The American student who drowned on spring break in Spain may have been drugged before meeting his fate, a new report claims.
James ‘Jimmy’ Gracey, 20, a junior at the University of Alabama, was visiting friends studying abroad in Barcelona.
He never made it home from beachfront nightclub Shôko after being separated from his friends around 3am on Wednesday.
Gracey’s body was found by police divers in about 12ft of water in front of Port Olympic about 6pm on Thursday.
Investigators have not ruled out that he could have been drugged, a source told Fox News Digital.
Gracey is believed to have walked toward the water on his own and fallen in while under the influence of drugs, alcohol or both, the insider said.
Police arrested a man who had stolen Gracey’s phone but they do not think the individual, who had a history of thefts, had any direct contact with the student, per the source.
The man is believed to have found the phone on the street before pocketing it.
Jimmy Gracey, 20, was a junior at the University of Alabama who was visiting friends studying abroad in Barcelona
Police believe that when Gracey left the nightclub, he walked towards some rocks (circled) that stuck out of the nearby beach and may have fallen into the sea
Catalan regional police patrol deployed marine and underwater search teams in Barcelona’s Olympic port to search for Gracey
Gracey’s wallet was found intact, with cash, credit cards and ID inside.
However, several ‘loose ends’ still needed to be sorted out by police, according to the insider.
Autopsy and toxicology results are still pending, and they are not expected to be completed until next Thursday.
Gracey’s disappearance was brought to light when his mother Therese issued an urgent plea for help in the search for him earlier this week on Facebook.
‘The police have his phone but he never made it back to his Airbnb,’ Therese wrote.
She pleaded with anyone who may have seen him to come forward and contact her.
Therese said police found her son’s phone when they arrested someone, but cops had shared very few details with the family.
‘What we’ve put together is that his phone was stolen and the police just happened to pick the guy who stole it up,’ she wrote online.
She claimed that law enforcement had discovered Gracey’s phone ‘when they searched the guy.’
Gracey’s body was found by Catalonia police divers in about 12ft of water in front of Port Olympic about 6pm on Thursday
Gracey is from the Elmhurst suburb of Chicago, Illinois. He was part of the Theta Chi fraternity at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa
The distance from Shôko to Gracey’s tourist apartment was roughly 3km (1.8 miles). He never made it back from the seaside club
Gracey was wearing a white T-shirt and dark pants, likely joggers, as well as a gold chain with a rhinestone cross when he disappeared.
Shôko is a bustling beachfront nightclub along Barcelona’s La Barceloneta seaside neighborhood, known for its Mediterranean views and popular among locals and visitors.
It has been ranked the seventh best nightclub in the world by Nightlife International.
Gracey’s preliminary autopsy report recorded an initial finding of accidental death, a Spanish judicial source previously told the Daily Mail.
The initial death finding is followed by a full autopsy, though this typically confirms the finding of the first report.
‘The relevant arrangements have been made with the victim’s relatives, who are in Barcelona,’ police said in an earlier statement.
Catalan law enforcement were assisted by a sighting of Gracey walking towards the sea on the beach adjacent to the nightclub, then again on the breakwater.
‘A witness who happened to be passing saw him leave the nightclub, saw him heading towards this rocky outcrop,’ a Mossos d’Esquadra source earlier told the Daily Mail. ‘From there he may have fallen into the sea and drowned.’
The Daily Mail has reached out to the Catalan regional police force and the Gracey family for further comment.
