Hannah Kobayashi missed Los Angeles flight intentionally, police say; family claims evidence shows otherwise
Family members of Hannah Kobayashi, a Hawaii woman who disappeared more than two weeks ago, disagree with a new assertion made by the Los Angeles Police Department in their investigation.
The 30-year-old Oahu, Hawaii, resident had planned a vacation to see her aunt in New York City and flew from Maui to Los Angeles International Airport on Nov. 8, her aunt previously told Fox News Digital. She was scheduled to take a connecting flight to New York, with a 42-minute layover at 11 a.m., but she never got on that flight. Her family is unsure why.
Kobayashi's family has said that she returned to the airport on Nov. 11, but did not board a flight despite a detailed itinerary and a booked hotel room in New York City. After receiving a flurry of strange text messages that day followed by a cutoff of communication, the family reported her missing.
At a Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners meeting on Tuesday, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said detectives determined the photographer missed her connecting flight on purpose.
"On Friday, November 8th, 23-year-old Hannah Kobayashi missed her connecting flight from LAX to New York, which the investigation determined was intentional," McDonnell said, misstating the woman's age.
"On November 15th our missing persons unit assumed investigative responsibility. Detectives have been diligently reviewing video surveillance and employing various investigative techniques to locate Hannah, while her family has continued their personal search efforts," he said, adding that authorities "remain fully committed to locating Hannah."
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Kobayashi's family said they were unaware of any developments in the department's investigation until they were sent footage of McDonnell's speech. In a statement on social media, the missing woman's sister, Sydni Kobayashi, disputed that Kobayashi missed her flight intentionally and pointed out inaccuracies in McDonnell's timeline of events.
"Based on information, surveillance footage reviewed and information shared with us, these are the facts known to my mother and I: It does not appear that Hannah intentionally missed her flight," Sydni Kobayashi wrote in an Instagram post.
"The lack of communication surrounding some important details has left us feeling excluded from potentially crucial developments," the statement added. "These alleged findings have yet to be relayed to my mother and I directly from the Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department or any detective involved in Hannah’s case."
Kobayashi's family said last week that the LAPD has reason to believe she is still in Los Angeles. The LAPD could not immediately be reached for comment.
"However, we do remain hopeful and optimistic that the Los Angeles Police Department is doing everything in their power to assist us in locating Hannah," her sister continued.
Kobayashi's mother reported her missing on Nov. 11, the day that communications from the woman's phone to family and friends halted, said Kobayashi's aunt, Larie Pidgeon. Through their own investigative work, the family viewed surveillance footage of Kobayashi from that day with an unknown man near the Pico Metro station in downtown L.A.
"The Pico station is in a very bad neighborhood, [and] it was late at night," Pidgeon said. "That causes us even more alarm because it's not a place that Hannah would go. There's no reason that she would go to a neighborhood of crime. Even if she said, 'Hey, I need to go get a hotel room because I'm tired,' there's 18 hotels by the airport… she would have to have two transfer stations to get to this station."
On Nov. 10, the photographer was captured on another person's social media video taken at The Grove shopping complex, her family said. Kobayashi charged her phone with an employee within the same complex the next day and had filled out an application for a book club at the TASCHEN book store using her Hawaii address, her aunt said.
Witnesses there told the family that Kobayashi "was in good spirits" and said that "she had a little bit of time to explore in L.A.," Pidgeon said.
But since Nov. 11, there have been no new clues.
Kobayashi's father, 58-year-old Ryan Kobayashi, was found dead in an apparent suicide around 4 a.m. on Nov. 24 after jumping from a parking structure, the LAPD confirmed to Fox News Digital.
"We remain fully committed to locating Hannah and supporting the family as they navigate their way through this tragedy," McDonnell said at the Board of Police Commissioner's meeting.
Despite the additional tragedy that befell the family, Kobayashi's aunt told Fox News Digital last week that they are "holding on by a thread but will not give up."
Kobayashi's family said anyone with information is asked to call the RAD Movement hotline at 619-904-0840.