This past Monday morning, James Hubert, a Tech student as well as the vice president of Tech’s chapter of Phi Delta Theta fraternity, was found injured but alive after having been missing since last Friday.
Hubert had been in attendance of an Alpha Xi Delta semi-formal event, and he was last seen there prior to his disappearance. During the time he was missing, information about the situation was circulated widely on social media platforms such Facebook in an effort to spread the word.
On Monday, Hubert’s longtime friends Emma Jeffery and Alexandra Vandelinde were able to locate a phone on his person by utilizing pings from the app “Find My iPhone.” When found, Hubert was reportedly missing his shoes as well as his wallet. At the time his friends found him, Hubert was located on train tracks off Dekalb Avenue near a MARTA station. According to MARTA spokesperson Lyle Harris, there is no evidence that Hubert ever utilized MARTA trains as a means of transportation after he left the event on Friday night.
Hubert’s injuries were detailed by his mother, Diane Hubert, in a Facebook post. They reportedly include: a punctured lung, blood on the brain, paralysis on his side and a broken scapula. She added that, in the initial stages of his admission to the hospital, her son was resting and taking morphine for pain.
The Atlanta Police Department held a press conference on Monday morning following Hubert’s location by his friends. According to Lieutenant Charles Hampton of the Atlanta Police Department, there is currently no evidence of any type of foul play. However, Hampton did add that, since he was found, Hubert has been incoherent in recounting events.
“Once he gets to a state that we can interview him, we will ask him more information to further our investigation,” Hampton said in a statement Monday.
The students rallied together and then they started searching,” said Georgia Tech Police Department Chief Robert Connolly in a statement to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “The students stayed out until midnight [Sunday] night, putting out pamphlets and combing the area, anywhere they could possibly find [cell phone] pings along the route.”
“I’m extremely thankful that this has ended the way it did,” said John Stein, dean of students and vice president of student life. “It is a miracle, in some respects, that [Hubert] was found, and he’s alive, and he has some injuries but it looks like he will fully recover. His family is grateful, we are grateful, his fraternity brothers are grateful. It was just a very scary situation for a number of days not knowing what the outcome would be.”
“We are overjoyed that Jimmy is safely back with his family,” said Daniel Goldman, president of the Georgia Delta chapter of Phi Delta Theta. “Any questions about Jimmy should be directed to his parents.”
Diane Hubert did not respond to an attempt to contact her about her son, nor did the Atlanta Police Department, which is investigating the matter.