Missing Student Found Dead In Japan After Week Long Search

dailycaller.com

Auburn University student James “Weston” Higginbotham, who vanished during a family trip to Japan, has been found dead after a search that stretched across a week.

Volunteers with a search-and-rescue group recovered the 20-year-old’s body in a mountainous stretch outside Kyoto, his mother said in a Facebook post Saturday. The family had last seen him May 29 near a train station east of the city, according to Fox News.

His mother, Nancy Higginbotham, shared the loss publicly and asked that the family be left alone to grieve. “We are forever grateful for the time we had with our sweet, precious Weston, but cannot begin to understand what life without him will be like,” she wrote in the social media post. (RELATED: US College Student Vanishes While On Spring Break In Spain, Family Says)

Higginbotham stayed behind on the day he disappeared while his parents and brother went to see a nearby temple, according to CBS News. A cause of death had not been determined as of Saturday.

The split came after he argued with his mother over her use of ChatGPT to plan their sightseeing and the natural resources artificial intelligence consumes, according to CNN. Friends and family described him as a committed naturalist.

That conviction ran through his studies and his values, according to NBC News. He majored in biosystems engineering, focused on sustainable design and pushed back against society’s growing dependence on AI. His relatives worried he had been emotionally distressed when he walked off.

Kyoto Prefectural Police told ABC News they considered it highly probable that he left his family on purpose, though they still feared for his safety because he did not speak Japanese. Search crews combed the mountains and trails with a helicopter and K-9 units.

Auburn President Christopher B. Roberts confirmed the death, calling Higginbotham a “valued member of the Auburn Family,” according to CBS News.