Auburn University Student Found Dead in Mountainous Area Near Kyoto

James “Weston” Higginbotham, a 20-year-old Auburn University student, was found dead in a mountainous area outside Kyoto, Japan. A volunteer search-and-rescue group located the body. Nancy Higginbotham, his mother, announced the discovery in a Facebook post on Saturday.

She wrote that the grief was impossible to put into words. Higginbotham had been reported missing after leaving his hotel on May 29. He was last seen at the Kyoto train station that day and was known to have entered the mountainous forest area near Yamashina, Kyoto.

The area contains water sources but limited food. Heavy rains from a typhoon delayed search efforts until Wednesday, according to Takuya Nishikawa of the Kyoto Prefectural Police Headquarters. The Higginbotham family said the student went missing after an argument over artificial intelligence during the family trip.

Nancy Higginbotham told NBC News that the argument began when she used ChatGPT to find restaurants and other sights. Higginbotham walked away from his parents after the exchange. The family feared he could have been emotionally distressed.

James “Weston” Higginbotham majored in biosystems engineering at Auburn University and was devoted to sustainable design while opposing the world’s increasing reliance on AI, his mother said. A cause of death was not immediately available. Additional details about the death were not released at the time of the announcement.

She expressed gratitude for those who helped search, showed support, or prayed for the family. “We shared our story here and in the media in the hope of finding Weston. We now ask for privacy as we begin to navigate this unimaginable loss,” she said.