The father of missing Maui woman Hannah Kobayashi has been found dead in Los Angeles as the desperate search for the 30-year-old continues.
Ryan Kobayashi, 58, was found dead in the early hours of Sunday in a parking lot near LAX airport, Los Angeles police said, NBC Los Angeles reported. It is believed he died by suicide.
Just a few days earlier, Ryan was handing out missing persons flyers to people on the streets of LA, saying he would do everything in his power to find his daughter.
“She is an amazing person who brings joy to so many people,” he told reporters at the time.
Ryan had traveled to LA to assist in the search for his daughter, who had been missing since November 8 when she stopped over at Los Angeles International Airport on her way from Hawaii to New York City.
Hannah was supposed to meet her aunt Geordan Montalvo and her aunt Bob's husband in New York and they all had tickets to a concert on November 12th together. The holiday was described as a bucket list trip.
Hannah's father Ryan Kobayashi was found dead in a parking lot near LAX, police said (Fox News)
But the 30-year-old missed her connecting flight at LAX on November 8.
The next day, she was spotted at a bookstore in The Grove, a popular open-air mall in LA. A day later, she was spotted at a LeBron James event.
On November 11, she was captured on surveillance video at a subway stop in downtown Los Angeles with a person unknown to her family.
Hannah Kobayashi, 30, disappeared while traveling from Hawaii to New York City (Sydni Kobayashi/Facebook)
Larie Pidgeon, Hannah's aunt, told KTLA 5 that her niece did not look well. “She's not safe, and she's not alone,” she said.
Her family previously told this to the newspaper Daily mail that police waited ten days after Hannah went missing to contact them, condemning the slow investigation.
Before disappearing, Hannah had sent cryptic texts to a friend saying she had “given away pretty much all my money” to “someone I thought I loved.”
Her sister, Sydni Kobayashi, described the lyrics as “really weird.” Hannah added that she was scared and couldn't come home.
Hannah Kobayashi in LAX Airport security footage (Facebook)
Then suddenly the texts stopped.
Hannah is 6 feet tall and weighs about 140 pounds. She has brown hair and eyes, and fair skin with freckles.
The search for Hannah continues.
If you live in the US and you or someone you know needs mental health care right now, call or text 988, or visit 988lifeline.org to access online chat from the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. This is a free, confidential crisis line that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you are in another country, you can go there www.befrienders.org to find a helpline near you.
