Family in Maui searching for missing woman’s safe return
Maui family members say Los Angeles police have new leads in the search for their daughter Hannah Kobayashi even after the search took a tragic turn Sunday with the death of her father.
“There are new sightings of her. The police are following really, really credible leads,” said Larie Pidgeon, a relative.
Kobayashi, 30, was on her way to New York on Nov. 8 when she missed her connecting flight at Los Angeles International Airport.
She is 5 feet, 10 inches tall, 140 pounds and has freckles and an infectious smile. Pigeon said on Hannah’s wrist is a tattoo with a dagger through a heart. She also has a tattoo along her left shoulder.
Pidgeon said family members are hopeful the new leads will result in her return, and they have pushed on in the search after her father, Ryan Kobayashi, died by suicide on Sunday.
Ryan Kobayashi’s death followed 13 days of searching throughout Los Angeles. His body was found on the 6100 block of Century Boulevard. A GoFundMe has been established to help Ryan Kobayashi’s fiancee.
On Tuesday, Pidgeon said the search is widening and the family remains hopeful they will find Hannah because “that’s what Ryan would have wanted.”
One of the last sightings of Hannah was Nov. 8 on a security camera at the Los Angeles International Airport. On Nov. 9, a short YouTube video captured Kobayashi outside an event in Los Angeles. The family also received a telephone call from her that day.
Her family said new footage shows Kobayashi in downtown Los Angeles on Nov. 11 but that video has not been publicly released.
The family said Hannah left the airport on Nov. 11 in the evening and boarded the Metro. Hannah also posted on her public Instagram account about attending a Nike event at the Grove.
The family has been posting posters of her in Los Angeles and the posters have been circulated in social media.
Anyone with information about Hannah is asked to call the toll-free hotline 1-800-222-3463.