Surprising surveillance footage reveals Hannah Kobayashi shopping for a bus ticket to the southern border the day earlier than police stated she crossed over via a tunnel into Mexico.
The footage reveals Kobayashi carrying a sweatsuit and buying a ticket with money at LA Union Station on Nov. 11, based on a nonetheless obtained by Fox 11 Los Angeles. She additionally seems to have her passport and baggage along with her on the ticket counter.
Kobayashi is believed to have then reached the San Ysidro border crossing on Nov. 12, the place she entered Mexico, Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell stated throughout a press convention Monday.
The picture comes because the aspiring photographer’s disappearance took a curious flip after the Los Angeles police declared the 30-year-old a “voluntary missing person” and stated she willfully crossed into Mexico to “step away from modern connectivity.”
McDonnell stated investigators reviewed varied surveillance footage and interviewed a number of witnesses, who confirmed Kobayashi’s actions from when she landed within the Golden State on Nov. 8 to when she was final seen crossing into Mexico on Nov. 12.
“We’ve basically done everything we can do at this point,” McDonnell stated, citing US Customs and Border Safety surveillance footage displaying Kobayashi crossing the border Nov. 12.
“She’s left the country and in another nation now.”
McDonnell stated that the LAPD’s investigation wouldn’t proceed into Mexico however urged the general public to come back ahead with any credible details about her whereabouts.
Kobayashi went lacking on Nov. 8 after catching a flight from Hawaii to Los Angeles, with a connecting flight that may finally take her to New York, the place she deliberate to go to family members.
After she landed at LAX, she despatched cryptic textual content messages to associates shortly earlier than her disappearance, together with one saying she’d had a “very intense spiritual awakening” and one other claiming “deep hackers wiped my identity, stole all my funds.”
Nevertheless, McDonnell stated investigators discovered “video evidence clearly shows Hannah at LAX, appearing unharmed after arriving from Maui on Nov. 8 of this year.”
“For unknown reasons, she decided not to board her prescheduled flight to New York,” he stated.
McDonnell revealed that his division’s investigation discovered no proof that Kobayashi was being trafficked or concerned in any felony exercise.
“She has a right to her privacy,” McDonnell continued. “And we respect her choices. But we also understand the concern her loved ones feel for her. A simple message could reassure those who care about her.”
Lt. Douglas Oldfield, who works within the division’s Lacking Individuals Unit, stated Kobayashi’s social media exercise additionally led them to imagine she “wanted to disconnect” from the fashionable world.
“By looking at her past social media, we then saw indications that there were some desires or posts that would be consistent in somebody who would have the desire to disconnect from their phone,” Oldfield stated on the press convention.
Oldfield additionally shared that the video confirmed her in San Ysidro and getting into Mexico via the border crossing tunnel in Baja California.
Baja is a vacationer vacation spot for surfers, solo vacationers, and psychedelic retreats, however has been a gateway for organized crime, violence, medication, kidnappings, and murders, significantly in Tijuana, the most important border metropolis in Mexico which Kobayashi crossed into.
Nevertheless, Kobayashi’s household insisted the search is “far from over” regardless of the declaration that she was thought of voluntarily lacking on Tuesday.
“We are deeply grateful for the urgency and dedication law enforcement has shown in investigating Hannah’s disappearance,” the household stated in an announcement.
“Our family remains hopeful that Hannah is safe, and urges everyone to continue the search.”
Her household believes that the seek for their liked one is “far from over,” and they’re “committed to doing everything possible to bring her home safely.”
Kobayashi’s household has been grappling with one other tragedy together with the 30-year-old’s disappearance.
Her father, Ryan Kobayashi, was amongst a number of relations who traveled to Los Angeles to assist with the search.
He was discovered useless in a parking zone close to LAX on Nov. 24, with officers ruling the loss of life a suicide.
In case you or somebody you recognize is affected by any of the problems raised on this story, name the Nationwide Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) or textual content Disaster Textual content Line at 741741.
