Hana Kobayashi, the missing Hawaiian woman whose disappearance sparked a massive search and missing persons investigation in Los Angeles, has been found safe, police said Wednesday.
Kobayashi disappeared last month in Los Angeles. She missed her connecting flight and planned to explore the city the next day. But her subsequent text messages to her family – and the subsequent inability to reach her – worried them so much that they later reported her missing.
Other details about her disappearance, as well as where and how she was found, were not immediately available on Wednesday, but police said earlier that she was “voluntarily missing” and had not yet been revealed. I crossed the border willingly To Mexico.
“We are pleased to learn that Hannah has been found safe,” the Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement. He added: “Now that we have obtained this new information, the matter has become a private matter and we will conclude our investigations.”
Kobayashi’s mother and sister, in a statement through their lawyers, were the first to announce on Wednesday that she had been found safe.
“We are incredibly relieved and grateful,” Brandi Yee and Sydney Kobayashi wrote.
Det. Hana Kobayashi, the American woman who has not been seen in nearly a month, was unaccompanied and did not appear in distress in surveillance footage from Nov. 12 at the U.S.-Mexico border, LAPD’s Douglas Oldfield says.
“This past month has been an unimaginable ordeal for our family, and we ask for privacy as we take the time to heal and process everything we’ve been through. We want to express our deepest thanks to everyone who has supported us during this difficult time. Your kindness and concern have meant the world to us.”
Kobayashi, an emerging photographer from Maui, was heading to New York City on November 8 for a new job and to visit relatives when she missed a connecting flight while stopping at Los Angeles International Airport. She told her family she was sleeping at the airport that night and texted them the next day to tell them she was sightseeing in Los Angeles.
Her family reported her missing to law enforcement on November 11 after relatives received “strange, cryptic and disturbing” text messages, according to her aunt, Lari Pidgeon.
“Once the family started putting pressure on her, she disappeared,” Pidgeon told The Associated Press late last month. Pidgeon said that after the texts on November 11, her phone “just went off.”
Family, friends and local volunteers searched for Hannah in Los Angeles. Hana’s father, Ryan Kobayashi, was among those who arrived from Hawaii to help in the search. He was found dead on November 24 in a parking lot near Los Angeles International Airport, according to the county medical examiner. Kobayashi’s family confirmed the death in a statement the same day, saying they had “suffered a devastating tragedy” and that he had died by suicide.
Police said Hana Kobayashi entered Mexico at the San Ysidro border crossing about 200 kilometers southeast of Los Angeles on November 12, a day after her family reported her missing. Authorities made the announcement after reviewing security video from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell previously said Kobayashi disappeared voluntarily while seeking to “get away from modern contact.”
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