The family of Hannah Kobayashi is offering refunds to people who supported a GoFundMe following the Hawaii woman’s mysterious disappearance in Southern California.
After a massive search effort involving police and volunteers, Kobayashi was found safe on Wednesday. According to the Los Angeles Police Department, her case had by then been reclassified as a “voluntary missing person” case, after investigators spoke to a man who’d been seen with her in downtown Los Angeles, and after authorities obtained surveillance footage of her walking by herself across the border into Mexico.
The family’s fundraiser, which raised more than $45,000 on GoFundMe, stopped taking donations after Kobayashi was found. In a update on Facebook that day, her sister Sydni Kobayashi said the family has been “completely transparent and have not misled or taken advantage of anyone.” The family has kept receipts to ensure all funds went to the search efforts — and to their father’s funeral arrangements, after he died by suicide last month.
“As you can imagine, we are all extremely relieved and glad that my sister is alive and seemingly okay, but we also have mixed and overwhelming feelings of exhaustion, devastation, and betrayal,” Sydni Kobayashi wrote on Facebook. “We are kindly asking the public to respect our privacy and offer us grace for a moment as we are still grieving. There is still so much unknown, and so much that still needs to be navigated.”
On Nov. 8, Hannah Kobayashi landed at Los Angeles International Airport and was expected to catch a flight to New York City. She was reported missing on Nov. 11, and her aunt Larie Pidgeon said the family received “strange and cryptic” texts from her.
In her Facebook post on Wednesday, Sydni Kobayashi condemned Pidgeon for taking on the role of media contact for the family against her and her mother’s wishes. At times, her aunt gave her information “that turned out to be inaccurate or half-truths,” she wrote.
“There were many occasions when my mother and I requested that Larie respect our feelings and tone down her posts and interviews. Our priority was finding Hannah, not creating a media circus,” she wrote.
Investigators ultimately determined that Kobayashi walked into Mexico at the San Ysidro border crossing on Nov. 12, the day after her family reported her missing. Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said on Dec. 2 that police believe she crossed voluntarily.
Sydni Kobayashi said in her Facebook post that she and her mother still haven’t seen Hannah and only know that she’s somewhere in Mexico.
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“We have only spoken to her over the phone, and she was allegedly found safe with Larie, but at this time, she does not wish to return to us,” she wrote.
She thanked everyone who had supported the family after her sister’s disappearance and her father’s death, adding her family continues to face a difficult road with many unknowns.
“In due time, the truth will surface, and we will all get the answers we truly deserve,” she said. “I stand by the choices I’ve made for my family, and we know where our hearts lie in this. I would never wish this type of experience upon anyone, especially not back-to-back.”