Japanese police search Kyoto mud for missing Auburn student

Japanese police trudged through waist-high mud in Kyoto on Thursday as they searched for James “Weston” Higginbotham, a 20-year-old Auburn University junior who vanished after a family trip in Japan. The difficult terrain slowed another day of searching, even as his parents said they remained hopeful he would be found.

Authorities narrowed Higginbotham’s last known location to Yamashina Station, east of Kyoto, using surveillance video. His phone reportedly lost service around 8:29 p.m. after he arrived at Kyoto Station around 8:15 p.m. on Friday, May 29. The family believes he may have headed toward nearby hiking and nature-trail areas, including Bishamon-do, Lake Biwa Canal, Misasagi, Keage/Nanzen-ji, the Kyoto Trail, Mount Otowa and Daigo/Kami-Daigo.

The search has drawn dozens of Japanese police officers, search dogs, helicopters and local volunteers, along with help the family said came from FBI agents, U.S. diplomats, Alabama officials and Japanese volunteers. Nancy Higginbotham said the rough conditions made Thursday’s operation especially hard, but she said she still had confidence in Japanese authorities. The family also said Weston was an experienced hiker, a detail that has shaped where crews have looked in the wooded hills and trail systems around Kyoto.

The case has also exposed the practical realities of a missing-person search far from home. The Higginbothams have asked the public to help reach people in Japan, and they said their social-media appeal has drawn support from Americans and Japanese residents. The family has been working with the U.S. Embassy in Japan, the U.S. ambassador to Japan, the FBI and officials in Birmingham and Shelby County, underscoring how cross-border cases often depend on coordination among police, diplomats and local communities navigating different languages and procedures.

Back in Alabama, Auburn University said it had reached out to the family and offered support. Hoover Mayor Nick Derzis said the community remained hopeful for a positive resolution. Weston Higginbotham grew up in Hoover and graduated from Spain Park High School, and concern spread there quickly enough to prompt a prayer vigil at Asbury United Methodist Church in Shelby County.

His parents have said they fear he may be emotionally distressed. In a video statement Tuesday, his father, Keith Higginbotham, said the family was confident they would find him. For now, the search has shifted between city stations, trailheads and mud-soaked ground outside Kyoto, where police and volunteers kept working in a landscape as challenging as the distance between Japan and home.