Hannah Kobayashi, a 30-year-old aspiring photographer from Hawaii, is currently missing. But all is not as it seems in this case, and things only seem to get weirder with the more information released. Hannah was supposed to travel to New York from Maui with her ex-boyfriend, where she would visit family. But she never boarded her connecting flight. Instead, she sent a few cryptic messages and was spotted with a strange man.
At this point, Hannah was last seen in LA. Her family is obviously deeply concerned and frustrated at the police not taking this more seriously. The FBI and LAPD are now involved, but little has been found. As we saw in the Gabby Petito case last year, true crime junkies on TikTok are stepping up to do their own sleuthing. We can only hope they have a breakthrough and that Hannah is found as soon as possible. Here’s everything we know about the disappearance of Hannah Kobayashi.
A Timeline of Hannah Kobayashi’s Disappearance
- Hannah and her boyfriend had planned a trip to New York together. In her handwritten vacation itinerary, she described it as a “bucket list dreams become reality,” and she seemed super excited. The pair broke up, but the tickets were non-refundable, so they agreed to both go to NYC and then head their separate ways. Once there, Hannah planned to visit her aunt and uncle, and they had tickets for a DJ Scott Hansen (aka, Tycho) concert at Brooklyn Steel in Brooklyn on November 12.
- On November 8, Hannah took her flight to LA from Hawaii, and airport surveillance footage captured her walking into the airport. She did not take her connecting flight to New York. Her ex-boyfriend did and has supposedly been cooperating with the police.
- Hannah was spotted out in Los Angeles on November 9 at the Taschen bookstore located at The Grove shopping center in the Fairfax area of LA. Her family do not know why. Her sister Sydni shared that this is when Hannah sent a Venmo payment to two people whose names the family does not recognize.
- On November 10, she apparently attended an event at a Nike store. She was spotted in a video posted on YouTube of the LeBron XXII Trial Experience. She also shared a strange photo of the event on her Instagram.
- Her friends and family began receiving alarming messages from Hannah. The messages were mildly suspicious at first, employing words like “hun,” “love,” and “babe” that her sister Sydni says weren’t in her sister’s regular vocabulary. Hannah’s last messages were the weirdest of them all. “Deep Hackers wiped my identity, stole all of my funds, & have had me on a mind fuck since Friday,” one such message read. Another friend was told that Hannah “got tricked pretty much into giving away all my funds … for someone I thought I loved.”
- The final sighting of Hannah was on November 11, when she was seen in a surveillance video around a downtown Los Angeles Metro train station near the Crypto.com arena. She was with an unknown person, and her family has stated that she “does not appear to be in good condition” in the footage. “She didn’t look her normal self,” her aunt told Daily Mail. “She was with someone, but we don’t know who it was at this point. She didn’t look like she was safe.”
- On November 11 her mother texted her, asking whether she made it to New York, to which the 30-year-old responded no. That same day, Hannah sent strange texts to her friends and family. She wrote, “Hi, loves. I just finished a very intense spiritual awakening. I’m charging my phone & heading back to the airport to get to NYC. I might need some help getting there, it’s a long story. I’ll keep you posted.” She also mentioned possible identity theft.
- On November 12, Hannah was reported missing to both the LAPD and LAX police. Search efforts intensified as Hannah’s family flew from Hawaii to Los Angeles to retrace her steps. They focused on areas around LAX and public transit routes while coordinating with local authorities and the community for assistance. Despite extensive searches and public appeals, Hannah’s whereabouts remain unknown, adding to the urgency and concern around her case.
Her family does not believe Hannah sent these texts. “I personally don’t think that was my sister,” Sydni Kobayashi told HawaiiNewsNow, adding, “It’s weird to me because it doesn’t sound like her like there’s just something off about it… I don’t know if it’s her or if someone else was texting.”
What Happened to Hannah Kobayashi?
At this point in time we don’t know what happened to Hannah Kobayashi, but social media sleuths are on the case. The last photo posted on Hannah’s Instagram is a strange black-and-white photo of the Nike event, with a single tag for the LA Times. The caption is a creepy-looking eye emoji, and I’m genuinely kind of scared now.
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One user pointed out that this is all too strange. “All the things in the post really seem like clues or someone’s playing a game,” @heal_love_thrive commented. “Whoever posted this is letting everyone know that there were cameras there. 2 people in the photo, The song, the la times tag, the eye emoji…it’s too many things to not notice.”
Another user looked into her followers and noticed a trend. “Is there concern she might be with a cult?” @somethingaboutcarrie asked. “She follows a significant amount of twin flames/similar accounts (as well as the man she venmo’d also follows them). Do we know if anyone has looked into any LA twin flame groups?”
Some people believe that this post wasn’t shared by Hannah herself. “This post doesn’t seem to match any of her other posts or her style,” @val.eerie.uh wrote. “It doesn’t appear to be a mirror to me either.”
But another suggested this was a cry for help on Hannah’s part. “I wonder if Hannah was trying to post the message on that poster hoping the news & authorities would check video footage at the event,” @mamapapafambam commented. “Or if someone captured a picture of her or her kidnapper (if she’s being held against her will). The 👁️🗨️ in the caption might be telling people looking at her IG to please look for her?”
The theories are endless. Was Hannah a victim of trafficking? Has she joined some kind of spiritual cult? Is she just trying to start fresh and somehow missing all of the concerns? Something is not right here, and with TikTok on the case, it’s only a matter of time until more clues are found. Until then, we can only hope that people keep an eye out for her and hope for her safe return.
