After a 48 hour search, the college student who went missing after a sorority semi-formal was found by his friends lying in a ditch next to train tracks. Jimmy Hubert, an engineering student at Georgia Tech, was last seen Friday evening. His friends tried to track down his steps during the weekend by using the tracking device on his date's iPhone.
Christian Battaglia, Hubert's friend, told ABC News that the break in the search relates back to the fact that Jimmy had his date's phone in his pocket at the event. Hubert unintentionally left the party with his date's phone, so his friends were able to track the phone's movements using the Find My iPhone app that Hubert's date had installed on her device. A screen capture of the phone's last known ping, or location, was taken before the phone ran out of battery or was turned off, Battaglia explained.
The information they got was most important for the search. Emma Jeffery, a friend of Hubert also told ABC station WSB in Atlanta on Monday that she went looking for Hubert in the area where the last signal was detected. She said they were about to turn around, but then she saw a shaded area near the ditch. When they came closer, they saw their friend. "I thought he was gone," she added. They were shocked to see Hubert lying face down, head turned to the side, eyes wide open, but was not speaking at first. According to another friend, he appeared disoriented and confused. Hubert, 24, was transported to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta for medical treatment.
The Atlanta Police Department confirmed to ABC News that they are doing an investigation into Hubert's disappearance. Robert Connolly, Georgia Tech's chief of police credited their students for their persistence to find their friend.
Battaglia stated that he believes his friend was not just beaten, he may have been robbed as well noting that the phones of Hubert and his date were both missing.
