Alabama student vanishes while traveling with family in Japan

There was an ongoing search on Thursday for a 20-year-old college student from Alabama, who vanished on May 29 while traveling with his family in Japan.

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James “Weston” Higginbotham, a junior at Auburn University who was studying environmental engineering, didn’t return to the hotel where he was staying in Kyoto.

Surveillance video showed him at a train station in Yamashina, the eastern gateway to Kyoto, according to his mother’s regular Facebook posts.

“It’s not unusual for Weston to blow off steam, going to the woods, and just exploring. That’s his happy place. I’m thinking … he’s just off in the woods, and he got lost,” his mother, Nancy Higginbotham, told CNN.

A typhoon impacted the area on June 2. The FBI, the Kyoto Prefectural Police, and volunteers were involved in the massive search, which also included K-9 dogs and helicopters.

At Asbury United Methodist Church in Birmingham, Robert Holt, the student’s grandfather, told WVTM-TV on Thursday that the Spain Park High School graduate had recently completed an Ironman triathlon.

“Weston” was last seen wearing a white “Save the Bees” T-shirt with two bumblebees, light lavender corduroy pants, and black-and-white Adidas sneakers.

The area where we believe Weston is missing has ample water and limited berries. There is still hope.

“The police will reconvene tomorrow to come up with another plan to include watching additional CCTV footage to follow up on another lead. They are also deploying a smaller team to the forest,” his mother wrote on Thursday on Facebook.