{"id":36715,"date":"2026-06-07T14:11:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T14:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/36715\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T14:11:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T14:11:14","slug":"missing-us-student-found-dead-near-kyoto-japan-mother-says-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/36715\/","title":{"rendered":"Missing US student found dead near Kyoto, Japan, mother says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Milana Vinn<\/p>\n<p>NEW YORK, June 6 (Reuters) &#8211; An American student who disappeared while on a family \u200cvacation in Japan was found dead outside Kyoto, \u200chis mother wrote in a Facebook post on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 The body \u200bof James Higginbotham, 20, was discovered in a mountainous area by a volunteer search-and-rescue group, Nancy Higginbotham wrote.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 A cause of death and further details were not immediately \u200cavailable.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 &#8220;Our family is heartbroken,&#8221; \u2060she wrote. &#8220;The grief we feel is impossible to put into words.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Higginbotham, an Alabama \u2060resident and an engineering student at Auburn University, was last seen leaving a Kyoto train station on May 29. \u200bLater \u200bthat night, his phone went \u200bdark and its location \u200cservices were turned off, his mother previously told Reuters.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Until then, she was able to track his movements using the app Life360, she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 His parents believe he was heading to a nearby hiking trail. Nancy \u200cHigginbotham had told Reuters she believed \u200bher son may have &#8220;needed space.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 \u200bThe Higginbotham family \u200bwas visiting Japan to celebrate the high \u200cschool graduation of James Higginbotham&#8217;s \u200byounger brother.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 An \u200binitial search by Japanese authorities lasted three days and included around 100 police officers, K-9 units and \u200bhelicopters, but \u200cdid not uncover any trace of him, CNN reported.<\/p>\n<p>(Reporting \u200bby Milana Vinn in New York; Editing \u200bby Sergio Non, Rod Nickel)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Milana Vinn NEW YORK, June 6 (Reuters) &#8211; An American student who disappeared while on a family&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[27151,27296,26221,8,151,25989,9843,25987],"class_list":["post-36715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-kyoto","tag-american-student","tag-engineering-student","tag-james-higginbotham","tag-japan","tag-kyoto","tag-kyoto-train-station","tag-mountainous-area","tag-nancy-higginbotham"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36715","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=36715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}