5 days ago
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Friends of missing Hawaii woman Hannah Kobayashi think the final string of text messages that family members and friends received from the photographer’s cell phone are suspect and “didn’t sound like her.”
“I had text messages with her and the ones on those screenshots do not feel like her,” Ariana Ursua, 30, a Hawaii-based freelancer told The Post. She met Kobayashi in 2017 at the Whole Foods she worked at in Maui.
“All the texts I have with her — they have emojis. She has a very distinct way of messaging,” Ursua said, noting Kobayashi would typically end messages with heart emojis, stars, butterflies, waves, rainbows, and the like.
She also said that Kobayashi, while a “genuine, free spirit,” isn’t someone to just casually disappear.
“I personally have always felt like I can rely on her — she’s genuinely one of the most caring people I know. If it was voluntarily [that she went missing] she would have made it known. She would have made it known that she was texting,” said Ursua, who said she last spoke with her friend on October 17.
“I don’t feel like it’s her to make people concerned. She wouldn’t just ghost out of nowhere. Usually at parties she’s the one that will make sure she says bye to her friend,” she added.
“She was literally messaging me about Burning Man 2025 next year. She was literally posting about New York in October when she was going in November. She loved dreaming and making those dreams happen.”
Kobayashi flew from Maui to Los Angeles on Nov. 8 and was slated to depart on a connecting flight to New York City, where she planned to visit her aunt, 42 minutes later.
She and her ex-boyfriend were booked on the same flights, but were expected to part ways once they arrived to New York, Kobayashi’s sister, Sydni Kobayashi, told CNN last week.
But Kobayashi never made the second flight.
On Nov. 9, Kobayashi was then seen at a bookshop an hour away from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).
LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said the investigation determined missing her connecting flight was “intentional,” The Sun reported.
On Nov. 10, a YouTube video surfaced showing Kobayashi at the LeBron XXII Trial event at the Nike store in The Grove in Los Angeles. Kobayashi shared an image of the event on her Instagram.
On Nov. 11, Kobayashi texted her mother, saying she had not arrived in New York. Texts messages from Nov. 11 sent from her phone to friends and family have also surfaced.
“Deep Hackers wiped my identity, stole all of my funds, & have had me on a mind f—k since Friday,” one text message to a friend said.
An other one said, “I got tricked pretty much into giving away all my funds … For someone I thought I loved.”
Another read, “I’m just really scared love & the redwoods if calling me & I know I’m meant to be there, I’m being guided there, like you have before … I risk my freedom if this goes wrong for me hun.”
She also sent her aunt in New York, Pidgeon, a text saying, “I just finished a very intense spiritual awakening,” Pidgeon said.
The ex-boyfriend, who has not been officially named, reportedly made it to New York.
Kobayashi’s former roommate, Allisa Peterson, 29, who lived with her for three months in 2022 in Maui, also told The Post that she’s suspicious of the text messages.
“What was most concerning was the use of the word ‘hun.’ She does say loving words like that, but it felt kind of cryptic her message,” said Peterson, who once ran a floral design business with Kobayashi and last spoke to her on October, 5.
Since Hannah was heard from last on Nov. 11, the internet has been speculating over her whereabouts, with some alleging she was brainwashed by a cult or blackmailed by African hackers.
Her father, Ryan Kobayashi, 58, died of an apparent suicide on Sunday Nov. 24, six days after his daughter was reported missing. The Los Angeles County medical examiners confirmed Monday that he jumped from a LAX parking garage on while looking for his missing daughter.
“It feels really weird how cryptic [the messages are] considering how not cryptic Hannah is. At least the Hannah I know,” Ursua said. “I pray she’s still alive.”
