Detectives waited 10 days from when she was last heard from to interview the family of missing Hannah Kobayashi, her concerned relatives have revealed.
The 30-year-old aspiring photographer disappeared from the streets of downtown Los Angeles after missing a connecting flight from her native Maui, Hawaii en route to New York City.
It remains unclear why she left LA’s LAX airport and ventured into the city 15 miles away, but she sent a text to a friend saying she had had a “spiritual awakening,” and was later seen in the company of a mysterious man.
On Thursday, frantic friends and family gathered in downtown LA, a block away from where she was last seen, to spread the word and encourage the public to report any sightings and information.
“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.
Hannah Kobayashi, 30, disappeared from the streets of downtown Los Angeles after missing a connecting flight from her native Maui, Hawaii en route to New York City
On Thursday, frantic friends and family, including her devastated father Ryan Kobayashi (pictured), gathered in downtown LA, a block from where she was last seen, to spread the message and encourage the public to all observations and information they have to report.
Hannah was on her way to visit another aunt in New York when she missed her connecting flight in Los Angeles
‘The whole world is looking for you (Hannah) because you are that special.
‘We won’t stop until we find you. We love you.’
Handing out missing persons flyers to passersby, Hannah’s father, Ryan Kobayashi, told DailyMail.com: ‘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.”
Hannah was on her way to visit another aunt in New York when she missed her connecting flight in LA.
Relatives and a friend received a series of cryptic text messages from Hannah’s phone, leading them to fear she may have been kidnapped.
The trip started on Nov. 8 in Maui, which she described in a handwritten itinerary as a “bucket list dream come true.” She was scheduled to attend a concert in New York City that same evening.
She had a 45-minute layover in LA, but missed her connecting flight.
They planned the trip with an ex-boyfriend who was on the flight from Maui with her, her mother Brandi Yee said, although the former couple would not be together in New York after landing at JFK Airport.
Bob Montalvo and Geordan Montalvo, the uncle and aunt of Hannah Kobayashi, who has been missing for 11 days, gather with the rest of the family in downtown Los Angeles to talk to the media and hand out flyers to raise awareness for to increase their missing loved one
Handing out missing persons flyers to passersby, Hannah’s father, Ryan Kobayashi, told DailyMail.com: ‘We will do everything we can until we find her. We just have to spread the word about her.”
It remains unclear why the 30-year-old aspiring photographer left LAX airport and ventured 15 miles into the city
She said the ex-boyfriend, who had moved on to New York, is instrumental in the hunt for Hannah.
Hannah was spotted at Tashen bookstore in The Grove shopping center on November 9 in Los Angeles.
Her sister Sydni Kobayashi previously stated that Hannah sent a Venmo payment to two people whose names the family does not recognize. A photo from the event also appeared to have been posted to her Instagram account.
That day, family and friends received “weird” text messages from Kobayashi, but never heard from her again.
However, a day later, on November 11, surveillance video around a metro station in downtown Los Angeles, near the Crypto.com arena, showed her with an unknown person. Her family said in the images that she “doesn’t appear to be in good condition.”
“She didn’t look like her normal self,” Pigeon told DailyMail.com. “She was with someone, but we don’t know at this point if that was the case. She didn’t look like she was safe.’
On November 11, Hannah sent a series of strange text messages to a friend.
The missing Maui resident disappeared during a layover in Los Angeles while traveling from her home in Hawaii to New York and was spotted getting off her flight at LAX
A series of text messages has led the family to believe that Kobayashi was not alone when she disappeared. They say that the diction in the lyrics indicates that they were written by someone else
She wrote: ‘Deep Hackers erased my identity, stole all my money and have had me on their minds since Friday.’
Another text read: ‘I was tricked into giving away all my money, followed by one text: ‘For someone I thought I loved.’
Pidgeon added: “We’re not sure if Hannah actually wrote the lyrics or if someone else did.”