India, June 7 -- The family of James "Weston" Higginbotham has spoken publicly for the first time since his body was found, describing a grief that is "impossible to put into words."

Weston, a 20-year-old junior majoring in biosystems engineering at Auburn University, vanished on May 29 while traveling with his parents in the Kyoto region.

Japanese authorities, volunteers, local residents and members of the Higginbotham family had spent days searching for him before a volunteer search-and-rescue group located his remains in a wooded area outside Kyoto on Saturday.

The discovery brought a heartbreaking end to a search that had mobilized police officers, K-9 units, helicopters and volunteers across the difficult terrain near Kyoto.

In a...