GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK — Grand Canyon National Park rangers have scaled back their search for two people who had attempted to swim across the Colorado River but were swept away.

The body of 16-year-old Mark Merrill was discovered last week. His brother, 22-year-old Joey Merrill, and 16-year-old Saif Savaya remained missing Monday.

Grand Canyon National Park spokeswoman Maureen Oltrogge says rangers will conduct a limited search until the bodies are found.

She says rangers will patrol the river and trails and enlist the help of commercial and private boaters.

A missing person’s flier is also being handed out to boaters and hikers along the river.

The missing people were on a trip sponsored by the Tri-City Baptist Church in Tempe.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Local, Special. Tags for this post: Arizona, Breaking News, Crime/Safety, Local-Crime/Safety, Local-Crime/Safety-Arizona, page-a02, Special-Breaking News, The Associated Press. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.