In an unsettling development, the family of missing University of Alabama student James Gracey has shared that his phone was discovered by Spanish police during an arrest. This revelation has added a new layer to the mysterious circumstances surrounding his disappearance.
The 20-year-old was last captured on security cameras around 3 a.m. on Tuesday, leaving a well-known Barcelona nightclub alongside an unidentified individual. This was after spending the evening out with his fraternity brothers, marking the last confirmed sighting of him.
According to Noreen Heron, a spokesperson for Gracey’s family, the phone was found when police apprehended another person. While this detail was conveyed to Fox News, it remains unclear whether the arrest is directly connected to Gracey’s vanishing.
Gracey’s aunt, Beth O’Reilly, spoke to NewsNation, expressing the family’s uncertainty about the circumstances under which the phone ended up with someone else. “We don’t know whether the phone was lost, stolen, whatever,” she explained. “Beyond that, we don’t have a lot of additional information right now.”
Meanwhile, Barcelona law enforcement has refrained from disclosing any specifics about the suspect found with Gracey’s phone or the potential connection to the ongoing investigation into his disappearance. This lack of information has left both the family and the public anxiously awaiting further updates on the case.
Law enforcement sources in Barcelona declined to reveal any details to Fox News on the suspect arrested in possession of Gracey’s phone or if the arrest was directly tied to the ongoing hunt.
However, investigators are looking through the phone’s location history to trace Gracey’s movements after he left the nightclub.
Gracey, from West Elmhurst, Ill., vanished hours after he flew into Barcelona from Amsterdam, the Netherlands on Monday where he had spent the previous weekend.
He was separated by his friends after going out to the hip club Shôko — but never made it back to his Airbnb in Ronda de Sant Pere some two miles away.
Foul play is suspected in Gracey’s disappearance after security footage revealed Gracey leaving the club with a stranger.
Cavin McLay, president of the Theta Chi fraternity where Gracey served as a chaplain, told Fox & Friends Thursday morning that if he could speak to his brother right now he’d tell him to “keep fighting.”
“We’re not going to give up. We’re going to keep looking for him, and we’re waiting for him to come to us safe.”
