{"id":36425,"date":"2026-06-06T18:20:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T18:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/36425\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T18:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T18:20:12","slug":"missing-auburn-university-student-in-japan-found-dead-mother-says-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/36425\/","title":{"rendered":"Missing Auburn University student in Japan found dead, mother says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Higginbotham was found in a mountainous area by a volunteer search-and-rescue group, Nancy Higginbotham wrote. A cause of death or more details were not immediately available.<\/p>\n

Higginbotham, 20, was last seen on May 29. He, his parents and his brother had been visiting Japan at the time of his disappearance. He decided to stay back while his parents and brother visited a nearby temple. His parents told CBS News<\/a> they saw his location move on a family tracking app and texted him, but didn\u2019t receive a response.<\/p>\n

Higginbotham was last seen leaving a train station in Kyoto, and his parents believe he was headed to a nearby hiking trail. His mother told CBS News on Friday that she feared he had become injured or lost. Search efforts in Japan included over 100 police officers and the use of K9 dogs and helicopters, she said, and the family had recently hired a professional rescue crew after Japanese authorities said they were suspending search efforts.<\/p>\n

Nancy Higginbotham wrote on Facebook that her family is \u201cforever grateful for the time we had with our sweet, precious Weston, but cannot begin to understand what life without him will be like.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are deeply grateful to the countless people across the United States, Japan, and around the world who shared Weston\u2019s story, prayed for our family, offered encouragement, and helped in the search efforts,\u201d she wrote. \u201cThe outpouring of kindness and support has carried us through the darkest days of our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe shared our story here and in the media in the hope of finding Weston,\u201d Nancy Higginbotham added. \u201cWe now ask for privacy as we begin to navigate this unimaginable loss.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Higginbotham was found in a mountainous area by a volunteer search-and-rescue group, Nancy Higginbotham wrote. A cause of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36426,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[26397,7960,25981,8,17,151,26220],"class_list":["post-36425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-auburn-university","tag-dead","tag-james-weston-higginbotham","tag-japan","tag-japanese","tag-kyoto","tag-student"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}