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Three weeks after a Hawaii lady vanished in Los Angeles, her household is vowing to proceed the search into the puzzling disappearance amid unsettling textual content messages.
Hannah Kobayashi, 30, was final heard from Nov. 11 after she had missed a connecting flight from Maui to New York Metropolis at Los Angeles Worldwide Airport on Nov. 8, her household stated.
On Nov. 24, her father, who had been looking for his daughter, was discovered useless close to the LA airport by obvious suicide, police stated.
Surveillance movies have proven her at a mall and practice station in Los Angeles, and odd messages and on-line funds since then have solely added to the thriller behind her disappearance.
On Tuesday, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell stated police decided Kobayashi deliberately missed her flight.
“Our hearts exit to the Kobayashi household throughout this unimaginable time of grief,” McDonnell stated in a Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners assembly. “We stay totally dedicated to finding Hannah and supporting the household as they navigate their means by way of this tragedy.”
LAPD did not return USA TODAY’s request for additional updates on the investigation on Friday. USA TODAY additionally reached out to a company representing the household.
Right here’s what we all know:
Hannah Kobayashi is seen on a safety digicam in Los Angeles Worldwide Airport on Nov. 8, 2024.
Who’s Hannah Kobayashi?
Kobayashi is described as 5 ft, 10 inches tall, weighing about 140 kilos, in accordance with an LAPD description. She has brown hair, hazel eyes and freckles on her face and usually wears glasses. She has a tattoo of a coronary heart with a knife on her proper forearm.
Buddies described her as artistic and entrepreneurial, and as an aspiring photographer, CNN reported. She was planning to go to New York to go to an aunt, and he or she was additionally going to take photographs at a live performance in Brooklyn in mid-November, her household advised the information outlet.
Kobayashi was on the identical New York-bound flight as her ex-boyfriend. They saved the tickets as a result of they couldn’t get a refund and deliberate to go their separate methods after touchdown in New York, Kobayashi’s sister advised the Los Angeles Instances.
CNN reported the ex-boyfriend made the connecting flight, however she didn’t.
What did Kobayashi do after lacking the flight?
A day after lacking her flight, the LA Instances reported Kobayashi went to a bookstore at The Grove shopping center, in Los Angeles’ Fairfax District. Her aunt advised the newspaper she despatched a photograph of a e book to a relative. Utilizing knowledge from the photograph, household later went to that bookstore and confirmed she had been there and that she stuffed out a publication type.
She additionally despatched two funds on Venmo to 2 folks her household didn’t acknowledge, CNN reported. Police have stated she remained energetic on Instagram.
On Nov. 10, she was recognized in a promotional video for a LeBron James Nike occasion at The Grove. She additionally posted a photograph of the occasion on her Instagram, her final public put up, wherein she tagged the LA Instances.
Regarding textual content messages earlier than disappearance
The household started receiving regarding textual content messages after Kobayashi missed her flight, household and police stated. The messages had been out of character from Kobayashi, her aunt, Larie Pidgeon, advised USA TODAY. These included odd phrases and an absence of emojis.
Within the messages, Kobayashi stated she didn’t really feel protected, CNN reported. She texted that somebody sought to steal her cash and id. In one other textual content, CNN reported she wrote she was “tricked” into making a gift of all her funds. “For somebody I assumed I beloved,” a follow-up message stated.
CBS reported one among her messages stated she had completed a “very intense non secular awakening” and stated she was headed again to the airport however that she “may want some assist getting there.”
The final day her household made contact along with her was Nov. 11. In screenshots of textual content messages shared with USA TODAY, Kobayashi stated she was on her option to the airport.
“I’ve a protected passage” and “Will maintain you posted,” she stated, later including “Matrix fashion.”
In follow-up messages, she stated, “I am protected”, “Love you”, “Don’t fret”, “For the great of all”, I’ll maintain you posted”, “Promise” and “Name you quickly.”
On Nov. 11, surveillance cameras confirmed Kobayashi at LAX however she by no means boarded a flight. A while after 4:30 p.m., she spoke to an American Airways agent, Pidgeon stated.
Her cellphone was final turned on at LAX round then.
The place was Kobayshi final seen?
That night time, CCTV footage captured Kobayashi in downtown LA. She was on the Pico Metro light-rail station, close to Crypto.com Enviornment, with an unidentified particular person.
On Nov. 12, Kobayashi’s household stated they filed a lacking particular person report. The LAPD introduced her as a lacking particular person on Nov. 15.
The seek for Kobayashi has garnered widespread consideration on-line and in Los Angeles, and volunteers have organized teams to look the streets for her.
Days later, police discovered her father, Ryan Kobayashi, useless in a parking zone close to LAX on Nov. 24. Ryan had been looking for practically two weeks for his daughter round Los Angeles.
The household confirmed he had died by suicide. McDonnell, the police chief, stated preliminary findings point out it was a suicide.
Pidgeon advised USA TODAY that current weeks had been already tough earlier than studying about her brother-in-law’s sudden loss of life.
“He simply died of a damaged coronary heart,” Pidgeon stated. “Being on the streets and seeing what the chances of the place his daughter could possibly be. No sleep. The speculating rumors which can be going round. It simply took a toll on him.”
Anybody with data on Kobayashi’s whereabouts is requested to name Los Angeles police at 1-877-527-3247 or The Rad Motion at 619-904-0840.
Contributing: Anthony Robledo and James Powel
(This story was up to date so as to add new data.)
This text initially appeared on USA TODAY: Hannah Kobayashi search continues three weeks after lacking LAX flight