Staff
Kobayashi has been missing since Nov. 11 when she never boarded her connecting flight in Los Angeles during her trip from Hawaii to New York.
The family of the missing Hawaii woman, Hannah Kobayashi, continue to look for answers amid her disappearance earlier this month.
Hannah has been missing since Nov. 11 when she failed to board her connecting flight in Los Angeles during her trip from Hawaii to New York.
The 31-year-old had texted a friend saying she “got tricked into pretty much giving away all my funds,” before a follow-up text claiming she was supposedly hoodwinked “for someone I thought I loved.”
Now, her sister, Sydni Kobayashi, feels that the messages sent from Hannah’s phone may have been from someone “controlling her,” telling NewsNation in a new interview that the mysterious messages were “not like her.”
“This is completely out of character for my sister,” Sydni told the outlet. “Intuitively knowing her and being so close to her my entire life, I just know this is absolutely not like her.”
“Especially with those text messages that she just left that she last sent it just in my mind it feels like someone was controlling her or it might not even have been her,” she added, maintaining the belief that her sister is still alive.
The two messages were sent just before Hannah’s phone was turned off.
“We have been made aware and so have the LAPD. It’s in their hands,” Hannah’s aunt Larie Pidgeon told the the US Sun.
Sydni called the whole situation “bizarre” and says her sister would “have never done anything like this to our family.”
LAPD/ ABC 7
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Since a missing person’s report was filed, the Kobayashi family had flown to Los Angeles to help in the search efforts, including their father, Ryan Kobayashi, who committed suicide amid the search for Hannah.
Police confirmed that Ryan died after he jumped off a parking structure near LAX sometime around 4 a.m. Sunday, six days after his daughter was reported missing.
Sydni remembered her father as a “loving, caring, kind-hearted individual who “fought until his last breath” looking for his daughter.
The family claims that they had initially been left in the dark by detectives and hadn’t heard from an official for the first ten days, only reaching out after Hannah’s story began making headlines, with the family gathering in downtown L.A. to begin their search. There, they handed out fliers, with Hannah’s late father amongst those spearheading search efforts.
The family has since received regular updates on the case, with the lead detective conferring with Kobayashi’s mother.
LAPD/Facebook
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Based on the information they’ve received from police, Sydni said they believe Hannah is still alive.
“We can’t divulge into yet, I don’t think people understand that we have to be very careful of what we do release because we’re getting thousands and thousands of tips from everywhere,” she explained to NewsNation.
Sydni did tease, however, that her family received information which leads them to believe Hannah is still alive.
Amid the search for Hannah and the heartbreaking hardships their family have already faced with the death of their family patriarch, Sydni is asking for “some grace” as they continue to maintain hope that Hannah is still out there.
“We ask that you just give our family some grace,” Sydni told the outlet. “Imagine if it was your loved one.”
