Swiss authorities said Friday they have found the body of a 12-year-old American boy who apparently fell into a torrential waterfall during an outing last month.
Noah Kriese of Greenwood, Indiana, has been missing since he disappeared during the May 22 excursion to the Truemmelbach falls at Lauterbrunnen.
The body was recovered from a net stretched across the mouth of the Truemmelbach gorge and was identified by DNA testing at the Forensic Medicine Institute of the University of Bern, said a statement by the investigating magistrate.
Kriese's family in Indiana said they had been informed and that steps were being taken to have the body returned to the United States.
The family statement said word had come from the U.S. Embassy in Bern and the Swiss police.
"Weather and water conditions have allowed the recovery of his body from the Truemmelbach falls earlier than had been expected," it said.
The magistrate said it was impossible to reconstruct exactly what happened.
"It must be assumed that the boy lost a shoe below the topmost viewing platform," the investigator said. "In the attempt to recover this, he must have climbed over the rocks, slipped and fallen into the falls. It can be excluded that another person was involved."
The missing shoe was found at the mouth of the gorge soon after the boy's disappearance. The accident occurred in the central Swiss Alps near the popular resort of Interlaken, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) southeast of the Swiss capital, Bern.
Visitors to the waterfalls can walk through a mountain to see cascades crashing from inside.
The Truemmelbach falls, which drain glacial waters from the country's famous Eiger, Moench and Jungfrau mountains, are part of the UNESCO world heritage site for Switzerland's Jungfrau-Aletsch-Bietschhorn glaciers. Thousands of tourists visit every year to see 20,000 liters (5,000 gallons) of water rage through the rock each second.
The falls are extremely narrow and dark, and can be reached by an elevator inside the mountain. Walking paths have a fence to keep visitors from falling into the water.
"The family has been praying for the return of Noah sooner rather than later, and is grateful for the peace of mind that this turn of events has brought," said the family statement.
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Associated Press Writer Thomas Davies contributed to this report from Indianapolis.
