The case of Hannah Kobayashi, a 30-year-old Hawaii woman who disappeared after missing a connecting flight in Los Angeles in early November, has drawn national attention, which grew after her father, who traveled there to look for her, was found dead in what authorities ruled a suicide.
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Here’s what we know.
The facts
-Kobayashi arrived in Los Angeles at 9:53 p.m. on Nov. 8, en route to New York for what her aunt said was a trip for a paid photography assignment. She missed her connecting flight and asked to retrieve her luggage at Los Angeles International Airport instead of in New York, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
-Video footage and still images showed Kobayashi at locations across Los Angeles from Nov. 8 to Nov. 11. She was recorded on surveillance footage retrieving her luggage at LAX on Nov. 11.
-In some of her last communications, Kobayashi sent bizarre text messages that were out of character, according to her family. Her phone has since gone dead.
-Her father, Ryan Kobayashi, was found dead in late November after spending 13 days in Los Angeles looking for his daughter. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner ruled his death a suicide.
-The LAPD announced Monday that Kobayashi had been spotted in U.S. Customs and Border Protection footage crossing the border into Mexico alone, on foot, in mid-November with her luggage. It said she “knowingly departed” LAX on Nov. 11, traveled to Los Angeles Union Station and used her passport to buy a bus ticket for a stop near the border in the San Ysidro district of San Diego, California. Shortly after arriving Nov. 12, she crossed into Mexico.
-The LAPD said that investigators did not find any evidence of trafficking or foul play, and that Kobayashi is not a suspect in any criminal activity. She had “expressed a desire to step away from modern connectivity” before traveling to Los Angeles, it said.
Who is Hannah Kobayashi?
The 30-year-old from Maui, Hawaii, is an early-career photographer who was traveling to New York for an assignment, according to her aunt, Larie Pidgeon. Kobayashi had sent her mother a detailed itinerary of her stay in New York, listing places she would eat at and museums she planned to visit, Pidgeon said in an interview with News Nation. Kobayashi had paid “a couple thousand dollars” for a hotel reservation, she added.
Pidgeon said that Kobayashi had been working to land a paying photography assignment for the past five years. “That had been on her bucket list forever, to get a paid photography gig,” Pidgeon said in the Nov. 23 interview with News Nation.
Kobayashi is 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs 140 pounds, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. She has brown hair, hazel eyes and freckles, and a tattoo of a knife on her forearm. She also normally wears glasses, according to the RAD Movement, a nonprofit group that is assisting the family with the search.
The LAPD, which considers Kobayashi a “voluntary” missing person, urged her to contact authorities or the U.S. Embassy in Mexico “so officials can confirm her well-being.”
What happened to her father?
Ryan Kobayashi died at approximately 4:15 a.m. on Sunday, according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner. The Kobayashi family said the 58-year-old had taken his own life and that the “loss has compounded the family’s suffering immeasurably.” The family urged the public to remain focused on finding Hannah Kobayashi, in a statement released by the RAD Movement.
“If you see Hannah, please call 911 immediately. Please obtain a photograph if possible. Your prompt action is crucial. If you’re able to safely keep eyes on her until law enforcement arrives, please do so,” it added.