CNN has confirmed that an American college student who went missing during spring break in Spain is the nephew of CNN senior producer David Gracey. This morning, news networks were updating international coverage.
The Gracie family said in a statement that James “Jimmy” Gracie, a 20-year-old junior at the University of Alabama, was last seen by friends around 3 a.m. local time on Tuesday at the Barcelona Shoko Club near Port Olympic.
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The university student had been out with friends earlier in the evening but became separated from the crowd. “That was the last we heard from him,” his fraternity brother Cavin McLay told CNN affiliate WBMA. Gracie, who is from Elmhurst, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, was visiting friends studying abroad.
The student was last seen wearing a white T-shirt and dark jogging pants, according to a Facebook post by Gracie’s mother, Theresa Gracie. He wore a gold chain with a rhinestone cross and stayed at an Airbnb in Ronda de Sant Pere.
CNN’s David Gracey said it was out of character for his nephew to lose contact with his family, adding that Jimmy Gracey was a responsible young man who helped his parents care for his younger siblings.
Chicago’s ABC7 reported that Spanish authorities found Gracie’s wallet in the sea near Sommerrostro Beach in Barcelona. Police have recovered Gracie’s stolen phone. Catalan police force Mossos d’Esquadra is investigating.
Gracie’s aunt, Beth Marren O’Reilly, appears on CNN today Wolf Blitzer’s Situation Roomwarned against believing “false information” in various media outlets, but she did not elaborate. “At this time, we are only talking about the facts as we know them,” she said on behalf of the Gracie family. “So I would first caution anyone to believe anything they read online.”
O’Reilly described her nephew as about 6 feet tall, weighing 175 pounds, wearing a white T-shirt and having “a mop of curly hair.”
“The police were very helpful,” O’Reilly said. “My brother-in-law [Jimmy Gracey’s father] In Barcelona, working closely with them. Apparently, they were trying to trace how the phone was identified and found, and were really just trying to help us find Jimmy everywhere. “
“This is a very personal matter for many of us at CNN, and we worked with his uncle David Gracie for many years. He was my producer and our hearts go out to the entire family,” Blitzer said.
Anyone with information about Jimmy Gracie’s whereabouts or possible sightings is asked to call 1-224-505-3886.
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