The family of Gage Wayment prepared Thursday for a weekend funeral.

Authorities say an official cause of death will be determined after toxicology tests and other evaluations are completed, which could be as early as next week.

The sheriff's office is expected to have its investigation wrapped up by Saturday. The case will then be turned over to the Summit County Attorney's Office Monday.

It will be up to the County Attorney to decide if any abuse or neglect charges should be filed against the boy's father.

The funeral is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. Saturday at the Huntsville LDS 1st Ward. The family is asking that instead of flowers, donations be made in Gage's name at First Security Bank.

Details from Press Conference Held Wednesday (11/01) Afternoon:

SUMMIT COUNTY, Utah (AP) -- Authorities concluded Wednesday that a 2-year-old boy lost in the woods of northeastern Utah died of hypothermia.

The Utah medical examiner's preliminary finding indicates the boy, who disappeared from his father's pickup last Thursday, apparently wandered away from the truck before freezing to death.

Summit County Detective Rob Berry said the father, Paul Wayment, would still be given a lie-detector test, but he did not indicate he would be charged.

"We were hoping that he would take a polygraph but because of the findings last night, the reality for him of the death of his son, that has been put off until Friday or possibly Saturday," Berry said. "He's as anxious to clear himself from any accusations as we are to determine all the facts in this particular incident."

Berry said the feet on the boy's pajamas were worn through and he had a scratch on his face but no other injuries. It's evidence consistent with the child walking through the brush, Berry said.

The medical examiner did not determine when the boy died, but temperatures have been below freezing every night since he was reported missing.

A volunteer searcher and his dog found the boy under several inches of snow either late Monday or early Tuesday. But the searcher was himself lost and couldn't notify police until Tuesday afternoon.

Berry said the volunteer, James Wilkes, carried the body for two hours before tiring and putting it down in a spot he thought he would remember.

Because of that, investigators still aren't sure exactly where the boy died.

Wilkes told police the boy was in a fetal position, lying uphill, when found.

Paul Wayment, 37, told police on Oct. 26 that he had parked his truck, with Gage sleeping and strapped in his car seat, while he scouted for deer in the rugged hills of a hunting area 35 miles from Salt Lake City.

He said he locked the truck, but when he returned about 40 minutes later the boy was gone.

Investigators earlier discounted the likelihood of a kidnapper because the private hunting area is accessible only through a gate with a combination lock.

And two hunters who said they saw the boy awake and smiling in the truck after his father left told police they were the only ones in the area.

There was no explanation for how the little boy got so far away from the truck that hundreds of searchers and dogs couldn't find him. The area in which he was found was also one of the most heavily searched, Summit County Search & Rescue Comm. Bill Stokes said.

And there has been no explanation why Wayment, who neighbors and relatives say cared greatly for his son, left the boy unattended.

Wayment was awarded temporary custody of the boy in June and a review hearing was to have been held within the next two months. His former wife was stripped of custody of all six of her children from four marriages.

"I know what my brother did was not the best," Wayment's sister, Valerie Burke, said Monday. "But that little boy was absolutely his whole life. He's not the irresponsible terrible person that a lot of people are concluding."

Story from Wednesday Morning:

COALVILLE (AP) -- The body of a 2-year-old boy who disappeared from a pickup truck as his father scouted a hunting area last Thursday has been found, the Summit County sheriff's office said.

Authorities notified relatives shortly before 2 a.m. that a volunteer searcher had discovered Gage Wayment's body. The body was taken to the medical examiner's office in Salt Lake City and an autopsy was scheduled for Wednesday.

Investigators released no details about the condition of the body, which was discovered two days after authorities called off their search efforts. A news conference was scheduled for 4 p.m. Wednesday.

Sheriff's investigator Robert Berry said earlier that a volunteer had called just before 5 p.m. and said he had become lost, spent Monday night in the mountains and while making his way out, came across the body.

Becky Taylor of Coalville said she encountered the man Tuesday morning while she was successfully looking for her dog, which had become lost during Monday's search by volunteers.

She said the man told her he had carried the boy's body for hours but finally had to leave it. Taylor said she and other volunteers searched with the man for hours, trying to retrace his route, before the sheriff's office was called.

Taylor said the man said the body was under 4 inches of snow when he found it and there were dog tracks nearby, indicating searchers may have been near it earlier. She did not know how far the site was from where the boy disappeared.

She said the man, a dog handler, thought the boy, who was dressed only in pajamas, likely had died of hypothermia.

Paul Wayment, 37, told authorities he left his son strapped in a car seat Thursday while he scouted for deer in the area. He said he locked the doors and took the keys with him, but when he returned about 40 minutes later, the boy was gone.

Berry said investigators on Tuesday determined the boy was probably not abducted after interviewing two hunters who were in the area at the time Wayment was.

"They said there was no one else in that area at the time when the boy came up missing but the boy and his father," Berry said.

Wayment has been questioned twice already and investigators had said he was to meet with them again Wednesday to take a lie-detector test.

Berry said the two hunters had been at the area, which is private and accessible only through a gate with a combination lock, since the Friday before Gage disappeared.

The hunters, who asked police not to identify them, told authorities Wayment approached them about 11 a.m. Thursday to talk about hunting conditions in the area. The men met again shortly afterward and the hunters said Gage was sleeping in the truck.

About 40 minutes after that, the hunters said they passed by Wayment's truck again and saw Gage was inside and awake. Wayment was not around and the hunters returned to their camp. About 45 minutes to an hour later, Wayment rushed into their camp, frantically asking for help in finding his son.

Wayment was awarded temporary custody of the boy in late June, and a review hearing was to have been held within the next two months. Wayment's ex-wife, Brenda Harrison, 38, was stripped in June of custody of all six of her children from four marriages.

Harrison has alleged Wayment physically and mentally abused her, and twice sought protection orders against him. One was dismissed by a judge and one was granted.

John Cummings, the attorney who represented Wayment during his divorce from Harrison, said his client is a good and stable man and that the abuse claims were "flimsy allegations."

Wayment told police he has been unemployed the past few months.

Source: AP