Hannah Kobayashi, a woman who disappeared after missing her LAX flight to New York, was seen leaving the country, Los Angeles police said.
Detectives from the agency’s Missing Persons Unit believe video footage shows Kobayashi crossing the U.S. border into Mexico after sending her family a disturbing series of cryptic messages, the department said.
One of the text messages sent from Kobayashi’s phone read: “I just had a very intense spiritual awakening. I’m going back to the airport to go to New York. I might need some help getting there come.”
“Things started to get nefarious and scary on Monday when it went from ‘I can’t see you. I’m so excited’ to text messages about people stealing her identity,” said Kobayashi’s aunt Larie Pidgeon. “That she was scared. she felt unsafe. That people were going to steal her money and that doesn’t make sense. She’s using pet names she’s never used before.”
However, during a news conference Monday evening, Police Chief Jim McDonnell announced that Kobayashi had voluntarily gone missing.
“The investigation did not reveal any evidence that Kobayashi is being trafficked or the victim of foul play,” McDonnell said. “She is also not a suspect in any criminal activity. Additionally, investigators noted that Maui Kobayashi expressed a desire to distance himself from modern connectivity before his departure.”
Kobayashi’s cryptic text messages before her sudden disappearance sparked her family’s frantic search across LA.
“If she decided to postpone her trip, she would let us know,” Pidgeon said. ‘We haven’t heard from her. We didn’t do that, so we know something is wrong.’
Pidgeon says Kobayashi’s phone was last pinged at LAX on November 11th and then it went dark. Kobayashi’s family flew from New York to look for her, including the 30-year-old woman’s father, Ryan Kobayashi. They spent November handing out fliers and putting them up in areas where she was last seen.
During the family’s search, police found Ryan Kobayashis body last week near LAX airport. Investigators said he appeared to have committed suicide.
