Hannah Kobayashi disappeared from LAX after missing her flight. Then came a series of strange text messages

Hannah Kobayashi wasn't supposed to end up in Los Angeles.

The 31-year-old from Hawaii was just passing through New York City.

But she didn't make the connecting flight at LAX and never arrived at her intended destination.

In the days after she missed her flight on November 8, cryptic and alarming messages were sent from her phone.

She was spotted on CCTV footage in at least two locations around Los Angeles, once reportedly in the company of a stranger.

Then things got even darker.

The LAPD said the investigation into Hannah Kobayashi's disappearance remains “active and open.” (Delivered: LAPD)

Ms. Kobayashi's father, who had traveled to Los Angeles to look for her, was found dead in a parking lot near the airport.

Ryan Kobayashi's death in the early hours of last Sunday morning was ruled a suicide by the Los Angeles County coroner.

Ms. Kobayashi's aunt, Larie Pidgeon, said Mr. Kobayashi “gave it his all.”

She said the 58-year-old did “everything in his power” to find his daughter.

“Nobody can understand it unless their daughter has gone missing and they're searching Skid Row and seeing the possibilities of what could happen to her,” Ms Pidgeon told the ABC.

“He died of a broken heart.”

Ms. Kobayashi has become the subject of a Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) missing person case that has drawn the attention of online detectives and fueled conspiracy theories.

The missed flight

In Los Angeles it was always a close connection.

According to her family, Ms. Kobayashi only had about 40 minutes to fly to New York City after landing on the Hawaiian island of Maui.

Such fast processing times are not uncommon at US airports.

She traveled to New York to meet a relative, do some sightseeing and hear her favorite DJ.

Hannah Kobayashi was caught on camera exiting her flight from Maui to LAX. (Delivered: Attorney General of California)

A photo released by the California attorney general's office showed Ms. Kobayashi getting off the Maui flight but never boarding the next one.

The next sign of life came the next day from The Grove shopping center in Los Angeles.

Her aunt, Larie Pidgeon, said she had been charging her phone at a store there and appeared to be in good spirits, according to people who remembered her.

“She was in great condition,” Ms. Pidgeon said.

“Everyone who saw her said she was in good health and mental state.”

Ms. Kobayashi also appeared briefly in a video recorded at The Grove, which was posted to YouTube the following day and from where it was also apparently posted to her Instagram account.

Then the strange texts started.

“I was pretty much tricked into giving away all of my money,” her family said, writing to a friend and suggesting she had been deceived by “someone I thought I loved.”

“Deep hackers deleted my identity, stole all my money and have had me on their minds since Friday,” another text reads.

Ms Pidgeon said: “It was all very strange and out of character.”

Ms. Kobayashi was officially reported missing on November 13th.

LAPD spokesman David Cuellar said the investigation into her disappearance was “active and open.”

The spokesman said the department worked with partners across the city, including the FBI.

One last sighting with a stranger

The LAPD would not confirm that CCTV footage showed Ms. Kobayashi at a downtown subway station on Nov. 11.

Her family said police were investigating the footage, which showed her in the company of an unknown man.

They said they were not at liberty to comment in detail about the video but called it “alarming.”

“It made us scream even louder to the world that Hannah doesn't know anyone in LA, has never been to LA, and is getting on a train late at night with someone she doesn't know,” Ms Pidgeon told the ABC.

The reported sighting at the Pico subway station occurred after Ms. Kobayashi apparently returned to the airport with the intention of getting to New York.

“I have just had a very intense spiritual awakening. I'm heading back to the airport to get to NYC. I may need help getting there,” reads a text message from her phone.

Friends, family and supporters have been trying to find Hannah Kobayashi. (AP: Damian Dovarganes)

Ms. Pidgeon said Ms. Kobayashi returned to the airport and tried to rebook her ticket.

She won't or can't say why that didn't happen, but said her niece spoke to an airline agent for 40 minutes.

It is known that Ms. Kobayashi's phone was last active on November 11th.

Since then nothing has been heard from the aspiring photographer.

“It's very strange that she's just not on the radar,” said Sharie Finn, who works for the RAD Movement, which supports families with missing person cases.

“It’s not like the movies when the lights and sirens go on when someone goes missing.”

A team from the RAD movement works in downtown LA, near the Pico subway, handing out leaflets and talking to people to get more information about Hannah's movements.

RAD supported Ms. Kobayashi's sister and mother, who traveled to Los Angeles.

They worked closely with Ryan Kobayashi in his two-week search for his daughter.

That ended with his apparent suicide last weekend.

The father's search ends in tragedy

On a fundraising page, Ms. Kobayashi's sister Sydni wrote that her father “tragically passed away during the search for Hannah.”

She said the family now faces funeral costs and the cost of funding the search.

Hannah Kobayashi's sister Sydni is trying to raise money to help with the search. (Provided: gofundme)

The sudden death of Ryan Kobayashi has further fueled conspiracy theories about what happened to Ms. Kobayashi.

Posts on a Reddit subgroup speculated whether she intentionally missed her flight to spend time in LA, whether she was a victim of domestic violence, and whether she planned to disappear.

There was also heated debate about two mysterious payments she reportedly made to a man and a woman via an app after the missed flight.

RAD's Ms. Finn has little time for all the theories, including speculation about the father-daughter relationship or the young woman's possible ties to a cult.

“I don't think she's missing of her own accord,” Ms Finn told the ABC.

“I don’t think she willingly puts her family through this.

“We don’t deal with the negative and conspiracy theorists.

“We're realists, we don't go down those dark paths… that's not helpful.”

“I have yet to receive a credible tip from Reddit.”

A family suffers from two crises

One working theory is that Ms. Kobayashi suffered some sort of mental illness. However, her aunt said she didn't believe that was the case.

Ms Pidgeon said people who saw her niece at the mall the day after she missed her flight said they saw no signs of it.

“She did not resemble in any way, shape or character a person who was having a psychotic break,” Ms Pidgeon said.

Ms Pidgeon also said the footage from the subway station convinced her “that this was disgraceful, that something bad had happened”.

Her family said they were worried she had been kidnapped.

As conspiracies make the rounds online, her aunt tearfully appeals to people to remember the family at the center of the crisis, who she says now have “two losses” following the death of Ms. Kobayashi's father suffers”.

“We are people, we are real people,” Ms. Pidgeon said.

“All the speculation and all these things that people are saying, please stop it.”

“Please, please be kind.”