Investigators Review Final Coordinates And Video Timeline In Search For Answers In James Weston Higginbotham Case

WESTON Higginbotham’s desperate parents have shared a new target search map and begged locals to help find their son as the hunt enters its seventh day.

The 20-year-old American student vanished in Kyoto, Japan, on May 29 while on a family holiday, sparking a huge search involving police, helicopters and K9 teams.

In a fresh appeal on Friday morning, Weston’s mom Nancy shared a map showing the area in Kyoto’s Yamashina mountains already searched by authorities, marked with a large red circle.

Appealing to locals, she wrote in a Facebook post: “Hikers, trail runners, and outdoor enthusiasts — we urgently need your help.

“Our 20-year-old son, Weston Higginbotham, remains missing. He was last known to have entered the mountainous forest area near Yamashina, Kyoto.

“Today, the police provided us with a map showing the areas that have already been searched (circled on the map below). We are asking experienced hikers to help search outside of the marked search zone, particularly in the surrounding mountains and remote trails.

“Please be aware that this terrain is extremely steep, rugged, and heavily wooded. Many areas involve significant elevation changes, dense vegetation, and difficult footing. Weston is an experienced hiker and may have traveled farther into the mountains than expected.”

But she also pᴀssed on a stark warning from a local resident, who cautioned that anyone who “don’t understand Japanese, don’t have a map app, haven’t prepared food, are lightly dressed, haven’t told anyone which route you’re taking, or start hiking in the evening” should be extremely careful as “it could literally cost you your life.”

The local added: “Foreign travelers who aren’t familiar with the terrain, please be especially careful.”

Weston, an Auburn University environmental engineering student from Alabama, was last seen at around 8.15pm local time on May 29.

CCTV later placed him at Yamashina Station after he spent the day exploring Kyoto alone while his family visited a temple.

His mom previously said they became alarmed when he stopped responding to messages and switched off his live phone location – something she described as completely out of character.

The family reported him missing at around 2am.

The search has been hampered by severe weather after a typhoon swept through Japan this week, bringing torrential rain to the area.

Nancy said dozens of officers searched through “waist-high mud in an effort to find Weston,” while helicopters and search dogs were also deployed.

Nancy revealed in a separate post this morning the family had been given “permission to launch our own search party in Shiga” and shared a pH๏τo showing the dense forest investigators are battling through.

“This is what we are up against. It’s so dense. Please keep praying,” she wrote.

She also said investigators are reviewing more CCTV footage after reports Weston may have been seen getting off at another station.

“We have chased so many leads that look very similar to Weston, but they aren’t. It’s been tough, but we take every lead seriously,” Nancy said.

It comes as Weston’s family continue to cling to hope, insisting the experienced hiker and Ironman compeтιтor is capable of surviving in the wilderness.

“It’s been 5.5 days since we have seen Weston, but we are not losing hope,”

Nancy previously wrote. “He is conditioned to handle this.”

Speaking exclusively to The U.S. Sun, Weston’s grandmother Judith Higginbotham said the keen outdoorsman was more than capable of looking after himself in the wilderness.

“I just want my grandson to come home,” she said.

“My grandson is very knowledgeable of the woods, and he camps, and all that. This is not like my Weston.”

Judith said the close-knit family remain baffled by his disappearance, adding: “They are such a close knit family, they go on trips together, they sit down and talk things out together, this is not right.”

She described Weston as a high-achieving environmental engineering student and said: “He’s loving, he’s very humble, very giving, he’s a sweet, sweet young man.”

Meanwhile, childhood friend Hiyu Shikari, who met Weston and his family in Tokyo just days before he vanished, fears he may have headed into the wilderness before severe weather battered the area.

“But the thing that concerns me is that there’s a lot of forest and mountains around, and because he is an experienced hiker, he likes to be in nature a lot,” Hiyu told The U.S. Sun in an exclusive interview.

“But the thing is, a typhoon hit recently, and the conditions of those places… I can imagine it is not good because the typhoon affects the mud [and] there will be falling trees, which is pretty dangerous.”

Hiyu said nothing appeared unusual when they met and described Weston as excited about his trip and eager to experience Japan’s natural beauty.

“He was excited to see the nature in Japan,” he said.