Hannah Kobayashi, the Hawaii woman who launched a weekslong search after being reported missing in Los Angeles but then surfaced in Mexico, has spoken out following her return to the U.S. this week.
The 30-year-old, in a statement shared with multiplenewsoutlets, said that she’s “still processing it all” and was “unaware of everything that was happening in the media” during her mysterious, high-profile absence.
“I kindly ask for respect for myself, my family, and my loved ones as I navigate through this challenging time,” she said. “My focus now is on my healing, my peace and my creativity. I am deeply grateful to my family and everyone who has shown me kindness and compassion during this time.”
Kobayashi was reported missing by family days after she’d flown into LA on Nov. 8 while en route to New York City. Police said she missed a connecting flight and left Los Angeles International Airport with her luggage. Meanwhile, her loved ones said she sent them concerning text messages, suggesting that she could be in danger, before dropping all contact. Her father flew from Hawaii to California to help with the search efforts, and authorities said that he died by suicide at the LA airport after his body was discovered Nov. 24. In early December, police said that Kobayashi was now categorized as a “voluntary missing person” after surveillance footage showed her crossing the border into Mexico last month.
“I think it’s a challenging time for her, and she deserves kindness and compassion,” Doug Kari, her attorney, told HuffPost by phone Tuesday.
Kari said he personally accompanied Kobayashi back to the U.S. from Mexico early Sunday and called her “brave.”
“I felt honored that she chose me to accompany her on the journey back to and across the border,” he added.
Kari said he doesn’t know where she is now and declined to say exactly where they met up in Mexico, only describing it as physically “some distance from the border.”
“It’s not a place where I would want a high-profile missing person to be walking around,” he said. “Mexico can be, on one hand, seemingly safe and routine but things can turn quickly, especially if the wrong people catch wind of someone who’s high-profile and well sought after that’s in their midst. I’m glad that we were able to get out of there before anything bad happened.”
He also declined to comment on the record about what prompted her to travel to Mexico and fall out of contact. As for whether she’ll one day choose to speak about her experience publicly, he said he can’t say.
“From my perspective, I’m just glad to have her back across the border safely,” Kari said.
Last week, Kobayashi’s sister said in a statement that she and her mother had yet to physically connect with the 30-year-old but that they had spoken by phone.
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“She does not wish to return to us,” Sydni Kobayashi wrote in a Facebook message that was posted while her sister was still in Mexico.
“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. 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,” she added.