One month in the past, few exterior the social {and professional} circles of a 30-year-old girl from Hawaii knew her identify: Hannah Kobayashi.

Then she boarded a aircraft to Los Angeles, didn’t take her connecting flight to New York, allegedly despatched cryptic messages from her telephone and subsequently ceased all contact – worrying her household. They reported her lacking and launched an aggressive publicity marketing campaign; now the face and identify of Hannah Kobayashi – together with these of her relations – have been practically inescapable for weeks.

The narrative across the case, nevertheless, is altering. There was no scarcity of dramatic twists, from the dying of Hannah’s father to revelations a couple of potential secret marriage to, simply this week, the LAPD classifying her disappearance as voluntary. Even tv character Canine the Bounty Hunter, whose household is aware of Hannah personally, has weighed in.

Questions not solely linger however maintain arising. By means of all of it, nevertheless, one truth stays: nobody who is aware of Hannah nicely, it appears, has heard from her and so, to them no less than, she continues to be lacking.

And so now, as extra particulars about her actions and actions trickle out, it’s not arduous to think about that they’ve extra questions than everybody else.

When she boarded a flight from Maui to LA on November 8, Hannah’s household anticipated her to proceed to New York, the place the budding photographer had lined up work to take footage at a DJ gig in Brooklyn and deliberate to go to relations, they stated.

She by no means made it to New York, although. Hannah advised her household she missed her flight and would sleep on the LA airport, after which, they are saying, bizarre and regarding messages have been despatched from her telephone.

“Deep Hackers wiped my identification, stole all of my funds, & have had me on a thoughts f**okay since Friday,” one message to a buddy stated, in accordance with screenshots her sister despatched CNN.

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“I acquired tricked just about into gifting away all my funds,” stated one other, which was adopted by: “For somebody I assumed I beloved.”

Days after her missed flight, Hannah was pictured visiting numerous areas round Los Angeles. She went to the upscale Grove procuring middle twice, as soon as to go to a bookstore and cost her telephone, then once more the subsequent day for a LeBron James Nike occasion.

Her final Instagram submit, from November 10, seems to be a black and white photograph from this occasion, datelined “Metropolis of Angels, Los Angeles, CA” and accompanied by the Sam Cooke music “A Change is Gonna Come.”

Hannah’s household final heard from her on November 11; her father, Ryan Kobayashi, was amongst relations who flew from Hawaii to Los Angeles to search for her and alert authorities.

“Hannah’s final message to us was alarming – she talked about feeling scared, and that somebody is perhaps attempting to steal her cash and identification,” her aunt, Larie Pidgeon, posted on Fb on November 14. “She hasn’t been heard from since, and we’re gravely involved for her security.”

Hannah’s sister, Sydni, established a GoFundMe on November 15 with a $50,000 aim, writing that funds could be used for a media marketing campaign, search efforts, momentary lodging for household and different instant wants.

Pidgeon and Ryan have been among the many relations who held a rally on November 21 in LA, not removed from Hannah’s then final identified location.

“Please, please don’t cease saying her identify, Hannah Kobayashi,” KTLA reported Pidgeon advised the gang. “Your complete household is right here. The whole world is searching for you. In case you can and you’ve got entry, please attain out to us. We’re not mad.”

“If somebody has her, I would like you to see the photographs we have now posted. I would like you to see this household, and I would like you to know she is so beloved. I would like you to know that she is so particular and sort,” continued Pidgeon, who initially was very seen and vocal all through the hassle to search out her niece.

Hannah’s father referred to as her “a lovely lady inside and outside” on the rally, in accordance with the outlet and addressed her straight: “Simply attain out, if you happen to can in any respect.”

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Three days later, Ryan Kobayashi’s physique was present in a Los Angeles car parking zone; it was decided that he died by suicide. Calling his dying a “devastating tragedy” in a press release, the household stated: “After tirelessly looking all through Los Angeles for 13 days, Hannah’s father, Ryan Kobayashi, tragically took his personal life.”

Nonetheless, there was no phrase from Hannah.

“If she had seen what occurred with my father and his passing, she would have positively reached out by now,” Sydni stated this week. “There’s no method that she wouldn’t have reached out, realizing the individual that she is.”

Authorities this week continued begging Hannah to contact her family members – even after ruling that she’d gone lacking voluntarily.

LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell held a press convention on Monday outlining Hannah’s actions since lacking her New York connection – together with updates that her household insisted have been information to them.

“Whereas she did examine her bag by means of to New York, she requested her bag be despatched to her at LAX, the place we have now surveillance footage of her retrieving it from a baggage carousel on November 11,” he stated.

Hannah used public transportation to get to LA’s Union Station, the place she used her passport and money to buy a ticket to get the border, police stated on the briefing.

McDonnell stated officers “reviewed video surveillance from US Customs and Border Safety, which clearly reveals Kobayashi crossing the USA border on foot into Mexico” on November 12 at San Diego’s San Ysidro crossing.

“She was alone together with her baggage and appeared unhurt at the moment,” he continued, including that police knew she not had her telephone together with her. “Investigators famous that, earlier than departing Maui, Kobayashi expressed a want to step away from fashionable connectivity.”

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Lt Douglas Oldfield advised reporters that these expressions have been discovered “by taking a look at her previous social media.”

It’s unclear to which posts he was referring, and whether or not they have been public messages. On October 7, Hannah posted an image of a forest to Instagram with the caption “dwelling won’t ever go away you,” accompanied by emojis; the month earlier than, she posted a photograph displaying clouds from a aircraft window with the caption: “when nothing is definite ~something is feasible” and “what does your coronary heart want?”

Two posts earlier than that, in November 2022, Hannah posted a now distinctive selfie utilized in a lot of her household’s search efforts – a photograph from a Hawaiian volcano with a caption that begins: “attachment is the basis of all struggling.”

Chief McDonnell urged Hannah “to contact her household, regulation enforcement or personnel on the US Embassy to tell us that she is secure,” he stated. “She has a proper to her privateness, and we respect her selections, however we additionally perceive that the priority her family members really feel for her a easy message might reassure those that care about her.”

Hannah’s sister and wider household have refused to simply accept the police clarification and official choice to not proceed the search into Mexico.

“I stated this from day one, I really feel like she is in peril. I really feel like that is fully out of character for her. I’ve identified her my complete life,” Sydni advised NewsNation the day after the police convention.

Updating the GoFundMe, she wrote: “My household and I are extraordinarily involved for my sister. The sort of habits just isn’t aligned with Hannah’s character and sample. The LAPD and regulation enforcement haven’t shared any proof with us. In truth, we realized these info for the primary time on Dec. 2.”

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However the twists weren’t over; Hannah’s household can also be coping with revelations that she might have married below mysterious circumstances earlier than her departure. Los Angeles Journal printed a report this week citing unnamed sources claiming she’d been caught up in an immigration marriage rip-off and cheated out of cash within the course of; rumors in regards to the marriage have taken off on-line.

Hannah’s household addressed this by means of their legal professional, Sara Azari.

“A Fb consumer despatched what regarded like a Hawaiian seashore marriage ceremony photograph of Hannah with one other man with leis round their necks carrying white, they usually stated that they realized off of Reddit that there was this sham marriage for cash and that that is the marriage image that’s being circulated on Reddit,” Azari advised NewsNation. “After all, that got here as a shock to Hannah’s sister.”

“They wish to know that Hannah is secure,” she stated. “This isn’t like her to do that, in order that they’re simply overwhelmed and in shock and anxious,” Azari stated. “We now must be the LAPD right here, which is why I got here in with my group. We’re going to must go to Mexico.”

One one who is not going to be going to Mexico is Canine the Bounty Hunter, whose daughters have been “good buddies” with Hannah and who famous on NewsNation that, the final time he entered the nation on the tail of a fugitive, he “was arrested and needed to get away of jail and get again to America.”

“She may need achieved this on her personal,” he stated of her disappearance. “She didn’t look like she’s been harmed in any method.”

Hannah’s sister has a extra worrying tackle the state of affairs.

“They are saying that they seen her alone, however that doesn’t low cost the truth that somebody might be watching her from afar, realizing how large this case has gotten and form of like perhaps controlling her or like telling her what to do,” she advised Hawaii Information Now this week, because the household demanded officers launch the border surveillance.

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Not all relations appear to be on the identical web page, although; Sydni and Pidgeon have begun battling within the press.

Hannah’s sister advised NewsNation her aunt had “gone rogue.”

Pidgeon, in the meantime, hit again, telling the New York Put up that different members of the family have been throwing her “below the bus” as a result of they “wish to be the face … it’s actually unhappy.”

And members of the family aren’t the one disgruntled ones; there are many on-line sleuths and donors querying and criticising the destiny of the practically $50,000 raised by Sydni’s GoFundMe – given the dedication by authorities that Hannah missed her flight and left the nation voluntarily.

There are different factions, nonetheless, who’ve taken a unique view – these congratulating Hannah for her journey and wishing her nicely. Her Venmo account has been flooded with donations from strangers within the wake of the information that she’d crossed the southern border.

“Technique to make it to Mexico girlie! Have a chicharrone on me!’ one particular person wrote, in accordance with the Each day Mail.

“Hey girlie! Make a journey to Puerto Vallarta,” the outlet reported that one other well-wisher wrote.

Even then, although, many strangers – just like the authorities and her relations themselves – urged Hannah to contact her distraught household.

“Have enjoyable in Mexico… let your loved ones know you’re secure,” one other Venmo consumer wrote, the Each day Mail reported.

Regardless of that, nevertheless, there’s been no phrase – no less than none publicly acknowledged – from Hannah Kobayashi herself.

The general public is aware of her identify; now they even know, to some extent, the place she possible is. However her social media accounts stay stagnant, and her household retains clamoring for solutions.

“I would like her to know that she is beloved and she or he is supported in each method, form or type,” Sydni advised NewsNation this week. “And it doesn’t matter what she’s going by means of proper now, she must know that she has a spot to come back dwelling to.

“And I can’t stress it sufficient, like she is such mild in our lives, and she or he’s simply such an incredible and delightful girl, and she or he’s like, she’s my child lady, you already know, she’s my child sister … You’ve so many individuals who love and look after you that simply wish to know that you simply’re genuinely OK, even if you happen to’re not.

“Simply one thing, some kind of like message, telephone, name, one thing.”