A 30-year-old woman from Hawaii is being looked for by her family in Los Angeles after she missed a connecting flight, sent strange text messages, and then stopped talking.
Hannah Kobayashi got to Los Angeles on November 8 on her way to New York City, but she missed her connecting flight because she may not have had enough time to get to the departure port in time, according to her aunt Larie Pidgeon in an interview.
Family members say that Kobayashi, who is from Maui, stayed in Los Angeles while she waited for a last-minute flight to New York and used the time to see the sights. On November 10, she went to The Grove shopping center in the Beverly Grove area, which is about 12 miles north of Los Angeles International Airport, to attend a Nike event.
NBC News confirmed that Kobayashi’s Instagram account has a picture of a Nike notice of filming, which seems to be at or near The Grove.
The next day, she sent worried text messages to people she cared about, her family said.
“Hannah’s last message to us was alarming — she mentioned feeling scared, and that someone might be trying to steal her money and identity,” Pidgeon wrote on Facebook.
“She hasn’t been heard from since, and we are gravely concerned for her safety,” she said.
By text message, Pidgeon revealed that her Facebook name is Larie Ingrum. The talk about Kobayashi was with three family members, and she was one of them.
The three were among a larger group of family members and loved ones who got together in Los Angeles a few days ago to start looking for the person.
He said Kobayashi, who likes art and wants to be a photographer, had saved money for the trip to New York City and was thrilled when she left Honolulu on November 8.
Pidgeon said that as part of her plan to start a job, she planned to see the Museum of Modern Art and take in the art scene in Manhattan.
“She was really trying to school herself on how to become ‘it’ in New York,” she added.
Kobayashi’s family said they told the Los Angeles International Airport Police Department and the FBI that he was missing, but the Los Angeles Police Department said it is the main body looking into the case. Officer Tony Im, a spokeswoman for the LAPD, said that Kobayashi was reported missing on Friday.
Pinggeon said the texts sent on November 11 were scary and sometimes didn’t sound like they were written by Kobayashi.
As shown in a video report from NBC station KHNL of Honolulu, one of the texts read: “I got tricked pretty much into giving away all my funds for someone I thought I loved.”
Based on what Pidgeon said, the letters seem to be about identity theft.
“She said that someone was stealing her identity, that she felt scared,” said Pidgeon.
She said it looked like Kobayashi was at Los Angeles International Airport at the time. Pigeon said that Kobayashi’s other aunt, Geordan Montalvo, who she was going to see in New York, tried to get in touch with her.
“At 4 p.m., her phone rang at LAX, and Geordan kept trying to call her. Then it went dark.” “Her phone died, and she could no longer talk to anyone,” Pidgeon said.
The last thing her family heard from her was the text message on November 11.
There is a Facebook group called Help Us Find Hanna where family members can share information. In it, there is a post from the RAD Movement, a nonprofit in San Diego County, California, that says security video from the area of Pico Boulevard and Hill Street in downtown Los Angeles shows Kobayashi with someone, which has caused concern.
Members of the family said they couldn’t go into too much detail because they didn’t want to make things harder for the police. The video wasn’t made clear when it was. Pidgeon said the video makes him think Kobayashi “is not OK.”
Kobayashi’s family says she planned her trip to New York with a boyfriend she broke up with after the fact. The unnamed guy was on the same flight to Los Angeles as Kobayashi, but he didn’t talk to him. He then made the connection to New York City. They said he was very willing to work with them.
Members of the group in Los Angeles say they are searching around the area where Pico Boulevard and Hill Street meet, which is close to the Convention Center, LA Live, and Crypto Arena.
One of them is Father Ryan Kobayashi.
Everything seems to be a blur because I haven’t slept well since hearing the news. I don’t know what to say… “It’s just really scary,” he told KHNL earlier.
Elsa Lam, a 21-year-old Canadian tourist, went missing in 2013. Her body was found in a water tank on the roof of a run-down hotel in downtown Los Angeles, making news around the world. There were rumors that Lam killed herself after watching a security video of her pacing in a hotel elevator and pressing several buttons before she died. However, the Los Angeles County medical examiner said she drowned accidentally because of her bipolar illness.
It was thought that Kobayashi needed a “break,” so Pidgeon tried to reassure everyone on Monday that she wasn’t mentally sick.
“Hannah has never once suffered from a mental illness,” she told me. “She doesn’t have any records of that.” She’s not taking any medicine. We can call Hannah, and she’ll get back to us within an hour.
