Hannah Kobayashi surveillance video ‘alarmed’ family: Aunt

(NewsNation) — Larie Pidgeon, the aunt of missing Hawaiian woman Hannah Kobayashi, tells “Banfield” that the entire family is playing the “waiting game,” as police have started taking her disappearance more seriously.

Kobayashi was headed from Hawaii to New York but ultimately missed her connecting flight in Los Angeles on Nov. 8.

She was spotted, alongside an unidentified person, on unreleased surveillance footage in downtown LA near a Metro stop about a block away from the Crypto.com Arena. That’s the same venue where family, friends and supporters gathered Thursday to rally for her return.

It’s also a two-minute walk from the Pico Metro Station, a place Pidgeon says Kobayashi had “no reason” to visit late at night “unless she was misled, unless she was forced to or, unfortunately, now we’re thinking, unless she was drugged.”

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That video sparked panic in the family.

“We don’t want to hinder the investigation … but what we can tell you is that it made us extremely alarmed, to the point where we started sounding the alarm … as loud as we could,” Pidgeon said.

Kobayashi’s radio silence for more than 10 days has loved ones concerned, especially when paired with the concerning content of some of her last messages.

One said: “I got hacked, stripped of my identity, I can’t fly.”

Another reads: “I got tricked pretty much into giving away my funds for someone I thought I loved. I’ve been on the streets.”

Other sightings of Kobayashi include one at the Grove Shopping Center, where Kobayashi posted to Instagram from a Nov. 10 Nike event. In a video obtained by the family, she’s seen strolling through the event that day wearing headphones.

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Pidgeon told NewsNation that Kobayashi’s phone has been off since Nov. 11, an unusual occurrence for the woman.

“No one has heard from her. Not a single person has heard from her. And that is unlike Hannah. Hannah checks in,” Pidgeon explained.

“I speak to her two to three times a week. You know, about music, about dancing, you know, a sunset that she saw. You know, she’s just that person. She’s so communicative,” Pidgeon added.

According to the Los Angeles Police Department’s Missing Persons Unit, Kobayashi is 5 feet, 10 inches tall, and weighs about 140 pounds. She has brown hair and eyes, and fair skin with freckles, as well as a tattoo that says “knife” on her forearm.

NewsNation’s Nancy Loo contributed to this report.

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