”

Rumors swirled online — sightings in California, theories of him escaping to Mexico, or even joining a foreign military.

But deep down, Amy knew something wasn’t right.

Still, she refused to believe the worst.

The Arrival of Adventures With Purpose

In April 2022, a call reached Adventures With Purpose (AWP) — a YouTube-based dive team known for solving missing-person cases that had gone cold for decades.

Jared Leisek, Doug Bishop, and their crew had already helped locate more than 20 missing individuals across the U.S. using underwater sonar and diving expertise.

But this case was different.

Jed was just a kid.
And his parents — unlike most families AWP worked with — still believed he was alive.

“We usually come when families have already accepted the possibility of loss,” Jared said softly. “This time, I was taking away a mother’s hope.”

The Plan

Using search-and-rescue mapping software, AWP built a 5-mile radius around the last known cell phone ping.

There were several possible entry points along the Snake River, including Gem Lake, John’s Hole Boat Ramp, and the south channel.

The sonar team began scanning early in the morning.

The water was shallow — 6 to 14 feet deep — but murky and fast-moving.

As Jared explained to Amy, “If Jed’s in the water, we’ll find him. If he’s not, we’ll give you the peace of knowing we cleared every inch.”

The Emotional Weight

Before launching the boat, Jared met Amy Hall in person.

She smiled nervously. “I just think the more people who know, the better. Maybe he’ll see it, and call.”

Jared nodded, his voice quiet. “That’s what we all hope.”

Inside, he was conflicted. “If he’s here, I’ll find him — but that means taking away the hope she’s lived on for four years.”

Then, AWP launched their sonar.

Only 20 minutes into the search, Jared noticed a shape on his sonar screen.

He frowned. “That’s… that’s a car.”

The outline was unmistakable — small, compact, and upside down, buried partly in silt just 75 yards from the boat ramp near the last phone ping.

“Mark it,” Jared said.

A magnetic buoy splashed into the cold water.

He took a deep breath and whispered, “Please, don’t let it be him.”

Then Doug Bishop slipped beneath the surface.

The water was dark, visibility almost zero. He moved by touch — feeling the frame, the windows, the wheels.

And then, his gloved hand brushed metal.

A license plate.

He wiped away layers of silt and read the number aloud through his comms:

“8BEF732. It’s Jed’s car.”

For a moment, there was only silence on the radio.

Jared’s eyes filled with tears. “God, we found him.”

Four years. Hundreds of searches.
And yet, the car — Jed’s car — had been right there all along, less than a mile from home.

The Recovery

Police arrived quickly, securing the area as a potential crime scene.

The AWP divers carefully rigged the car using soft shackles and lift straps to avoid disturbing evidence inside.

The vehicle’s rear windows were open, its roof partially crushed from years underwater.

When the rotator truck began lifting the car, silence fell over the riverbank.

Mud dripped off the turquoise frame as it broke the surface, sunlight hitting the car for the first time in four years.

Then came the confirmation.

Inside the vehicle were human remains — later identified as Jed Hall.

Amy Hall collapsed into her husband’s arms, whispering through tears, “I think I have a new worst day.”

For Amy and Allen Hall, the nightmare was over — but the pain was far from gone.

“It’s not the ending we hoped for,” Amy said quietly. “But at least it’s an ending.”

Officials confirmed there was no foul play. Investigators believe Jed likely entered the river intentionally, or by accident, during the early morning hours of January 22, 2018.

He was 16.
A son.
A friend.
A boy who had so much life left to live.

A Mother’s Goodbye

A week later, Amy visited the riverbank where Jed was found.

She left a single flower by the water’s edge.

“I used to imagine him driving up the driveway,” she whispered. “Now I imagine him at peace.”

The Legacy of Adventures With Purpose

For Jared and his team, Jed’s case remains one of the most emotional of their careers.

“We found him in under twenty minutes,” Jared said. “But it took four years for the world to find closure.”

Since 2019, AWP has solved over 30 cold cases, helping bring home families’ missing loved ones across America.

They do it without charge — funded entirely by viewers and volunteers.

Their mission is simple: Bring answers where there were none.

And for the Halls, those answers — as painful as they were — finally brought peace.

Epilogue: The River That Remembered

The Snake River flows quietly through Idaho Falls again, its surface smooth and unbroken.

But beneath its calm waters lies a memory — of a boy lost too soon, a family’s endless love, and a team of strangers who refused to stop searching.

Because sometimes, the truth doesn’t hide far away.
Sometimes, it’s waiting just beneath the surface — for someone brave enough to dive in and find it.

After four years, missing Idaho teen Jed Hall was found inside his Nissan Versa submerged in the Snake River, thanks to volunteer dive team Adventures With Purpose. The discovery, made in under 20 minutes, brought long-awaited closure to his grieving family.