The best friend of a 20-year-old American student who went missing while on holiday in Japan has revealed the haunting final text message he sent as the search for his friend continues.
James "Weston" Higginbotham, 20, disappeared in Kyoto after he set off on his own to cool down following a disagreement with his mother. His friend, Hiyu Shikari, 20, who met up with Weston in Japan just days before he vanished, spoke with The U.S. Sun and shared the message he sent checking in on his friend after he disappeared.
Weston, along with his mother, father, and brother, had traveled from Alabama to Japan to celebrate his brother Grayton's high school graduation. Hiyu and Weston attended school together in the United States before Hiyu moved to Japan, and they had not seen each other since middle school.
Hiyu met up with the family in Tokyo on May 22, and Nancy Higginbotham, Weston's mother, shared a video of their reunion on Instagram. In the video, Hiyu, Weston, and Grayton could be seen happily hugging one another, with Nancy saying that stopping for dinner with the old friend "was first on the agenda."
"We had such a great time at a restaurant in Shinjuku, which is in Tokyo," Hiyu told The U.S. Sun. "Right after that, I tried to contact him on how he was doing in Kyoto, because I was in Kyoto a couple of weeks ago, and also the typhoon was coming as I was kind of worried, and I messaged him, 'How's the trip going?' And that was after he went missing. And so I didn't get any contact with him after I met him. I've been doing what I can to spread awareness."
Hiyu shared screenshots of his text messages with Weston with The U.S. Sun, which revealed he told his friend to enjoy his time in Japan and to reach out if he ran into any problems. Weston reacted to the text with a heart. On Monday, Hiyu texted his friend, "Good evening! How's the stay going? Hopefully yall are having a good time in Kyoto! Lmk [Let me know] if you need me to recommend you any places." That text message did not appear to deliver to Weston's cellphone and went unanswered.
Weston is believed to have been last seen near the mountainous forest area near Yamashina. Hiyu said he didn't notice anything out of the ordinary with his friend, whom he hadn't seen in around seven years, and said he seemed excited about the vacation. "I saw him as a best friend, a brother. He was such a nice friend and when I first met him, I felt like nothing has changed. He's gotten taller, yes, but nothing out of the ordinary," he said. "We talked about politics, we talked about AI, we talked about a lot of things that's going on in the world."
Nancy revealed to CNN that the family vacation had become tense a few days after dinner with Hiyu after Weston, an environmental engineering student at Auburn University, butted heads with her over her use of ChatGPT to navigate their trip. Weston decided to explore Kyoto on his own while his family visited a temple on Friday to get some space. "It's not unusual for Weston to blow off steam going to the woods and just exploring," Nancy said. "That's his happy place. I'm thinking … he's just off in the woods, and he got lost."
The family keeps track of one another's locations through the app Life360, which has helped reveal Weston's last steps before his location was turned off and he disappeared. Weston got on a train and stopped by a few stores, making a purchase at a hardware store. He took a train from the Kyoto station around 8:15pm to the Yamashina station, a roughly five-minute train ride. At 8:29pm, his phone lost network, with police believing he was last seen in the Yamashina area, a ward of Kyoto.
A massive search involving police officers, K9 teams, and helicopters has taken place daily since Weston went missing. Nancy pleaded with locals on Friday to help join in the search for her son after police released a new map with areas that they have already searched. "Hikers, trail runners, and outdoor enthusiasts — we urgently need your help," she wrote on Facebook. "Our 20-year-old son, Weston Higginbotham, remains missing. He was last known to have entered the mountainous forest area near Yamashina, Kyoto. We are asking experienced hikers to help search outside of the marked search zone, particularly in the surrounding mountains and remote trails."
Nancy has said in the past that Weston is a "very experienced hiker" and may have "intentionally chosen" to travel a quiet trail. She advised those willing to help in the search to be aware of the steep and rugged terrain surrounded by a heavily wooded area. A typhoon that rocked Japan in recent days has made the search efforts difficult. Nancy said on Thursday that police walked through waist-deep mud during their hours-long search efforts.
