{"id":720791,"date":"2026-06-07T10:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T10:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/720791\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T10:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T10:28:10","slug":"missing-u-s-tourist-found-dead-in-japan-mother-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/720791\/","title":{"rendered":"Missing U.S. tourist found dead in Japan, mother says"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Listen to this article<\/p>\n

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The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

An American student who disappeared while on a family vacation in Japan was found dead outside Kyoto, \u200chis mother wrote in a Facebook post on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The body of James Higginbotham, 20, was discovered in a mountainous \u200barea by a volunteer search-and-rescue \u200bgroup, Nancy Higginbotham wrote.<\/p>\n

A cause of death and further details were not \u200bimmediately available.<\/p>\n

“Our family is heartbroken,” she wrote. “The \u2060grief we feel is \u2060impossible to put \u200cinto words.”<\/p>\n

Higginbotham, an Alabama resident and an engineering student at Auburn University, was last seen leaving a Kyoto train station on \u2060May 29. Later that night, his phone went dark and its location services were turned off, \u200chis mother previously told Reuters.<\/p>\n

Until then, she was able to track his movements using the app Life360, she said.<\/p>\n

His parents believe \u200bhe was heading to a nearby hiking trail. Nancy Higginbotham \u2060had told Reuters she believed her son may have “needed \u2060space.”<\/p>\n

The Higginbotham family was visiting Japan \u2060to \u2060celebrate the high \u200bschool graduation of James Higginbotham’s younger brother.<\/p>\n

An initial search \u200bby Japanese \u2060authorities lasted three days and included around 100 police officers, K-9 units and helicopters, but did not uncover any trace of him, CNN reported. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 2 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":720792,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-720791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=720791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/720792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=720791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=720791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=720791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}