{"id":36861,"date":"2026-06-08T01:24:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T01:24:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/36861\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T01:24:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T01:24:25","slug":"james-weston-higginbotham-case-update-final-text-to-friend-revealed-after-auburn-student-found-dead-in-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/36861\/","title":{"rendered":"James Weston Higginbotham case update: Final text to friend revealed after Auburn student found dead in Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"

James “Weston” Higginbotham, an Auburn University student, went missing while on a family vacation in Japan. His death has taken a tragic turn after information regarding the last text message he allegedly sent to a friend before he disappeared.<\/p>\n

\"JamesJames Weston Higginbotham exchanged friendly texts with a childhood friend days before disappearing during a family vacation in Japan. (Facebook\/Nancy Higginbotham)<\/p>\n

Higginbotham<\/a>, a junior studying biosystems engineering at Auburn University, was last seen on May 29 in Kyoto’s Yamashina district.<\/p>\n

Japanese authorities, volunteers and family members spent more than a week searching for him after he separated from his parents during their trip. His remains were ultimately located by a volunteer search-and-rescue team in a wooded area outside Kyoto on Saturday, June 6.<\/p>\n

Read more: James Weston Higginbotham cause of death revealed? Missing American student found dead in Japan<\/a><\/p>\n

Final text message to friend before disappearance<\/p>\n

According to the US Sun, among the last moments details to emerge are messages exchanged between Higginbotham and his longtime friend Hiyu Shikari, who met him and his family during their trip to Japan.<\/p>\n

Shikari and Higginbotham were childhood friends who attended middle school together in the United States before Shikari moved to Japan several years ago. The pair reunited in Tokyo during Weston\u2019s vacation and spent time together at a restaurant in Shinjuku. The Higginbotham family was headed to Kyoto shortly after.<\/p>\n

After the meeting, Shikari sent a message thanking his friend for the reunion. \u201cThank you so much. Enjoying your stay in Japan!! Feel free to contact me whenever you face a problem,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Higginbotham responded with a heart emoji, which would become one of their final exchanges.<\/p>\n

A few days later, after Weston had arrived in Kyoto, Shikari sent another text checking on him and offering travel recommendations. \u201cGood evening! How\u2019s the stay going?\u201d he wrote. \u201cHopefully y\u2019all are having a good time in Kyoto! Let me know if you need me to recommend any places.\u201d<\/p>\n

The message was never delivered and went unanswered.<\/p>\n

Read more: Nancy and Keith Higginbotham: 5 things on James Weston’s parents as son goes missing in Japan<\/a><\/p>\n

Family mourns after search ends in tragedy<\/p>\n

On June 6, Weston\u2019s mother, Nancy<\/a> Higginbotham, confirmed the devastating news in a Facebook statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur family is heartbroken to share that Weston was found deceased by a volunteer search-and-rescue group in a mountainous area outside of Kyoto,\u201d she wrote. \u201cThe grief we feel is impossible to put into words.\u201d<\/p>\n

She thanked the thousands of people who assisted in the search effort and supported the family throughout the ordeal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James “Weston” Higginbotham, an Auburn University student, went missing while on a family vacation in Japan. His death…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[27222,27426,25981,27428,27427,8,25987,33],"class_list":["post-36861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-auburn-student-japan","tag-hiyu-shikari","tag-james-weston-higginbotham","tag-james-higginbotham-japan","tag-james-weston-dead","tag-japan","tag-nancy-higginbotham","tag-nihon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36861","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=36861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}