Higginbotham Family Launches Private Search in Japan for Missing 20-Year-Old Weston
Updated
Updated · CNN · Jun 6
Higginbotham Family Launches Private Search in Japan for Missing 20-Year-Old Weston
3 articles · Updated · CNN · Jun 6
Summary
June 6 brought a family-led search in Kyoto’s Yamashina forests, where Weston Higginbotham’s parents met local residents and a hired rescue team after police scaled back their effort.
The private push followed the end of a 72-hour police search involving more than 100 officers, K-9s and helicopters in the densely wooded area where CCTV last showed the 20-year-old walking toward hiking trails.
Keith Higginbotham said the new effort will focus on steep, thickly forested ground police did not cover, while investigators still review CCTV footage and monitor bank-card activity.
Weston, an Auburn University junior from Alabama, disappeared May 29 while exploring Kyoto alone; his family reported him missing around 2 a.m. the next day.
Storms hampered the initial mountain search, and the family says it will remain in Japan until Weston is found, with support from local volunteers and fundraising back home.