Speaker 1: Hey, folks, did its Sunday, June seventh, and an awful
Speaker 1: update to bring you on a developing story we've been
Speaker 1: keeping an eye on the past week. A missing Auburn
Speaker 1: University student gone missing in Japan on a trip with
Speaker 1: his family has been found dead in Kyoto, and with that,
Speaker 1: welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ.
Speaker 2: Rose.
Speaker 1: This didn't look good from the very beginning, but I
Speaker 1: have to remember this kid's been missing since May twenty ninth,
Speaker 1: on what was supposed to be a celebratory trip.
Speaker 2: Yes, they were celebrating his younger brother who had just
Speaker 2: graduated from high school. So yeah, they were going on
Speaker 2: this big planned family trip to Japan. And this is
Speaker 2: not how any of them anticipated this ending. And we
Speaker 2: felt the urgency from his family, who had said they
Speaker 2: felt like he might have been in emotional distress and
Speaker 2: he had just stayed behind while they went off to
Speaker 2: go tour I believe, a local monastery, and that's when
Speaker 2: they saw his life three sixty moving and they realized
Speaker 2: he was headed somewhere that they didn't know.
Speaker 1: And so you've seen the name probably folks in a
Speaker 1: few headlines. Western higginbotham twenty years old. This is a
Speaker 1: kid who attended the university I say University of but
Speaker 1: Auburn University. I say University of because anytime I think
Speaker 1: about a school in the state of Alabama, like they say,
Speaker 1: when you're born there, you have to make the first
Speaker 1: decision of your life is is it going to be
Speaker 1: Auburn or is it going to be Alabama? So University
Speaker 1: of Alabama and Auburn University is in my head. But
Speaker 1: Arburn University student twenty years old, biosystems engineering major and
Speaker 1: also of note, he is an accomplished hiker. But he
Speaker 1: has been The mom put out a statement and the
Speaker 1: family has been giving almost daily updates. But they have
Speaker 1: put out a statement. We're going to let you hear here.
Speaker 1: Momentes the difficult part of this, and we don't know
Speaker 1: for sure what happened beforehand, but a lot of focus
Speaker 1: was put on what was going on with him before
Speaker 1: he went away from his family. A again, a group
Speaker 1: of four and it started at Robes and I've immediately
Speaker 1: thought about this mom and just as a parent, and
Speaker 1: how they explained their last interaction was not necessarily loving.
Speaker 1: They got into a spat, and that seemed like that
Speaker 1: was part of the reason he ended up going his
Speaker 1: own way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and when you hear, look, I know, you're never
Speaker 2: fighting about what you're fighting about. And probably we say
Speaker 2: that in relationships, but I'm sure it's any relationship, even
Speaker 2: a family dynamic, you've got these, you know, these triggers.
Speaker 2: And it didn't seem like a big deal because the
Speaker 2: mom said that he was upset with her for having
Speaker 2: planned the vacation using chat GPT.
Speaker 3: He said he was a naturalist, he was a purist.
Speaker 2: He I'm guessing that falls in line with being against
Speaker 2: AI of any kind. And I'm not sure how it
Speaker 2: came up while they were halfway through their trip. They
Speaker 2: were a week into their trip that he found out
Speaker 2: or she talked about having used AI chat GPT to
Speaker 2: plan their Japanese trip, where they were going and how
Speaker 2: they were getting there, and it upset him.
Speaker 1: It seems like a small thing to us, like you
Speaker 1: just said, and we hear it all the time. Did
Speaker 1: your mom, did you just give always? Okay? So that's
Speaker 1: part of it. Seemed a little odd that that would
Speaker 1: set the family off in such a way that he
Speaker 1: was so upset that he needed to go off and
Speaker 1: be by himself. We haven't said, yet let me say
Speaker 1: this off the top at this point, Ropes, there's no
Speaker 1: indication of foul play. We did not say that yet.
Speaker 1: We do not know a cause of death, but no
Speaker 1: indication of foul play as what we're giving. But go
Speaker 1: back to the argument, Ropes, He goes off. He's so upset,
Speaker 1: he needs a minute, he needs a moment to where
Speaker 1: he would go to a foreign country, into an area
Speaker 1: he's unfamiliar with, a language he doesn't speak, and start
Speaker 1: a hike at eight o'clock at night.
Speaker 2: Correct, And before he starts the hike, it seems like,
Speaker 2: if there's no foul play indicated, he chose to turn
Speaker 2: off his location services.
Speaker 3: So that's all deliberative.
Speaker 2: Like the only thought would be if it were foul
Speaker 2: play and someone took his phone or turned off his phone,
Speaker 2: that would be one thing.
Speaker 3: But it doesn't seem like that's the case.
Speaker 1: And we should mention as well the other part. We well,
Speaker 1: did he run out of juice on his phone? This
Speaker 1: is a possibility and it went out there, but no,
Speaker 1: she says the last indication again, many of you don't
Speaker 1: have to explain, yo, you life through sixty with your kids.
Speaker 1: You can see the amount of power left they have
Speaker 1: on their phones. You can even tell if it's being
Speaker 1: charged in that moment. So thirty seven percent, I think,
Speaker 1: if I remember right, they saw he had that much
Speaker 1: power left in his phone. When the phone then goes
Speaker 1: out rope, doesn't seem like he ran out of power.
Speaker 1: So an intentional move to turn off your location services
Speaker 1: after a minor spat.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that it seems extreme.
Speaker 2: And then look they had said, We mentioned he was
Speaker 2: an experienced hiker. He had traveled and hiked this was
Speaker 2: so impressive to me the Pyrenees Mountains in Europe by himself.
Speaker 2: So this is a kid who, said they said, knew
Speaker 2: how to spend the night in the woods on his own.
Speaker 3: They he knew how to forage for food on his own.
Speaker 2: This was a kid who they were hopeful if he
Speaker 2: got lost, that was their best case scenario.
Speaker 3: He's angry, he storms off into.
Speaker 2: The woods at night because that was his happy place,
Speaker 2: according to his parents, that's where he went when he
Speaker 2: wanted space or wanted to get his head right. And
Speaker 2: he was clearly upset with his family in that moment
Speaker 2: when they had left, So they were thinking, okay, maybe
Speaker 2: he got lost. That was their best hope. So we
Speaker 2: don't know the cause of death. But it was a
Speaker 2: group of search volunteers correct who ended up finding him.
Speaker 2: This was a mountainous area outside of Kyoto that just
Speaker 2: has a tremendous amount of hiking trails.
Speaker 1: And coupled with they did have awful rains over the
Speaker 1: past week. Again, it's been a week in a couple
Speaker 1: of days here, so they even thought that might wash
Speaker 1: away evidence or even wash I don't know, his things
Speaker 1: away to a different area to where he maybe wasn't
Speaker 1: where is the last place they've been looking, So all
Speaker 1: of that factors in robes. It just it is when
Speaker 1: you take into account, it doesn't seem likely that a
Speaker 1: kid who was pretty adept at yes, hiking and surviving
Speaker 1: and being smart enough to know, oh it's a little dark,
Speaker 1: I should get out of here. I've turned around that
Speaker 1: just an accident. Accidents do happen, obviously robes. Obviously they do.
Speaker 1: It's just the likelihood of one with the guy who
Speaker 1: actually knows what he's doing. The chances are low, but
Speaker 1: the chance is there.
Speaker 2: Correct, And anytime any averd hiker knows that the worst
Speaker 2: thing you can do is to go hiking by yourself.
Speaker 2: That is the biggest no no, because yes, things do happen,
Speaker 2: and wildlife you can encounter, and there are twists and
Speaker 2: turns and steep hills and slippery Yes, you need somebody
Speaker 2: there to be there in case an accident or worst
Speaker 2: case scenario does happen.
Speaker 3: And in fact it's a note.
Speaker 2: The family who went out initially searching for him, the
Speaker 2: mom one of the videos, she said they had to
Speaker 2: turn around because they encountered wildlife they were not prepared for. So, look,
Speaker 2: there's a lot of stuff going on in those woods.
Speaker 2: But it is interesting when they said they found him,
Speaker 2: they didn't. You would think if it was some awful accident,
Speaker 2: they would say he had fallen down a cliff, or
Speaker 2: had they found him at the bottom of a ravine,
Speaker 2: or they it looked like there was an act.
Speaker 3: They said nothing. So that also is of note. Saying
Speaker 3: nothing is saying something.
Speaker 1: Is that a thing? Is what the other part of
Speaker 1: that you said, any hiker knows it's almost a rule
Speaker 1: one you don't hike alone. I mean it's a rule
Speaker 1: too not to hike at night. I mean who goes
Speaker 1: in night? You just don't do most trails even close
Speaker 1: at night.
Speaker 3: A lot of trails close at dusk.
Speaker 2: Yes, you can have a headlamp, and yes, some people
Speaker 2: can do it, but no, it's certainly not advised at all.
Speaker 2: And look, if you're anyone who hikes, they usually have
Speaker 2: a at trailheads. I don't know what it's like in Japan,
Speaker 2: but they'll have trailheads where you actually sign in so
Speaker 2: the park ranger or whoever is overseeing the trail, there
Speaker 2: are safety measures that are in place just to make
Speaker 2: sure that if you do get lost, there is a
Speaker 2: record of when you went on the trail, when you
Speaker 2: went into the trail that someone can reference and look
Speaker 2: at if you don't have your phone off or your
Speaker 2: phone runs out of juice. So yes, most people who
Speaker 2: go into these woods obviously go into the woods with
Speaker 2: safety in mind and take a lot of these precautions
Speaker 2: to make sure. What happened to Weston, And we don't
Speaker 2: know what happened to Weston, if it was an accident,
Speaker 2: you can prevent a lot of them.
Speaker 1: And Robes. The last thing on this point with the
Speaker 1: back and forth with the mom robes and I said
Speaker 1: that the use of that language, why did they choose
Speaker 1: those words? Right? Because initially the thing was described as
Speaker 1: having a just a little nothing of a spat with
Speaker 1: your mom. He's going to go blossom steam, no big deal,
Speaker 1: is how it was described. But Robes they used a
Speaker 1: different set of words to describe what his mental state
Speaker 1: might be. And those were the words that jumped out
Speaker 1: at me. You don't do you use that language if
Speaker 1: you're just saying, hey, he got pissed, he went to
Speaker 1: blow some steam. So this is crazy. It makes no sense.
Speaker 1: We know something's happened to him, but they use different language. R.
Speaker 2: Yes, they said that this was an urgent situation because
Speaker 2: they felt like their son might be under emotional distress. Look,
Speaker 2: they know the backstory of Weston in a way none
Speaker 2: of us do.
Speaker 3: They know where his head is or was. They know
Speaker 3: maybe how fragile he might have been in that moment.
Speaker 2: We all go through periods in our life and look,
Speaker 2: being a junior in college, having I even saw my
Speaker 2: daughters struggle like what's next, what's happening. There's a lot
Speaker 2: of stress and pressure for kids that age, and maybe
Speaker 2: it doesn't take much. And if you're already in a
Speaker 2: fragile state and the people who you trust most just
Speaker 2: upset you more than anyone else, which is your family.
Speaker 3: You know, we don't know what they.
Speaker 2: Knew about his mental health, but they certainly suggested that
Speaker 2: it was not in a great place.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I just that was from the jump when
Speaker 1: we started doing this story. That language suggests something else
Speaker 1: going on with him. You don't use that if your
Speaker 1: son is just pissed it to the point you could
Speaker 1: almost say he was being a brat or knuckle in
Speaker 1: a normal situation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, your mom using AI because you were against AI. Okay,
Speaker 2: calm down, you little twenty year old who hasn't experienced
Speaker 2: the world yet, who thinks he knows best.
Speaker 3: Yes, of course, but.
Speaker 1: We never got to that because she used those words
Speaker 1: that let us all know, wait a minute, Wait a minute,
Speaker 1: it seems like something beyond So the thought of this
Speaker 1: and those parents, they know what happened in that back
Speaker 1: and forth. You just can't help but your heart goes
Speaker 1: out to them as a parent, to think, Wow, what
Speaker 1: did I say wrong in that last moment? What did
Speaker 1: we do wrong in that last moment. I'm not getting
Speaker 1: on obviously for the parents, but I'm saying right oh,
Speaker 1: that that's gotta be devastating.
Speaker 2: That is a worst case scenario, because you just think
Speaker 2: if I had just said this, if I had just
Speaker 2: done that, I could have.
Speaker 3: They didn't know he was going to leave.
Speaker 2: They left him there in their hotel room, thinking he
Speaker 2: was going to stay put, that he was annoyed and
Speaker 2: he didn't want to be with his family and that
Speaker 2: was it, and they were going to comeback, and maybe
Speaker 2: he would have ordered takeout and fallen asleep.
Speaker 1: But folks, stay here. We told you that the family
Speaker 1: has been giving regular updates. They have been very much
Speaker 1: out there, putting out statements on video and ridden statements. Well,
Speaker 1: they did give another statement confirming that they had found
Speaker 1: their son. He had been found, they had found his body.
Speaker 1: Will let you hear every word of that statement in
Speaker 1: just a moment, and we will also make one more plea,
Speaker 1: one more case, one more psa if you will, for
Speaker 1: why everybody needs life. Three sixties there, all right, Welcome
Speaker 1: back here, everybody to Amy and TJ. The update we
Speaker 1: are getting this morning that, in fact, the twenty year
Speaker 1: old Auburn University student who has been missing for the
Speaker 1: past week plus after going on a trip with his
Speaker 1: family and going his own way, taking a hike by himself,
Speaker 1: turning off his location services. The hope was that maybe
Speaker 1: he was blowing off some steam, maybe got lost somewhere.
Speaker 1: But they have found his body in this mountainous region
Speaker 1: in Kyoto. No cause of death has been given at
Speaker 1: this point. But Robes I was saying, we have been.
Speaker 1: Look the family has been and this is what. Look.
Speaker 1: A lot of families are better at this than others,
Speaker 1: I should say, but Robe, many people will tell you.
Speaker 1: You put it out there, you get attention, you get
Speaker 1: involved with police, you get active on social media. This
Speaker 1: family had been with videos and postings, but this was
Speaker 1: the one. Now, Robes, we have got from the family
Speaker 1: letting us know that they had found their son.
Speaker 2: Yes, and Keith higgin Botham have been making these police
Speaker 2: right next to each other, talking directly to people, and
Speaker 2: it was effective. They got a lot of attention for
Speaker 2: their son, They got a lot of eyes, they got
Speaker 2: a lot of help there in Japan, and it was
Speaker 2: in fact a volunteer search group that found their son. Ultimately,
Speaker 2: so all of those please for help did work. It
Speaker 2: just was the outcome they were hoping wouldn't be the
Speaker 2: one that they ended up with. So this was their
Speaker 2: family statement. It reads, our family is heartbroken to share
Speaker 2: that Weston was found deceased by a volunteer search and
Speaker 2: rescue group in a mountainous area outside of Kyoto. The
Speaker 2: grief we feel is impossible to put into words. We
Speaker 2: are forever grateful for the time we had with our sweet,
Speaker 2: precious Weston, but cannot begin to understand what life without
Speaker 2: him will be like. We are deeply grateful to the
Speaker 2: countless people across the United States, Japan, and around the
Speaker 2: world who shared Weston's story, prayed for our our family,
Speaker 2: offered encouragement, and helped in the search efforts. The outpouring
Speaker 2: of kindness and support has carried us through the darkest
Speaker 2: days of our lives. We shared our story here and
Speaker 2: in the media in the hopes of finding Weston. We
Speaker 2: now ask for privacy as we begin to navigate this
Speaker 2: unimaginable loss. Thank you for your thoughts, prayers, and support.
Speaker 2: We will need them now more than ever. We will
Speaker 2: always love you, Weston. That is heartbreaking.
Speaker 1: Who wrote that? And I say that because I don't
Speaker 1: know how they were able to put a coherent sentence
Speaker 1: together given what they have gone through. I don't know
Speaker 1: how they were able to do that. This is this
Speaker 1: top twenty a year away from graduation, the whole life
Speaker 1: ahead kind of a situation. You know, it's devastating to
Speaker 1: any campus community with something like this. It's just I'm
Speaker 1: so curious to know what happened. I just hated for
Speaker 1: this family and I hate the way. Look, any loss
Speaker 1: is one thing, right, you never supposed toutlive your child.
Speaker 1: But when they describe ropes, that last interaction in the
Speaker 1: back and forth and just wonder and just what the
Speaker 1: family's going through, that's something on top of the loss.
Speaker 1: Almost it's that's awful.
Speaker 3: It does feel, it feels unbearable.
Speaker 2: You start thinking, yes, he's twenty years old, biosystems engineering major,
Speaker 2: smart kid, could have done amazing things with his life,
Speaker 2: and it just it's just it's one tragic moment, one
Speaker 2: tragic decision on one quick where if someone had been there,
Speaker 2: if they hadn't gone to the monastery. I mean you
Speaker 2: just all of the what ifs and should haves and
Speaker 2: could haves are what are going to drive this family crazy.
Speaker 2: And we certainly hope that those prayers and those thoughts
Speaker 2: that they are felt and that they are received. It
Speaker 2: sounds like they are, but yes, that is to me
Speaker 2: one of the worst possible scenario as a parent could
Speaker 2: ever face.
Speaker 1: And we pay attention to this story, and if we
Speaker 1: get a positive out of it, maybe is that you
Speaker 1: need to download Life three sixty. Now we do not
Speaker 1: in any way work for paid for sponsored by Life
Speaker 1: three sixty, but if you ever you follow us, we
Speaker 1: talk about it quite a bit here. And I can
Speaker 1: still remember the moment at tavern on the Green, sitting
Speaker 1: having Dirty Martinez with Sonny hostin from the view and
Speaker 1: she pulled up her phone and was keeping up with
Speaker 1: her kids, and I'm like, what are you doing? And
Speaker 1: they're older, and she showed me the Life three sixty
Speaker 1: and she said, yeah, I see exactly where he is,
Speaker 1: what he's doing. She showed me a thing to where
Speaker 1: she knew he was speeding because it even tracks how
Speaker 1: fast you are going if you're moving. Now, Robes, that's
Speaker 1: one thing, and you know the sound Now on my phone,
Speaker 1: he said, oops, the bean's on the move. Yep, because
Speaker 1: it will let me know when she arrives at school,
Speaker 1: when she leaves where she's not supposed to be. I
Speaker 1: can track this kid everywhere. But Ropes, this is the
Speaker 1: other part I didn't realize and it's a story that
Speaker 1: needs to be heard that has to do with Anna,
Speaker 1: you and I. My daughter is younger, Sabina is the
Speaker 1: little one. She's thirteen in all of our group of folks, right,
Speaker 1: so I can track her. She's got no choice in
Speaker 1: the matter. Your daughter's twenty and twenty three don't like
Speaker 1: for Mama to track them. But then we're both amazed
Speaker 1: that all of our daughters will let all of their
Speaker 1: friends track them on, whether it's Life three sixty or Snapchat.
Speaker 3: Where it is chat more than anything else.
Speaker 1: Snapchat mostly, but Robes, your daughter turned off her location services,
Speaker 1: and I think about it because this family said, it's
Speaker 1: so out of the ordinary. This doesn't happen. He doesn't
Speaker 1: do that. Your daughter explained the story to us, was
Speaker 1: this yesterday or the day before? Antalie's telling the story
Speaker 1: of what happens right when you do something out of
Speaker 1: the norm, when people are tracking you. Robes, she told
Speaker 1: that story, and I said, holy hell. Everybody needs to
Speaker 1: have somebody looking out for them.
Speaker 2: Yep, exactly. You need to know when when someone is
Speaker 2: in distress. And if someone's in emotional distress and they
Speaker 2: turn off their location services, the first thing that ends
Speaker 2: up happening is everyone starts texting you, what's going on?
Speaker 3: Where are you? Why did you turn off your locations?
Speaker 2: It's almost as if that crowd knows when you turn
Speaker 2: off your system or your location services, that it's because
Speaker 2: you're upset and you don't want people to know where
Speaker 2: you are.
Speaker 3: And that's the time when you actually need people to
Speaker 3: check in.
Speaker 1: Well, where was she? That would by the river by
Speaker 1: the water?
Speaker 3: It was actually ava. But yeah, it's fine. I get
Speaker 3: them confused all the time time.
Speaker 1: I usually don't at all. They're hard to get confused,
Speaker 1: to be honest with you, they're very different.
Speaker 2: But yeah, but she started getting like immediately said to
Speaker 2: the point where it was hilarious because she wanted some peace,
Speaker 2: and it ended up creating a anything but piece because
Speaker 2: everyone was checking in on her. But that had to
Speaker 2: feel good in the moment, like, oh my god, everyone
Speaker 2: somehow got an alert or realized that she had turned
Speaker 2: off her location.
Speaker 1: Services, and they reacted and they responded, and they almost
Speaker 1: to a point Robes saw this as an emergency situation
Speaker 1: that we need to go save her. She's in trouble.
Speaker 1: Robes Life three sixty, Snapchat, whatever it may be, and
Speaker 1: as much as we rail on technology and is annoying,
Speaker 1: you don't want to be tracked robes. There is a
Speaker 1: safety element involved, not in just in knowing where someone is,
Speaker 1: but you can also know maybe how they're doing when
Speaker 1: they start acting differently, even though they're right from the
Speaker 1: not right in front of you, But that is behavior
Speaker 1: that signals that something is going on. Ropes these services. Now,
Speaker 1: when hearing this story with him and hearing just AA
Speaker 1: the other day tell that story, I was like.
Speaker 2: Wow, yes, I know, I'm thinking now the moment you
Speaker 2: see your kids like like, especially if that's out of
Speaker 2: the ordinary and they're normally okay with the on location.
Speaker 2: When it's turned off, you get up from wherever you
Speaker 2: are and you race for their last known place references, right,
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm sure that's what they're thinking now, but
Speaker 2: it may not have been in time. But at the
Speaker 2: very least, these services work and they do help and
Speaker 2: they can be life saving.
Speaker 1: But again, twenty year old Western Higginbotham. He has been
Speaker 1: found in Japan. His body has been found, no cause
Speaker 1: of death just yet. But as they say, keep that family,
Speaker 1: your thoughts, keep that family, your prayers that we always
Speaker 1: appreciate you spending some time with us here on Amy
Speaker 1: and TJ. For my dear Amy Robock, I'm TJ Holmes.
Speaker 1: We'll talk to you also