{"id":204851,"date":"2026-03-21T06:13:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T06:13:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/what-we-know-about-the-university-of-alabama-student-found-dead-at-barcelona-beach-during-trip-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T06:13:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T06:13:21","slug":"what-we-know-about-the-university-of-alabama-student-found-dead-at-barcelona-beach-during-trip-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/what-we-know-about-the-university-of-alabama-student-found-dead-at-barcelona-beach-during-trip-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"What we know about the University of Alabama student found dead at Barcelona beach during trip – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The death of an American student whose body was found in the water at a Barcelona beach days after he was reported missing<\/a> remains a mystery as police say foul play is not believed to be involved.
James Paul Gracey, a junior at the University of Alabama, was last seen early Tuesday at Shoko, a beachfront nightclub in Villa Olimpica, Spain. His body was found about 300 feet away in the water at Somorrostro Beach around 6 p.m. local time Thursday, Catalan police told NBC News.
Gracey, 20, was visiting friends studying abroad when he went missing<\/a>, his family said. Very little information has been released about his time in the Spanish city.
Cavin McLay, president of the university\u2019s Theta Chi fraternity, said he was told that Gracey was with a group at Shoko and they got separated, \u201cand that was the last time they saw him.\u201d
Police in Barcelona said they received a call about a possible disappearance of a person who went missing around 3 a.m. Tuesday in the Port Ol\u00edmpic area.
According to McLay, the group that Gracey was with did not have any encounters that made them worried for their safety.
He said about 10 people are in Barcelona visiting a few fraternity members who are studying abroad. McLay said he is among those who traveled to Barcelona, but was not staying with the same group of friends as Gracey.
Local police have said that Gracey’s death appears to be an accident. Foul play is not believed to be involved, but that has not yet been confirmed, Catalan police said in a statement.
They have not released further details, including when his body will be released to the family. An autopsy will be performed at a facility in Barcelona, police said.
Gracey\u2019s family said they are \u201cheartbroken\u201d by his death and are \u201cstruggling to come to terms with this unimaginable loss.\u201d
\u201cWe are profoundly grateful for the outpouring of love, support, and prayers from people around the world \u2014 so many helped to share Jimmy\u2019s story and bring his life to light so that others may know him,\u201d the family said in a statement on Facebook<\/a>, referring to Gracey by his nickname \u201cJimmy.\u201d
\u201cWe also sincerely appreciate the continued support and coordination of the local authorities and the U.S. Consulate as we work to better understand the circumstances surrounding this tragedy,\u201d they said.
The family asked for privacy as they \u201cnavigate this painful time.\u201d
His sister, Mary Gracey, said she was having a hard time processing the loss.
\u201cTo my dear older brother, I can\u2019t even begin to believe what is happening and it truly does not feel anywhere close to real. I really never thought I would have to go through this so early on in life and I\u2019m not sure if I will ever fully process what has happened,\u201d she wrote on Instagram<\/a>.
She described her brother as the \u201cembodiment of a true man of God\u201d and her \u201cbiggest role model.\u201d
Joe Gracey, his brother, said he\u2019s going to miss \u201cplaying catch with you in the backyard\u201d and swimming at the lake.
\u201cI wish I could just have one more day with you, one more call, one more brother to brother conversation,\u201d he wrote in an Instagram post<\/a>. \u201cI miss you more than anyone can understand. I know you\u2019re with God right now please watch over us. I love you so much, rest easy.\u201d
Another brother, Tommy Gracey, said he was at a loss for words.
\u201cI don\u2019t know what to say or how to deal with this. I can\u2019t believe it,\u201d he wrote on Instagram<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019m gonna miss all the texts and calls about hockey, school, and life in general. I\u2019m not ready to say goodbye to that.\u201d
He said his brother\u2019s courage was \u201cinspiring\u201d and he would \u201cdo anything to have just one more conversation with you.\u201d
Gracey, who was studying accounting at the University of Alabama, is from the Chicago suburb of Elmhurst. The school said he was on a \u201cpersonal trip\u201d when he disappeared. It said in a statement that his death \u201cis deeply felt across our campus.\u201d
He graduated from Saint Ignatius College Prep of Chicago<\/a> in 2023, where he was a member of the National Honor Society and Latin Honor Society. He was a third-generation graduate, following in the footsteps of his mother, grandfather and great-uncles.
The school remembered him for his \u201cstrong character\u201d and \u201cloyalty\u201d and said he was \u201can integral member of both the lacrosse and hockey programs.\u201d
Minyvonne Burke is a senior breaking news reporter for NBC News.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeThe death of an American student whose body was found in the water at a Barcelona beach days after he was reported missing remains a mystery as police say foul play is not believed to be involved. James Paul Gracey, a junior at the University of Alabama, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":204852,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-204851","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}