‘I need him back’: Alabama mother’s desperate plea after son vanishes during family trip to Japan

KYOTO, JAPAN: Nancy Higginbotham is navigating an experience she describes as "awful" as she continues to search for her 20 year old son, James "Weston" Higginbotham, a student of Auburn University, who has been missing in Japan since May 29.

After he went off to explore Kyoto by himself, he vanished, leaving his mother to navigate a terrifying search where she says, “I need him back.”  

Mother recalls son’s final movements before losing contact

Weston and his family was in Japan to celebrate his younger brother's graduation, but things became tense when Weston and his mother disagreed over her use of AI to plan their travel. 

Seeking some space, Weston decided to go explore Kyoto on his own. At first, Nancy was not worried because her son is an experienced traveler who loves the outdoors.

“It’s not unusual for Weston to blow off steam going to the woods and just exploring. That’s his happy place,” Higginbotham told CNN.

“I’m thinking … he’s just off in the woods, and he got lost.” However, she became very alarmed when he turned off the location-sharing feature on his phone.

The family had been tracking him on the Life360 app and watched as he stopped at a few stores before boarding a train and then his location was abruptly switched off.

Nancy noted that this was “so out of character” for him, as he had never disabled his location before. 

Mother highlights community support during grueling search

The search is being carried out by police, volunteers, and the FBI in the mountainous Yamashina area, but the weather has made things much worse.

A typhoon recently hit the region, bringing heavy rain that makes the search difficult and dangerous.

Nancy had to give her son’s clothes to the police so their dogs could try to track his scent, which was a very hard moment for her.

“And then I think – it’s raining, how are they going to find him? How are the dogs going to pick up his scent?” she told CNN.

Even in her grief, she has been touched by the kindness of local Japanese people who have traveled far to help the family with flyers and translation.

Meanwhile, the community back in Alabama has launched a GoFundMe page to help them cover the mounting costs of the international search effort.

Mother shares emotional plea as search for son continues

Nancy and her husband, Keith, are staying in Japan until they have answers, declaring, “We’re not going to leave (Japan) until we find Weston.”

They are working with the US embassy and local officials to keep the search going.

While the family remains under immense strain, they are holding onto the hope that Weston is still out there. “We have all the hope that he’s going to be found somewhere,” his father, Keith, said.

“He pops up at another train station, I don’t know – but until we find him, one way or another, he’s out there, he’s moving somewhere, and we’re going to find him.” 

For Nancy, this is more than just a police case; it is a desperate search for the son she loves and the memories they have built together.

She finds herself constantly thinking about the years she spent raising him and misses him deeply.

“Every single second you think about your kid, and then you have the flashbacks of when he was 2, when I was breastfeeding him, the birthday parties we’ve thrown for him, the hikes that we’ve taken,” she said. “I want that back. I need him back.”