Key unanswered questions in the mysterious disappearance of Hannah Kobayashi from eerie text messages sent after she vanished to her tormented father’s shock death

Hawaiian woman Hannah Kobayashi has been missing for nearly three weeks, sending her family on a frenzied search for her across Los Angeles.

Hannah, a 31-year-old aspiring photographer, was scheduled to be in New York on November 8, traveling to the city from her native Hawaii to see family.

Instead, she missed her connecting flight in LA and spent several days in the California city, where she was last seen with an unknown man at a subway station near LAX on November 11.

Although there have been a series of disparate clues, including mysterious, anomalous text messages sent from her phone to her loved ones, fleeting appearances on CCTV throughout LA and a plane ticket from LA to New York used by her ex-boyfriend. , no one has yet discovered what happened to Hannah, or where she is now.

And in a tragic twist that has deepened the Kobayashi family’s heartbreak, Hannah’s father, 58-year-old Ryan Kobayashi, took his own life and was found dead at the bottom of an LAX parking structure early Sunday morning after arriving in the city. to look for her.

His family said he had been looking for her for 13 days before he committed suicide.

Relatives told DailyMail.com that the search for his daughter, from whom he had been estranged for years, was ‘too much to bear’.

Hannah’s disappearance and Ryan’s suicide have since been marred by wild conspiracy theories, which have grown in the vacuum of information surrounding the case.

Here, DailyMail.com looks at the key questions looming in the Kobayashi case that remain unanswered.

Why did Hannah leave LAX instead of getting on her connecting plane?

She was spotted leaving LAX airport on November 8, wearing a black hoodie and tie-dye sweatpants

Hannah was seen on CCTV leaving her Maui-LAX plane which landed in California on November 8 at 9:53 pm.

Her family said she missed her connecting flight to New York because of a tight 42-minute layover.

But her family also said her ex-boyfriend, who traveled to New York at the same time as her on the same route using tickets he bought from her when they were together, was able to catch the connecting flight.

Also unknown is why Hannah left the LAX area so late at night.

There are dozens of hotels right next to LAX, many of which she could have stayed in after she missed her flight.

Why didn’t Hannah go back to LAX on November 9 and 10 after she left?

In a YouTube video outside an event in Los Angeles on November 10, Hannah is seen wearing the same outfit she wore at LAX

Hannah visited The Grove, the upscale mall in downtown LA, twice, first on November 9 and then again on November 10.

Her aunt Larie Pidgeon said of her first appearance: “She went to the bookstore and asked employees to charge her phone. So she charged her phone there for an hour and a half while she got food.

“She even filled out a mailing list with her Hawaiian address, and it’s in her handwriting.”

At 2.43pm she took a photo and sent it to her aunt before returning to the airport where she was believed to have spent the night.

Her appearance at a luxury mall the day after she missed a flight seems ordinary enough.

But questions have been raised about why she reappeared the next day, wearing the same clothes she had worn two days earlier.

In a YouTube video outside an event in Los Angeles on November 10, Hannah can be seen wearing the same attire.

She was spotted at a Nike event with LeBron James in LA around 3:30 p.m., where she wore the same dark hoodie and headphones as at the airport.

Kobayashi also shared a post on her Instagram from the event with an eye emoji as the caption.

Why did the Kobayashi family receive strange text messages from Hannah?

Hannah sent friends and family texts that they said were out of character

She apologized for her “craziness” in a text message to a loved one

One of Hannah’s friends received strange text messages from Kobayashi’s phone, saying she might be in trouble

In the days after she was supposed to be in New York, Hannah sent a series of increasingly bizarre, incoherent and deviant text messages to her loved ones.

Her strange texts came on the Monday after she missed her flight to New York.

One text read: “Deep Hackers erased my identity, stole all my money and have been in my thoughts since Friday.”

Kobayashi’s mother, Brandi Yee, also texted her asking if she had made it to New York.

She simply replied, “Not yet.” Another early morning text mentioned that she was in the midst of a “spiritual awakening.”

A third message sent to a friend read in part: “I was tricked into giving away all my money.” A second message read: ‘For someone I thought I loved.’

All the texts contained little to no context and her family immediately became concerned.

Her aunt Larie said: ‘We were getting text messages saying she didn’t feel safe, that someone was trying to steal her money, that someone was trying to take her identity.

“Strange things, calling us ‘sweetie’, things that weren’t quite the normal way she talks.”

Her family added that her latest texts did not include any emojis, which was highly unusual for Hannah.

Kobayashi’s sister, Sydni Kobayashi, said the texts were “really weird.”

“I think it’s weird because it doesn’t sound like them, like there’s just something strange about it,” she said. “So I wasn’t so sure. I don’t know if it’s her or if someone else was texting.”

The family was so concerned that they reported the incident to the police on November 11.

Why was her boyfriend on the same flight as her despite their breakup?

Hannah Kobayashi (pictured) went missing after missing her connecting flight from LAX to New York on November 8

‘Please help her, if you can. If you know where she is, or if you have a chance to help her, please. We just want to get her home,” Hannah’s mother said

Hannah traveled to New York from Hawaii to see her family.

But her ex-boyfriend also traveled with her. His appearance on the plane has yet to be explained.

Before his death, Ryan Kobayashi revealed that the ex-boyfriend, who has not yet been named, was traveling on a ticket he bought from Hannah before their split.

The duo reportedly neither spoke nor sat together

Ryan said her ex-boyfriend was extremely responsive and cooperative with the investigation.

‘A lot of worries, a lot of confusion. Everything is just a blur, it seems, because I haven’t slept well since I heard the news, and I really don’t know… it’s just very worrying.

“We’re just trying to get as much information as we can,” he said.

It is currently unknown why the ex-boyfriend traveled to New York.

Who is the unknown person she was last seen with on November 11?

On November 11 at 10 p.m., Hannah was seen on CCTV leaving the Pico subway station with an unidentified man, the family said.

Although the video has not yet been released publicly, the family said in a statement: “It is clear that Hannah does not appear to be in good condition and that she is not alone.”

The identity of the man, what he did to Hannah, how he knew her and what role, if any, he played in her disappearance is still unknown.

Why did it take so long for the LAPD to get an investigation underway?

Hannah was on her way to visit another aunt in New York when she missed her connecting flight in Los Angeles

LAPD detectives waited 10 days after she was last heard from to interview the family of missing Hannah Kobayashi, her concerned family revealed

“As of today, police have contacted family members who last spoke to Hannah,” her aunt Larie Pidgeon told DailyMail.com on Thursday.

‘We want them to take it a little more seriously.

“We think they realize we’re not going away and that we’re going to be very loud. We’re going to do something until they do something.

“I think they are now starting the process of what we started six days ago.

‘The whole world is looking for you (Hannah) because you are that special.

‘We won’t stop until we find you. We love you.’

Hannah’s father, Ryan Kobayashi, told DailyMail.com before his death: ‘We will do everything we can until we find her. We just need to get the word out about her.

“She is an amazing person who brings joy to so many people.”