Auburn student missing in Japan went off alone after family bickering on vacation, parents say

An Auburn University student missing in Japan for nearly a week had set off alone during a family vacation after his family was bickering, his parents said Thursday.

Nancy and Keith Higginbotham revealed more details about the moments leading up to the May 29 disappearance of their 20-year-old son, James “Weston” Higginbotham, near Yamashina Station, east of Kyoto, during an interview on “FOX & Friends First.”

“We decided to separate,” Nancy Higginbotham said. “We had been, you know, kind of bickering with each other, and we decided, you go do your thing, we go do our thing. I mean he’s 20 years old, he’s extremely well-traveled, he’s a wonderful navigator, and so we went to the temples, and then he went by the river.”

She added that it was the normal kind of bickering a family may experience on vacation, noting they had spent six days sharing twin beds in a hotel room.

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The family was able follow him on Life360, a phone app that enables families to track each other’s location, Nancy Higginbotham said. It showed Weston was by the river and went to a couple of stores before he boarded a train. Then his location went “completely dark,” she said.

When asked about her post on social media that said Weston may have been emotionally distressed at the time he went missing, Nancy Higginbotham said her son “just needed time by himself.”

“We just needed some separation,” she said. “And so his happy place is going on a trail or just going on a hike, and so we just all needed just a little bit of time away. It’s not an abnormal thing to want time. When you’re 20, you’re an adult. You can do that.”

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Weston is described as standing 6 feet 1 inch tall with long blond hair and blue eyes. His mother said he was last seen wearing a shirt with “Save the Bees” printed on the back, lavender corduroy pants and white Adidas sneakers with black stripes. He was carrying a shoulder bag featuring the outline of the state of Alabama.

Nancy Higginbotham has been sharing updates about the search on her social media, writing that dozens of police officers, K-9 units and helicopters have been combing the wooded region for Weston.

The area around Yamashina includes several popular hiking routes, temples and forested paths, including trails leading toward Mount Otowa and the Kyoto Trail network.

The parents praised Japanese police, the U.S. Embassy in Japan and the FBI as “wonderful” for their efforts in the search.

“They deployed another 50 police officers, and I was told that, you know, they had mud up to their chest … and they had the canine dogs, and they had the helicopters today,” Nancy Higginbotham said.

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She said the family is still hopeful Weston will be found alive despite being missing for nearly a week, adding that her son “is built to endure.”

“The water is very fresh here; he has plenty of water to drink,” she said. “And he knows how to forage; he can survive. He is out there and we are going to find him.”