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A 20-year-old University of Alabama student from the Chicago area is missing from a spring break trip to visit friends studying abroad in Barcelona, Spain, according to his family.
James “Jimmy” Gracey, of Elmhurst, Illinois, was last seen around 3 a.m. after visiting the waterfront Shoko restaurant and nightclub on March 17, his mother, Therese Gracey, wrote in a Facebook post.
“He was with friends, but they got separated at the end of the night,” she added. “They’re all out looking for him.”
He is also believed to have been talking to a brown-haired American female around the time he was last seen.
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The last known photo of Jimmy Gracey shows him wearing a white T-shirt and gold chain adorned with a rhinestone cross. He was last seen around 3 a.m. at the Shoko nightclub in Barcelona. (Gracey family)
Police have recovered his phone during the arrest of another individual, said Noreen Heron, a family spokesperson.
A law enforcement source in Barcelona declined to discuss the suspect arrested in possession of Gracey’s phone but confirmed to Fox News Digital that investigators are now looking through the phone’s recent location history in an attempt to locate Gracey.
He said investigators are looking into people he interacted with. They’re going back and forth with witnesses. And they’re looking into cameras from the area where Gracey was the night he disappeared.
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Young people queue to enter the Shoko nightclub in June 2021, in Barcelona, Catalonia (Spain). University of Alabama student Jimmy Gracey, 20, was last seen at the club on March 17 during a trip overseas to visit friends during spring break. (Pau Venteo/Europa Press via Getty Images)
Cavin McLay, the president of Alabama’s Theta Chi fraternity and a friend of Gracey’s who also made the trip to Spain, told Fox News Digital Wednesday that the missing classmate is the chapter’s chaplain and philanthropy chairman and is known for mentoring younger brothers and giving back to others.
“We’re keeping our heads up and remaining hopeful that we find him safe,” he said.
Jimmy Gracey never made it to the Airbnb at Ronda de Sant Pere, a central avenue in the city, that he’d rented with friends, according to the family. He went to Spain to visit friends who are studying abroad during spring break.
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Jimmy Gracey pictured in an undated photo wearing a Crimson Tide football jersey. The University of Alabama junior was reported missing from a trip to Barcelona on March 17. (Gracey family)
“He was wearing a white T-shirt and dark pants (probably joggers),” his mother wrote. “He wears a gold chain with a rhinestone cross on it.”
Just a day earlier and less than a half-mile away near Port Olimpic, a female tourist from Hungary reported being robbed of her own gold chain by a thief riding a motorized scooter — described as “a dark-skinned man wearing all black,” according to another Facebook post in the same group for expats in Barcelona.
The source said local authorities did not suspect the robbery was connected to Gracey’s disappearance, which he found more concerning.
Gracey’s father, Taras Gracey, has flown to Spain and is on the ground in Barcelona where he is in touch with Catalan police, Heron told Fox News Digital.
Jimmy Gracey, a University of Alabama student who was reported missing in Barcelona on Thursday, March 17, 2206, and his friends in a photo. (Theta Chi University of Alabama)
Barcelona authorities have also obtained closed-circuit TV video in connection with the case, the Spanish newspaper El Periodico reported Wednesday.
And the family is in touch with State Department officials.
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Jimmy Gracey pictured earlier in his trip to Barcelona, Spain, where he vanished on March 17, according to family members. (Gracey family)
Local authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Jimmy Gracey stands at 6 feet, 1 inch tall and weighs around 175 pounds, according to a missing person flyer.
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Gracey’s aunt described him as a responsible young man and the oldest of five siblings.
University of Alabama student Jimmy Gracey, originally from Elmhurst, Illinois, pictured in an undated family photo. The 20-year-old was reported missing during a trip to Barcelona, Spain, on March 17. (Gracey family)
His uncle, a Washington-based senior producer at CNN, told the outlet that the hockey-playing 20-year-old had planned to fly back to the U.S. on Saturday. He said he is not known to fall out of touch with his family and helps raise his siblings.
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Shoko has a view of the Mediterranean and is ranked among the top 10 nightclubs on the planet, according to its website. General admission can cost as little as 10 euros, with VIP tables costing hundreds or thousands.
Fox News’ Garrett Tenney and NuNu Japaridze contributed to this report.
