James 'Weston' Higginbotham, a 20-year-old American student from Auburn University, was found dead on Saturday, 1 June, in a mountainous area outside Kyoto, Japan, after a days-long search, with police saying no foul play is suspected but declining to release an official cause of death or further details. His body was discovered at around 2.35pm in the Yamashina district by a volunteer search-and-rescue group, according to Kyoto police and a statement from his family.
The news came after a frantic effort to find the missing student, who vanished on 29 May while on a family holiday. For several days, Japanese authorities, aided by helicopters, search dogs and more than 100 officers, combed wooded slopes on the edge of the city. The Higginbotham family, along with local residents and specialist volunteers, then mounted their own effort in areas they felt had not been fully explored. It was those volunteers, not the state, who finally brought the search to its grim conclusion.
