Hawaii woman who disappeared went to Mexico and is not considered missing, police say

LOS ANGELES — A Hawaii woman who disappeared after landing in Los Angeles was seen crossing into Mexico alone with her luggage and is not considered missing, police said Monday.

At about noon on Nov. 12, Hannah Kobayashi, 30, walked into the tunnel that leads to Mexico, officials said, adding that there is no evidence she’s being trafficked or a victim of foul play. Police say the case is now classified as a “voluntary missing person.”

“We’ve basically done everything we can do at this point. She’s left the country and in another nation now,” said Los Angeles Police Department Chief of Police Jim McDonnell

Kobayashi went missing after the budding photographer from Maui didn’t make a connecting flight to New York on Nov. 8 to travel for a new job and to visit relatives. She told her family she would sleep in the Los Angeles International Airport that night.

Family members assumed she was on standby for another flight, according to her aunt, Larie Pidgeon. The next day, Hannah texted them to say she was sightseeing in Los Angeles, planning to visit The Grove shopping mall and downtown LA, Pidgeon said.

On Nov. 11, the family received “strange and cryptic, just alarming” text messages from her phone that referenced her being “intercepted” as she got on a Metro train and being scared that someone might be stealing her identity, her aunt said.

Her father, Ryan Kobayashi, who had been in the search party along with volunteers, was found dead Sunday in a parking lot near LA International Airport by apparent suicide, police and her family said.

Surveillance video from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection reviewed by Los Angeles police late Sunday showed her crossing the US-Mexico border on foot. McDonnell said she appeared unharmed.

“My ask would be to anybody considering doing this, think about the people you’re leaving behind, your loved ones who are going to be worried sick about you,” said McDonnell. “The number of people, including law enforcement and other partners who are going to be looking for you, which then potentially takes them away from other work that is also critically important.”