EGN NEWS DESK
LOS ANGELES — A Hawaii lady who disappeared after touchdown in Los Angeles three weeks in the past was seen crossing into Mexico alone together with her baggage and not is taken into account lacking, police mentioned Monday.
Hannah Kobayashi, 30, needed to go off the grid and walked into the tunnel that results in Mexico at about midday on Nov. 12, the day after her household reported her lacking, in keeping with police. There is not any proof she’s being trafficked or a sufferer of foul play, officers mentioned, citing surveillance video from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection that they reviewed late Sunday.
Los Angeles Police Department Chief of Police Jim McDonnell mentioned Kobayashi appeared unhurt and that the case is now labeled as a “voluntary lacking individual.”
“We’ve principally accomplished every thing we are able to do at this level. She’s left the nation and in one other nation now,” he mentioned, including that if she returns to the U.S., legislation enforcement can be notified.
McDonnell mentioned she has a proper to her privateness, however urged her to achieve out to her household or legislation enforcement.
“A easy message may reassure those that care about her,” McDonnell mentioned. He defined that the lacking individual case will stay energetic till her security is confirmed by legislation enforcement.
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Kobayashi went lacking after the budding photographer from Maui didn’t make a connecting flight to New York on Nov. 8 to journey for a brand new job and to go to relations. She informed her household she would sleep within the Los Angeles International Airport that evening.
Family members assumed she was on standby for one more flight, in keeping with her aunt, Larie Pidgeon. The subsequent day, Kobayashi texted them to say she was sightseeing in Los Angeles, planning to go to The Grove shopping center and downtown LA, Pidgeon mentioned.
On Nov. 11, the household acquired “unusual and cryptic, simply alarming” textual content messages from her telephone that referenced her being “intercepted” as she acquired on a Metro prepare and being scared that somebody is likely to be stealing her identification, her aunt mentioned.
Her father, Ryan Kobayashi, who had been within the search party together with volunteers, was discovered dead by obvious suicide on Sunday, Nov. 24, in a car parking zone close to LA International Airport, police and her household mentioned.
McDonnell mentioned throughout a police fee assembly final Tuesday that detectives decided Hannah Kobayashi missed her connecting flight deliberately. Kobayashi’s sister, Sydni Kobayashi, disputed his assertion in a social media publish.
Police mentioned Monday that after Hannah Kobayashi was seen in varied areas round LA, she requested that her baggage, which had been checked to New York, be despatched again to LAX. She then returned to the airport to retrieve it on Nov. 11 and didn’t have her telephone when she left once more, in keeping with police.
Investigators discovered that she had “expressed the will to step away from trendy connectivity.”
Police additionally recognized and questioned a person that Kobayashi was seen with on the Metro. He was “cooperative” and mentioned he met her at LAX, police mentioned.
Sydni Kobayashi didn’t instantly reply to an emailed request for remark. Members of the general public who had been within the “Help Us Find Hannah” Facebook group, which garnered the curiosity of greater than 25,000 contributors, shared a publish from the group Monday that mentioned the household can be shutting the group down after “threats towards their lives and the lives of their babies.”
The publish additionally mentioned Sydni Kobayashi and her mom wouldn’t be responding to any messages.
During the information convention, McDonnell mirrored on all that the household had endured these previous couple of weeks.
“My ask can be to anyone contemplating doing this, take into consideration the folks you’re forsaking, your family members who’re going to be apprehensive sick about you,” he mentioned.
—Golden reported from Seattle.
If you or somebody you already know could also be experiencing a mental-health disaster or considering suicide, name or textual content 988. In emergencies, name 911, or search care from an area hospital or psychological well being supplier. For worldwide assets, click on right here.
