Missing University of Alabama student James Gracey’s phone has been recovered after Spanish police arrested an individual, his family revealed in a troubling update.
Gracey, 20, was last seen around 3 a.m. Tuesday on security footage leaving a popular Barcelona nightclub with an unidentified person after a night out with his fraternity brothers.
Police recovered his phone during the arrest of another individual, family spokesperson Noreen Heron told Fox News, without confirming whether the arrest was directly connected to the spring break disappearance.
“We don’t know whether [the phone] was lost, stolen, whatever,” the 20-year-old’s aunt Beth O’Reilly told NewsNation.
“Beyond that, we don’t have a lot of additional information right now.”
Authorities in Barcelona declined to share details with Fox News about the suspect found with Gracey’s phone or whether the arrest is tied to the ongoing investigation.
Investigators are now examining the phone’s location history to track Gracey’s movements after he left the nightclub.
Gracey, who is from West Elmhurst, Illinois, disappeared just hours after arriving in Barcelona from Amsterdam, where he had spent the previous weekend.
He became separated from his friends after visiting the nightclub Shôko and never returned to his Airbnb on Ronda de Sant Pere, about two miles away.
Authorities suspect foul play after surveillance footage showed him leaving the club with a stranger.
Cavin McLay, president of the Theta Chi fraternity where Gracey serves as chaplain, said on “Fox & Friends” Thursday that if he could speak to him now, he would encourage 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.”
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