Missing University of Alabama student James Gracey found dead in Barcelona, authorities say

Authorities in Spain say that James “Jimmy” Gracey, a 20-year-old University of Alabama student who disappeared this week while on a trip to Barcelona, has been found dead.

Gracey, a native of Elmhurst, Ill., went missing overnight on Tuesday and was last seen at Shoko, a beachside nightclub that he had visited with friends who are studying abroad in the city.

The Catalan police force wrote on social media Thursday that they had located a body near the nightclub and confirmed his identity hours later. They did not provide information on the cause of his death.

Gracey’s body was found by a team of divers on Thursday in the water off the beach, according to the Associated Press.

Gracey was first reported missing by his mother, Therese Marren Gracey, who reached out to members of a Facebook group for American expats living in Barcelona, asking for their help locating him.

“The police have his phone but he never made it back to his air bnb,” she wrote.

The family also released a statement to the news media, providing a description of what he was wearing and urging anyone with information to come forward.

“Jimmy is a kind, responsible, and devoted son and brother,” they wrote. “It is completely out of character for him not to check in with family and friends.”

Spanish newspapers reported on Thursday that local police had found Gracey’s wallet floating in the sea. That discovery led authorities to partially focus their search on the ocean, a spokesperson for Barcelona’s Catalan Police told CBS News. Divers were spotted off the coast in the area near the nightclub, though the underwater search had been hampered by “extremely poor visibility,” according to Fox News.

Police reportedly recovered Gracey’s phone while arresting an unknown individual, but it is unclear whether that person is considered a suspect in Gracey’s disappearance.

“We don’t know whether it was lost, stolen, whatever,” Gracey’s aunt Beth O’Reilly told NewsNation on Wednesday.

During a separate interview with NBC News, O’Reilly discussed how the family is doing everything they can to find him.

“It’s one of those things you think isn’t going to happen to your family, but right now we just really want to get the word out,” she said, “get his picture out there and just beg anybody that might have seen him the other night or ran into him and are afraid because they were doing something they shouldn’t have, just please come forward.”