Friends of missing Hawaiian woman Hannah Kobayashi believe the latest series of text messages relatives and friends received from the photographer’s cell phone are suspicious and “didn’t look like her.”
“I had text messages with her and the messages in those screenshots do not look like her,” Ariana Ursua, 30, a Hawaii-based freelancer, told The Post. She met Kobayashi in 2017 at Whole Foods where she was working in Maui.
“All the texts I have with her have emojis in them. She has a very distinct way of messaging,” Ursua said, noting that Kobayashi typically ends messages with heart emojis, stars, butterflies, waves, rainbows and the like.
She also said that while Kobayashi is a “true, free spirit,” he is not someone who just casually disappears.
“Personally, I have always felt that I can rely on her; she is truly one of the most caring people I know. If it was voluntary [that she went missing] she would have announced it. She would have let her know that she was texting,” says Ursua, who says she last spoke to her friend on October 17.
“I don’t feel like she’s the one to make people concerned. She wouldn’t just appear out of nowhere. Usually at parties, she is the one who makes sure to say goodbye to her friend,” she added.
“She literally messaged me about Burning Man 2025 next year. She literally posted about New York in October when she went in November. She loved to dream and make those dreams come true.”
Kobayashi flew from Maui to Los Angeles on November 8 and was scheduled to depart 42 minutes later on a connecting flight to New York City, where she planned to visit her aunt.
She and her ex-boyfriend were booked on the same flights, but were expected to break up once they arrived in New York. Kobayashi’s sister, Sydni Kobayashi, told CNN last week.
But Kobayashi never made the second flight.
On November 9, Kobayashi was next seen at a bookstore an hour’s drive from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).
LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said the investigation determined that missing her connecting flight was “intentional.” The Sun reports this.
On November 10, a YouTube video surfaced showing Kobayashi at the LeBron XXII Trial event at Nike’s store at The Grove in Los Angeles. Kobayashi shared a photo of the event on her Instagram.
On November 11, Kobayashi texted her mother to say she had not arrived in New York. Text messages sent from her phone to friends and family starting on November 11 have also surfaced.
“Deep Hackers erased my identity, stole all my money and have had me on their minds since Friday,” said a text message to a friend.
Another said: “I was so tricked into giving away all my money… to someone I thought I loved.”
Another read: ‘I’m just really scared, love and the redwoods when they call me and I know I’m meant to be there, I’m being led there, like you’ve done before…I’m risking my freedom if this is wrong for me.”
She also texted her aunt in New York, Pidgeon, saying, “I just had a very intense spiritual awakening,” Pidgeon said.
The ex-boyfriend, who has not been officially named, has reportedly arrived in New York.
Kobayashi’s former roommate, Allisa Peterson, 29, who lived with her in Maui for three months in 2022, also told The Post she is suspicious of the text messages.
“What was most concerning was the use of the word ‘their’. She says such loving words, but her message felt quite cryptic,” said Peterson, who once ran a floral design company with Kobayashi and last spoke to her on October 5.
Since Hannah was last heard from on November 11, the internet has been speculating about her whereabouts, with some claiming she was brainwashed by a cult or blackmailed by African hackers.
Her father, Ryan Kobayashi, 58, died of an apparent suicide on Sunday, November 24, six days after his daughter was reported missing. Los Angeles County medical examiners confirmed Monday that he jumped from an LAX parking garage while searching for his missing daughter.
“It feels very strange 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.”
