An American college student who was visiting friends for spring break in Spain has gone missing, his family said.
James “Jimmy” Gracie, a 20-year-old student at the University of Alabama, was last seen by a friend around 3 a.m. Tuesday outside the Shoko restaurant and nightclub in Barcelona, his mother said in a Facebook post, pleading for the public’s help in finding him.
“My college age son is visiting friends who are studying abroad. He (sic) went to Shoko last night. The police have his phone but he didn’t return it to his air bnb,” wrote Therese Marren Gracie on the Barcelona Expat Families Facebook group.
He did not explain how police seized his son’s cellphone.
Gracie, of Elmhurst, Ill., was wearing a white T-shirt, black pants and a gold chain with a rhinestone cross on it when she went missing, her mother said. He is approximately six foot one and weighs 175 pounds, she said.
He was reported missing Wednesday morning after failing to return to his Airbnb.
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School officials at St. Ignatius College Prep in Chicago, where Gracie graduated, shared a statement on Facebook saying, “The St. Ignatius community is praying for the safe return of Jimmy Gracie ’23.”
Catalonia police said they were “conducting a preliminary inspection and taking a report in an open investigation”.
“A call was received early yesterday morning, around 1:00 AM, reporting a possible disappearance. The disappearance was reported to have occurred on March 17, 2026, at 3:00 AM, in the Port Olympic area,” Catalonia Police told NBC News.
Global News has contacted Catalonia police for more information.
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
(tags to translate) Missing Tourist
