Hannah Kobayashi disappeared from LAX after missing her flight. Then came a string of strange text messages
Hannah Kobayashi's father, Ryan Kobayashi (centre), died after looking for his missing daughter.
Hannah Kobayashi was not supposed to end up in Los Angeles.
The 31-year-old from Hawaii was only transiting through on her way to New York City.
But she didn't make the flight connection at LAX and never arrived at her intended destination.
In the days after she missed her flight on November 8, cryptic and alarming messages were sent from her phone.
She was spotted in at least two locations around Los Angeles on CCTV footage, once reportedly in the company of a stranger.
Then things turned even darker.
The LAPD said the investigation into Hannah Kobayashi's disappearance was "active and open".
Ms Kobayashi's father, who'd travelled to Los Angeles to search for her, was found dead in a parking lot near the airport.
Ryan Kobayashi's death, in the early hours of last Sunday morning, has been deemed a suicide by the Los Angeles County medical examiner.
Ms Kobayashi's aunt, Larie Pidgeon, said Mr Kobayashi was "giving it his all".
She said the 58-year-old had done "everything in his power" to find his daughter.
"Nobody can understand unless they've had their daughter go missing and they're searching Skid Row and seeing the possibilities of what could happen to her," Ms Pidgeon told the ABC.
"He died of a broken heart."
Ms Kobayashi has become the subject of a Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) missing persons case, which has gotten the attention of online sleuths and fuelled conspiracy theories.
The missed flight
It was always going to be a tight connection in Los Angeles.
After touching down from the Hawaiian island of Maui, Ms Kobayashi only had about 40 minutes to make the flight to New York City, according to her family.
Such quick turnarounds are not uncommon at US airports.
She was travelling to New York to meet a relative, do some sightseeing and catch her favourite DJ.
Hannah Kobayashi was caught on camera leaving her flight from Maui to LAX.
A photo released by the California Attorney-General's Office showed Ms Kobayashi exiting the Maui flight, but she never boarded the next one.
The next sign of life came the next day from The Grove shopping centre in Los Angeles.
Her aunt, Larie Pidgeon, said she charged her phone at a shop there and appeared to be in good spirits, according to people who remembered her.
"She was in a great state," Ms Pidgeon said.
"Any person that saw her said that she was in good health, she was in good sound mind."
Ms Kobayashi also appeared briefly in a video taken at The Grove, which was posted to YouTube the following day and also seemed to have posted to her Instagram account from there.
Then the strange texts began.
"I got tricked pretty much into giving away all my funds," her family said she messaged a friend, suggesting she'd been fooled by "someone I thought I loved".
"Deep Hackers wiped my identity, stole all of my funds, & have had me on a mind f*** since Friday," another text read.
Ms Pidgeon said: "It was all very strange and out of character."
Ms Kobayashi was officially reported missing on November 13.
LAPD spokesman David Cuellar said the investigation into her disappearance was "active and open".
The spokesman said the department has been working with partners around the city, including the FBI.
A final sighting with a stranger
LAPD wouldn't confirm that CCTV footage placed Ms Kobayashi at a downtown metro station on November 11.
Her family said police had been investigating this footage, which showed her in the company of an unknown male.
They said they were not at liberty to comment in any detail on the video, but they described it as "alarming".
"It made us kind of scream even louder to the world that Hannah doesn't know anyone in LA, she's never been to LA, and she's boarding a train late in the evening with an unidentified person," Ms Pidgeon told the ABC.
The reported sighting at the Pico metro station occurred after Ms Kobayashi had apparently returned to the airport, intent on making it to New York after all.
"I just finished a very intense spiritual awakening. I'm heading back to the airport to get to NYC. I might need some help getting there," a text from her phone reportedly said.
Friends, family and supporters have been trying to find Hannah Kobayashi.
Ms Pidgeon said Ms Kobayashi had returned to the airport and had tried to re-book her ticket.
She won't or can't say why that didn't happen, but did say her niece talked to an airline agent for 40 minutes.
November 11 is the last time Ms Kobayashi's phone is known to have been active.
Since then, nothing has been heard from the aspiring photographer.
"It's very peculiar that she's just off the radar," said Sharie Finn, who works with the RAD Movement, which supports families in missing persons cases.
"It's not like the movies when the lights and sirens go on when somebody goes missing."
The RAD Movement has a team working in downtown LA, near the site of the Pico metro, handing out fliers and speaking to people to try and glean any more information about Hannah's movements.
RAD has been supporting Ms Kobayashi's sister and mother, who have travelled to Los Angeles.
They worked closely with Ryan Kobayashi in his two-week-long quest to find his daughter.
That ended with his apparent suicide last weekend.
Father's quest ends in tragedy
On a fundraising page, Ms Kobayashi's sister, Sydni, wrote that her father had "tragically passed during the search for Hannah".
She said the family was now facing funeral costs, as well as the cost of funding the search.
Hannah Kobayashi's sister, Sydni, is trying to raise money to help with search efforts.
Ryan Kobayashi's sudden death has further fuelled conspiracy theories about what happened to Ms Kobayashi.
On a Reddit subgroup, posts have speculated on whether she deliberately missed her flight to spend time in LA, whether she was a victim of domestic abuse, and whether she planned to disappear.
There's also been intense discussion of two mysterious payments she reportedly made to a man and a woman via an app, following the missed flight.
Ms Finn from RAD has little time for all the theorising, including speculation about the father-daughter relationship or the young woman's possible ties to a cult.
"I don't believe she's missing on her own accord," Ms Finn told the ABC.
"I don't believe she's willingly putting her family through this.
"We don't engage with the negative and conspiracy theorists.
"We are realists, we don't go down those dark paths … it's not helpful.
"I've yet to receive a credible tip from Reddit."
A family suffering two crises
One working theory is that Ms Kobayashi has suffered some kind of mental health episode. However, her aunt said she didn't believe that was the case.
Ms Pidgeon said the people who saw her niece at the shopping centre the day after she missed her flight said they saw no sign of that.
"She didn't appear in any way, shape or character of someone having a psychotic break," Ms Pidgeon said.
Ms Pidgeon also said the footage from the metro station convinced her "that this was nefarious, that something bad had happened".
Her family said they were concerned she had been abducted.
As the conspiracies swirl online, her aunt has made a tearful plea for people to remember the family at the heart of the crisis, who she says are now "suffering two losses" following the death of Ms Kobayashi's father.
"We're humans, we're real people," Ms Pidgeon said.
"All the speculation and all these things that people are saying, please shut them down.
"Please, please be kind."
By：ABC(责任编辑：admin)
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