Aharon Soffer z''l, a 23-year-old yeshiva student from New Jersey who went missing last Friday in the Jerusalem Forest and was found dead on Thursday, was brought for burial at 9:30 Friday morning.

The funeral procession was to leave from Even Haezel street in the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Ezrat Hatorah, and will conclude in the Beit Shemesh cemetery where Soffer will be buried.

An intensive search to find Soffer ended tragically around 4 p.m. on Thursday, when a body later identified as his was found in a forest thicket near the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ein Kerem.

Police confirmed the body was Soffer's just after midnight on Thursday, saying "following medical examinations, the body found this evening in the forest adjacent to Ein Kerem was identified as being that of the missing Aharon Soffer z''l."

"From examinations that were conducted there is no suspicion of foul play," added the statement. "The body will be brought in the coming hours to his family."

Earlier reports indicated that Soffer may have fallen down a cliff while attempting to navigate his way out of the forest.

The parents of Soffer, who was in Jerusalem to study at a local yeshiva, earlier flew in from his native Lakewood to be close to the search for their son.