US3 min(s) read
Published 10:45 07 Jun 2026 GMT
Mom of missing student who was found dead in Japan shares heartbreaking message after body is located
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The mother of a college student who was found dead after going missing on a family vacation in Japan has shared a heartbreaking message after his body was found.
As previously reported, James 'Weston' Higginbotham, 20, vanished on May 29 after traveling to Kyoto's Yamashina Ward, an area his family believes he may have visited to access nearby hiking trails.
He'd traveled to Japan with his parents, Nancy and Keith Higginbotham, on May 25 and was last seen wearing a white "Save the Bees" graphic T-shirt, lavender corduroy pants, and Adidas sneakers with black stripes, and carrying a tote bag featuring the outline of the state of Alabama, The New York Post reported.
Following his disappearance, his family stated that his phone location stopped updating after he got off a train in Yamashina Ward, believing that Weston, who they described as a very experienced hiker, may have intentionally headed toward a quiet trail in the area.
Tragically, Nancy shared a heartbreaking message to Facebook on June 6, confirming that Weston had been found dead.
She wrote: "Our family is heartbroken to share that Weston was found deceased by a volunteer search-and-rescue group in a mountainous area outside of Kyoto. The grief we feel is impossible to put into words.
"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 thanked those who helped in the search, saying: "We are deeply grateful to the countless people across the United States, Japan, and around the world who shared Weston’s story, prayed for our family, offered encouragement, and helped in the search efforts.
"The outpouring of kindness and support has carried us through the darkest days of our lives."
Weston's cause of death has not yet been confirmed.
CNN reports that Weston had gone exploring on his own after he and his mother butted heads over her use of ChatGPT.
Nancy told the outlet: "It’s not unusual for Weston to blow off steam, go into the woods and just explore.
"That’s his happy place. But it was unusual that he turned off his location."
Nancy also claimed that her use of an AI chatbot, ChatGPT, was "a sore subject" between her and her son.
She told CBS News: "I was using a little bit too much ChatGPT. Japan is a country that I've had a hard time navigating.
"Weston is very anti-AI because, you know, he's into sustainability engineering and AI uses a lot of water and is depleting a lot of water resources."
According to experts from the University of California, Riverside, using the chatbot for between ten and 50 queries consumes about two litres of water
Hours before his body was found, Nancy had stated that the family knew he was "out in these woods somewhere," but that the area is "very dense and the terrain is steep."