Japanese citizens join in arduous search for a missing American who vanished in a mountainous forest

CNN

By Hanako Montgomery, Holly Yan, CNN

(CNN) — One stranger from Tokyo is shutting down his business for a week to help. Another volunteer dropped everything to provide transportation and translations for American parents desperate to find their son.

The weeklong quest to find James “Weston” Higginbotham in Japan has yielded no signs of the 20-year-old. Now, with the permission of Japanese police, the student’s family has made a public plea for any experienced hikers to aid in the search through treacherous terrain. That search began Saturday morning local time as hikers look in the steep, wooded terrain around Yamashina.

“The people have been incredible,” said Weston’s mother, Nancy Higginbotham.

Weston, an Auburn University student in Japan with his family to celebrate his brother’s high school graduation, disappeared May 29 after quarreling with his mother. He went off on his own, and the location app on his phone was turned off.

He was last seen on CCTV footage walking alone near the border between Kyoto and Shiga prefectures – on a path that led to a hiking trail in the nearby woods.

“Anyone who knows Weston knows that he just loves to go outside and go for a walk at a trail, or go for a small hike, no matter what time of day,” Nancy told CNN’s Erin Burnett Friday.

“One time he called me at 3 a.m., hiking the Pyrenees mountains by himself, just to get the sunrise,” Nancy said.

Nancy described her son as someone who is “always educating himself” and “curious about the world,” and whose passion for environmentalism fuels his desire to travel the world.

Local police have scoured the area, which includes the heavily forested Higashiyama mountain range. After a typhoon pummeled the area this week, officers returned from the search zone covered waist-deep in mud, Weston’s father Keith Higginbotham told CNN on Friday.

“There were over 100 police officers there over the past 72 hours, including canines and helicopters, and they did not find anything,” Nancy said.

Eventually, police had to scale back resources from the search, Nancy said.

The family has been speaking with an agent at the Federal Bureau of Investigation about the possibility of pinging Weston’s cellphone but has been stymied so far, Nancy told Burnett. CNN reached out to the FBI about the phone and cell tower technology and other methods they might be using to find Weston, but they referred CNN to Japanese authorities.

A State Department spokesperson said they are aware of reports of a missing American in Japan and the Trump administration highly prioritizes the safety of Americans but did not share any other details, citing privacy concerns.

The outpouring of support in Japan has been overwhelming – both in person and online, Nancy said. She was touched by the level of help locals have been willing to give at a moment’s notice.

“We were having communication issues,” she said. “So I looked at my WhatsApp, I searched for the last person who said they would translate for me. And within 30 minutes, they were at the Shiga police station translating for me, and then drove me to the Kyoto prefecture and then drove me back to my Airbnb.”

Nancy approached the Shiga police seeking permission to coordinate a citizen-led search effort, which they granted, she said.

“We are going to hire our own search-and-rescue (team) to help us, as well as ask for help from the Kyoto citizens,” Nancy said, adding that via social media, they’ve been able to gather a group of people to help.

A verified GoFundMe account supporting search efforts has garnered more than $40,000, including one $25,000 donation from an anonymous donor.

She’s especially touched by volunteers who have offered to dredge through the rugged, mountainous environment this weekend.

But the couple stressed they “definitely want to make sure everybody’s cautious, everybody’s got a partner they’re walking with.”

“If anybody’s coming out there, be prepared for it to be rough terrain. And if it’s too rough, you don’t have to. (You can) walk the neighborhood” with flyers, Keith said.

“We don’t want anybody to be in danger.”

One man who saw the family’s public plea from hundreds of miles away will travel to join the search.

“He is in Tokyo and is closing his business down for one week to come help us,” Nancy said.

“He wanted to do this because when he was in the United States, he had so many people helping him, and this is him paying it forward. And it just gave me chills. So I’m so grateful for any help we can get.”

Despite Weston being gone for over a week, Nancy feels confident with her son’s experience and survival skills, the group will find him.

“I know Weston. I know he’s in those woods, and I know he’s alive,” she told Burnett.

CNN’s Jessie Yeung, Isabel Rosales and Taylor Romine contributed to this report.

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