The Los Angeles Police Department announced Monday the case of Hannah Kobayashi, the woman from Hawaii who vanished last month after landing at LAX, is now a voluntary missing person case, explaining its investigators have video evidence of Kobayashi crossing the border into Mexico on foot.
Law enforcement sources had confirmed to NBC Los Angeles that Kobayashi was believed to be in Mexico, and there was no evidence of foul play in her disappearance.
"We reviewed video surveillance from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which clearly shows Kobayashi crossing the United States border on foot into Mexico. She was alone with her luggage and appeared unharmed," LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said during a news conference Monday.
The LAPD officials also confirmed Kobayashi walked through the tunnel at the San Ysidro Port of Entry alone.
"She's an adult and she can choose to be missing," one senior law enforcement official told NBCLA, and added that detectives still hoped Kobayashi would get in touch with authorities so they could confirm she's safe and traveling of her own free will.
The LAPD officials explained border security video showed Kobayashi leaving the United States near Tijuana on Tuesday, Nov. 12 at around 12:13 p.m., a day or so after members of her family said they had last heard from her via text message.
There have been no confirmed communications with her since then, and authorities said they suspect Kobayashi may have left her cellphone somewhere in Los Angeles.
Chief McDonnell added Kobayashi is not a suspect in any criminal activity.
"To date, the investigation has not uncovered any evidence that Kobayashi is being trafficked or is the victim of foul play," the LAPD chief said.
It's not clear why Kobayashi back out of her initial plans to visit New York and decide to cut off contact with some friends and family, but McDonnell said the 30-year-old had previously expressed her desire to "step away from modern connectivity."
Law enforcement sources also told NBC Los Angeles' Investigative Reporter Eric Leonard that this is not the first time Kobayashi has gone missing as there have been other incidents previously. The sources did not elaborate on when or where those occurred.
Last week, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell repeated publicly the department's initial findings in its search for Kobayashi, 30, that it appeared she chose to remain in Los Angeles on Nov. 8 after her flight from Hawaii landed at LAX, and she failed to board the flight for the next leg of her planned trip to New York.
"Which, the investigation determined was intentional," McDonnell told the Board of Police Commissioners.
McDonnell misreported that Kobayashi is 23 years old, rather than 30, and members of Kobayashi's family, who had been posting updates on a Facebook page, complainted they were not contacted by the LAPD prior to McDonnell's statement.
The Facebook page that was focused on the search efforts was taken down.
On Sunday, Nov. 24, police said they found Kobayashi's father, Ryan, dead by suicide near LAX, after he had traveled to Los Angeles from Hawaii to assist in the search efforts.
Ryan Kobayashi was 58 and died as the result of multiple blunt force traumatic injuries, according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner.
Hannah Kobayashi's family said it last had contact with her around Sunday, Nov. 10 when she said she had returned to LAX to try to get on another flight to New York, and family members characterized some of the text messages as, 'strange,' before losing contact.
“Messages saying she did not feel safe, she was worried about people stealing her money, it was after that those strange messages she went dark,” Kobayashi's aunt Laire Pidgeon told NBCLA on Nov. 19.
While in LA over the weekend, police traced some of her movements and said she had visited the Grove shopping center.
Kobayashi's family members said they had seen security video that appeared to show her at a Metro train station near Crypto.com Arena, and said at the time, "it is evident that Hannah does not appear to be in good condition and she is not alone."
