Hannah Kobayashi missing Hawaii woman’s father, Ryan Kobayashi jumps to his suicide death near LAX amid despair as the Maui daughter continues to remain unaccounted for amid cryptic texts and now fears she may be held against her will.
The father of the missing Hawaii woman who vanished while heading to New York City for a vacation earlier this month was found dead near LAX early Sunday morning in an apparent suicide.
Ryan Kobayashi, 58, was in Los Angeles to search for his 30-year-old daughter, Hannah Kobayashi, after she missed a connecting flight to New York from Los Angeles International Airport over two weeks ago and continues to remain unaccounted for.
‘I miss her, I just want her to reach out…’
Police confirmed that Kobayashi died after he jumped off the 7th floor of a parking garage near LAX sometime around 4 a.m. on Sunday, according to NBC Los Angeles.
A nonprofit assisting in the search for Hannah provided a statement on behalf of the family.
‘The Kobayashi family endured a devastating tragedy today,’ wrote the RAD Movement.
‘After tirelessly searching throughout Los Angeles for 13 days, Hannah’s father, Ryan Kobayashi, tragically took his own life. This loss has compounded the family’s suffering immeasurably.’
They asked for privacy so the family members could grieve and urged the public to maintain focus on the search for Hannah in the face of the tragic news about her father.
On Monday, Kobayashi spoke with KTLA while in California, hoping to reach his daughter.
‘I miss her,’ he told the outlet. ‘Just want her to know that, and just want her to reach out – anything.’
Cryptic messages, but were they from missing Maui, Hawaii woman?
‘We’re just hoping that she is safe and healthy and alive,’ Ryan said in another interview earlier this month. ‘And if anybody knows anything we’d just really appreciate any kind of help.’
Added the father, ‘we will find you, we will find you Hannah and bring you home.’
Hannah flew from Maui to Los Angeles on Nov. 8, where she was supposed to make a connecting flight to NYC, to visit her aunt.
However, she missed that flight 42 minutes later, with surveillance footage showing she had landed at LAX. She spent the weekend in Los Angeles waiting for another flight.
But suddenly things went awry.
Hannah began sending ‘odd texts’ to her family and friends, including messaging a friend that she ‘got tricked into pretty much giving away all my funds.’
In another message, she claimed she was supposedly fooled by ‘someone I thought I loved.’
‘Deep Hackers wiped my identity, stole all of my funds, & have had me on a mind f–k since Friday,’ another message read.
She was meant to fly out that weekend to NYC but never made it as family fear new scenario
The family previously said the texts were not like Hannah and questioned whether she had actually sent them.
‘She mentioned feeling scared, and that someone might be trying to steal her money and identity,’ her aunt, Larie Pidgeon, said.
‘Strange, cryptic messages – things about the matrix, it was so unlike her. And then all of a sudden, no more communication.’
Captured surveillance footage showed Kobayashi at the Grove shopping center in the Fairfax District of LA on Nov. 9 and Nov. 10, as well as video of her returning to LAX on November 11 but not getting on a flight before she was seen near the metro station, USA Today reported.
The unaccounted for woman’s phone has been off since Nov. 11, the family said.
‘We don’t know where to begin, it’s like looking for a grain of salt in the ocean. It could be anything possible,’ Hannah’s ‘desperate’ father previously told NBC4.
Hannah’s family filed a police report with the LAPD, LAX authorities, and the FBI.
‘Hannah, we love you. We are all here. Your mom’s here, your sister’s here, your father’s here. The entire world is looking for you,’ Pidgeon told reporters last week.
Adding, ‘If someone has Hannah, I want you to know that she is the kindest, most beautiful soul in the entire world. And please don’t hurt her.”
‘Please just give us back to her. No questions asked. Just don’t hurt her. Please.’
Hannah Kobayashi is 5 feet 10 inches tall and about 140 pounds. She has brown hair and brown eyes and is fair-skinned with freckles.
