LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Hawaii woman who disappeared after landing in Los Angeles was seen crossing into Mexico alone with her luggage and is not considered missing, police said Monday.
Around noon on Nov. 12, Hannah Kobayashi, 30, walked into the tunnel leading to Mexico, officials said, adding that there is no evidence she is being trafficked or the victim of foul play. Police say the case is now classified as a ‘voluntary missing person’ case.
“We basically did everything we could do at the moment. She has left the country and is now in another country,” said Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell
Kobayashi went missing after the aspiring Maui photographer missed a connecting flight to New York on Nov. 8 to travel for a new job and visit family. She told her family that she would sleep at Los Angeles International Airport that night.
According to her aunt Larie Pidgeon, relatives assumed she was on standby for another flight. The next day, Hannah texted them to say she was sightseeing in Los Angeles and planned to visit The Grove mall and downtown LA, Pidgeon said.
On Nov. 11, the family received “strange and cryptic, downright alarming” text messages from her phone saying she had been “intercepted” while boarding a subway car and was afraid someone would steal her identity, her aunt said.
Her father, Ryan Kobayashi, who joined the search party with volunteers, was found dead Sunday in a parking lot near LA International Airport in an apparent suicide, police and her family said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection surveillance video reviewed late Sunday by Los Angeles police showed her crossing the U.S.-Mexico border on foot. McDonnell said she appeared unharmed.
“My question would be for anyone considering doing this, think about the people you’re leaving behind, your loved ones who are going to be worried about you,” McDonnell said. “The number of people, including law enforcement and other partners, who come looking for you, potentially taking them away from other work that is also critical.”