Hannah Kobayashi's sister rejects 'voluntary missing person' conclusion

The sister of missing Maui woman Hannah Kobayashi says she isn’t satisfied with the police decision this week to declare Kobayashi a “voluntary missing person” after she was spotted on surveillance cameras crossing into Mexico.

Speaking to NBC News on Tuesday, Sydni Kobayashi said authorities have declined to show her family the video footage that was confirmed by Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell this week.

“We’re just as confused and just as frustrated more than anything now,” Sydni told the news outlet.

The family’s lawyer, appearing alongside Sydni for the interview, agreed.

“They just reached this conclusion … without showing (the family) any footage,” Sara Azari said, questioning how police came to the conclusion that Kobayashi didn’t seem to be in danger or the victim of a crime.

“It takes a lot more digging and investigation to be able to say it’s voluntary.”

Sydni told NBC that she fears her sister might be a victim of human trafficking, theorizing that just because she appears to be on her own, doesn’t mean someone’s not controlling her from afar.

Meanwhile, the department has defended their decision not to release the footage.

“The investigators noted that before departing Maui, Kobayashi expressed a desire to step away from modern connectivity,” they wrote in a statement.

“The LAPD remains mindful of privacy concerns while ensuring all investigative actions are conducted within the bounds of legal and ethical standards,” they added.

On Monday, McDonnell told reporters that Kobayashi, 30, crossed the border on foot through a pedestrian tunnel at the San Ysidro point of entry on Nov. 12, just four days after she flew from Hawaii to the mainland U.S.

He said because they do not believe she is in danger, the will suspend the search operation on their end.

“She has a right to her privacy and we respect her choices, but we also understand the concern her loved ones feel for her,” McDonnell told reporters, while urging Kobayashi to make contact with her worried family. “A simple message could reassure those who care about her.”

McDonnell added that if she returns to the U.S., law enforcement will be notified.

Kobayashi flew out of Maui on Nov. 8, destined for upstate New York. She never boarded her connecting flight from Los Angeles International Airport to John F. Kennedy International Airport that same day.

She told her family she would sleep in the airport that night.

Over the next couple of days she was spotted at a high-end shopping mall in L.A. twice, and sent a number of mysterious and alarming texts to family and friends. In those texts she said she believed someone might be trying to steal her identity and money and that she did not feel safe.

On Nov. 12, Kobayashi’s family filed a missing person report — not knowing she was crossing into Mexico that day.

On Nov. 25, a heartbreaking layer was added to the mystery, when Kobayashi’s father, Ryan Kobayashi, was found dead outside a business near LAX.

The Los Angeles County medical examiner’s office determined he died by suicide. He had travelled to California 13 days earlier to search for this daughter and Kobayashi’s aunt, Larie Pidgeon, said she believed he “died of a broken heart.”

“Being on the streets and seeing what the possibilities of where his daughter could be. No sleep. The speculating rumours that are going around. It just took a toll on him,” she said at the time.

© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.