Hannah Kobayashi timeline: Missing Hawaii woman seen entering Mexico, police say
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The Los Angeles Police Department said in a Monday press conference that it has "done everything we can do" in the case of Hannah Kobayashi, the woman from Maui, Hawaii who had been presumed to have been missing in Los Angeles, after it announced that she had been seen on video entering Mexico.
The department reclassified Kobayashi as a voluntary missing person Monday after saying it reviewed video footage from U.S. Customs and Border Protection that showed Kobayashi cross the U.S.-Mexico border on foot in San Ysidro.
Kobayashi, 30, stopped contacting her family on Nov. 11 after a string of out of character text messages that included mentions of not feeling safe and of someone attempting to steal her identity and money.
"I can’t shake the last messages she sent friends and family, which I’ve replayed in my mind a thousand times, trying to make sense of it but still cannot," Larie Pidgeon, Kobayashi's aunt, said in a statement provided to Paste BN Tuesday.
LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said in a press conference there was no evidence that the family caused Kobayashi to abruptly stop communicating with them and leave the country.
The Kobayashi family has been searching for Hannah for over three weeks, during which her father, Ryan Kobayashi, was found dead near Los Angeles International Airport in an apparent suicide.
Family saw no apparent connection to Mexico
Pidgeon said that she had not been notified about the footage from the border until hours before the LAPD press conference. She had not reviewed the footage as of Tuesday morning but accepted that the department was able to identify Kobayashi.
"Hannah never mentioned any plans to travel to Mexico, and no one in her life knew she intended to go there," Pidgeon said. "What alarms me even more is her complete disconnection from her phone, her social media, and her world—this is not who she is."
McDonnell told reporters during the press conference that before she departed Maui, Kobayashi "expressed a desire to step away from modern connectivity," but did not provide details.
LAPD Lt. Douglas Oldfield said "there were some desires or posts" police had reviewed that would be consistent with "somebody who'd want to disconnect from her phone."
"Are we 100% right on that? We can't say. We just know that she did not have her phone after she left LAX," Oldfield said. "We know she doesn't have her phone on her. For what reason we can't say for sure."
The department said that the investigation will not continue into Mexico but remain open in the Missing and Unidentified Persons System. If Kobayashi reenters the country, law enforcement will be notified.
Timeline: Missing person Hannah Kobayashi
- Nov. 8: Kobayashi misses a connecting flight from Maui to New York City at Los Angeles International Airport. She's seen on airport security cameras and leaves the airport wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, tie-dye leggings and a dark green backpack.
- Nov. 9: Kobayashi is seen by employees at the Taschen bookstore at The Grove shopping center in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles around noon.
- Nov. 10: Kobayashi is again seen at The Grove, this time on video at a Nike event around 3:40 p.m. She posts a photo from the event to her Instagram the same day.
- Nov. 11:
- Kobayashi returns to LAX where she picks up her luggage, according to the LAPD. Her phone, which has an Audrey Hepburn case, was last pinged at LAX but has not been found.
- Pidgeon previously told Paste BN that Kobayashi spoke to an American Airlines ticketing agent between 4:30 and 6:30 p.m.
- Kobayashi uses her passport to purchase a bus ticket for a destination near the California-Mexico border, according to the LAPD.
- Kobayashi is then seen on surveillance cameras near the Pico Metro station in downtown Los Angeles around 10 p.m. The family said in a previous statement that "it is evident that Hannah does not appear to be in good condition and she is not alone." LAPD investigated the person who appeared on camera with Kobayashi and "gave a full disclosure of the entire sequence of events," according to Alan Hamilton, the chief of detectives for the LAPD.
- Nov. 12:
- Kobayashi is seen crossing the U.S.-Mexico border near San Ysidro, according to the LAPD. The department, which later reviewed video provided by Customs and Border Protection, said that Kobayashi was alone.
- The family files a missing person's report with the LAPD and begins a volunteer search in Los Angeles.
- Nov, 24: Ryan Kobayashi is found dead around 4 a.m. at an address adjacent to Los Angeles International Airport. Kobayashi's family issued a statement through The Rad Movement the same day stating that the death was a suicide.
- Nov. 26: LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell says in a Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners meeting that investigators determined Kobayashi intentionally missed her flight − a claim the family disputes.
- Dec. 2: LAPD announces that it has reclassified the case as a voluntary missing person a day after reviewing the CBP video of Kobayashi crossing the border.
Family closes Facebook group, vows to continue search
In a statement posted on social media hours before the LAPD's news conference on Monday, Kobayashi's sister, Sydni Kobayashi, announced that a Facebook group that had been set up to help find Hannah would be pulled down, citing threats against the family.
Kobayashi thanked people who've come to the family's aid and vowed to continue search efforts, writing "we will not stop until we find my sister."
Pidgeon echoed Kobayashi's gratitude in her statement.
"I love Hannah with all my heart, and that love is what drives me to keep searching for her," Pidgeon said. "I will not stop until I can confirm, face-to-face, that she is safe and making these decisions of her own accord."
Contributing: Thao Nguyen, Eduardo Cuevas, Christopher Cann, Anthony Robledo, Max Hauptman