Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - EERIE TWIST: HAWAII BEAUTY DISAPPEARS BETWEEN FLIGHTS AT LAX, WHERE’S HANNAH?

Starting point is 00:00:00 You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Breaking news tonight, an eerie twist emerging in the case of a Hawaiian beauty who disappears between flights at LAX, LA Airport. Where is Hannah? Good evening, I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us.

Starting point is 00:00:30 Pictures show Hannah Kobayashi arriving in a black hoodie with colorful sweatpants while wearing a pair of headphones as she walks through LAX. Her ex-boyfriend makes it to the connecting flight to JFK in New York, but Hannah does not. There isn't a lot of time between landing from Hawaii and catching the connecting flight to JFK, just over 60 minutes, and some believe she simply missed the connecting flight and will take the next available flight on Saturday. Her suitcase is

Starting point is 00:00:53 on the plane to JFK. None of this is making sense. Now, we all saw the famous movie Terminal, all right, with Tom Hanks in it, about someone that ends up living in an airport. Okay, that's not real. This is. Joining me, an all-star panel to make sense of what we know right now, but first to Alexis Tereszczuk, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. Alexis, thank you for being with us. Let's just take it very slowly. Tell me about Hannah's bucket list. I understand that she was coming from Hawaii, layover in LA, brief layover, and she was headed to a photo assignment in New York and that she took that assignment because going to New York City was on her bucket list. What else can you tell me? She has, she lives in Hawaii. She is, has a beautiful array of her work on her Instagram. So she is a photographer. She got this

Starting point is 00:02:01 job in New York. Yes, that is part of her bucket list. She wants to travel the world and she wants to show off her beautiful photography. So she lands in Los Angeles on Friday, November 8th. This is about, she has a connection at 11 PM. She misses it. But the thing was she was traveling with a friend, an ex-boyfriend. They were going to go together to New York, even though they were broken up. They were traveling together. Whoa, whoa, wait. Antenna going up. Did I hear BF boyfriend? Did I hear those words? Yes, actually ex-boyfriend. Okay. Stop right there. Stop right there. Stop, stop, stop, and stop. I'm trying to make sense of what I'm hearing because we all know, let me go straight out to

Starting point is 00:02:46 Gregory Morse, a high profile lawyer at King and Morse, author of The Untested on Amazon. Greg, now I'm sure all your clients are innocent, but that said, the first place you look when anybody goes missing is husband, boyfriend, ex, lover. Would you agree with that? That's right. I do agree. And I agree that everyone that King Morse represents is likely innocent. And I do agree that the police and any family member looking would go right to the last person

Starting point is 00:03:19 that saw Hannah alive before those in text, which would be the ex-boyfriend. It's strange that they were traveling together, even though they're apparently ex-boyfriend and girlfriend. Yeah, you know, throwing in the word ex-Alexis Tereschuk means nothing. And Greg brought it up, too. To Scott Eicher joining us, who has worked many, many missing persons cases. Founding member of the FBI's cellular analysis team, CAST. That's impressive. Scott, aside from your expertise in cellular cell phone and digital analysis, let me talk to you about missing people. The fact that the boyfriend is an ex, that means nothing to me.

Starting point is 00:04:04 Because no offense, you are a man. Men only become enraged when the woman breaks up. That makes someone that has violence just beneath the surface boil over. So the fact that it's an ex means nothing. An ex that decided to travel with her on this trip. I totally agree. Ex means nothing. It's still a romantic liaison. I totally

Starting point is 00:04:26 agree. I mean, they've had a past. We don't know what the future is in that relationship. And it's always someone that you have to start looking initially is the last person that saw her. Ex-boyfriend was on the flight with her. You know, that's one thing, Alexis Tereschuk, that's the last thing I would want to break up with a man. And then there he is sitting beside me on a five hour flight or however long it is from Hawaii to LA, like right there, you break up with him and there he is. But correct me if I'm wrong, but he made his connecting flight, didn't he? Which separates them. He did.

Starting point is 00:05:06 He went on to New York. They only had about an hour layover in Los Angeles. He got onto the next plane. She did not. Okay. You joining us from LA, Alexis, if you could just describe the LA airport. And you know, there's that stretch, Alexis, which is underground. It's a long, I mean, you can't even see the end of it.

Starting point is 00:05:29 When you're getting off one plane and you're going elsewhere, you have to go in a long underground tunnel where you lose cell reception very often. You know that spot in LAX? So LAX is a madhouse. It's crazy. And it's seven terminals. And it's not like the Atlanta airport where you have that train that moves you from terminal to terminal. You have to walk everywhere in Los Angeles. So you walk underground from terminal to terminal. And it's like a huge U-shape. So to go from terminal to terminal can take quite a long time if you're walking it. It's just a gigantic airport. And when you're trying to make a connection in one hour,

Starting point is 00:06:10 your flight lands, then your next flight takes off in one hour. That's almost impossible in LAX. Okay. Back to you, Scott Eicher, founding member, FBI cellular analysis survey team and expert in missing people. Do you believe the fact that the boyfriend actually catches his connecting flight excludes him? Because apparently police do. That takes a little bit more of investigative work. You don't know what happened prior to the flight, if he was involved in maybe drugging her or something simple like that. She got off the plane, went to, you know, disappeared after that. He made it further on to the connecting flight.

Starting point is 00:06:58 What happened in between that 40 minutes? Okay, let me think about what Scott Eicher just said. Joining me is Irv Brandt. In addition to Alexis Tereschuk, Scott Eicher and Gregory Morse, Irv, former senior inspector, U.S. Marshal Service, International Investigations Branch, author of a series of books on Amazon about Jack Solo, the first being Solo shot, Curse of the Blue Stone. Okay, hold on, Irv. Do you remember when you and I investigated Caitlin Armstrong, the so-called glam yoga instructor? Number one, she killed Mariah, a beautiful young world-class dirt bike rider who happened to be in town for a race.

Starting point is 00:07:47 There's Caitlin at the airport. And I believe that that is, let's see, it's not LaGuardia. It's not JFK. That's got to be the airport. That's got to be Newark. It's Liberty International in Newark. Aha. Yes. in Newark. Uh-huh, yes. Now, remember how Caitlin Armstrong,

Starting point is 00:08:08 who had just murdered Mo, just because Mo had a hamburger with Armstrong's boyfriend. Yeah, all this over a hamburger. That said, they caught her every move. She was using her sister's passport. She went on to hide out in Costa Rica and you actually called it weeks before she was caught, Irv Brandt, down there teaching surfing yoga. She had plastic surgery on her face, changed her hair, going by a different name, but the U.S. Marshals found her. Irv Brandt, what I'm leading up to is,

Starting point is 00:08:46 look at her. They had her every move, not once, but in two airports. I mean, the only place with more video surveillance than an airport may be a Vegas casino or Target, of course, who has the best surveillance video ever. That said, Earp, I guarantee you, law enforcement has pulled the video in LAX and watched the boyfriend's every move. Of that, I have no doubt, Nancy. Like the other panelists said, that you're going to focus primarily on a relationship person first

Starting point is 00:09:22 until you rule them out. And I'm sure that the FBI and the LAPD tracked the boyfriend's movements across the airport, made sure he did get on the flight, then probably tracked his movements in New York to confirm that he wasn't no longer a person of interest in this case. You know, I'm thinking about LAX, Irv, and everybody on the panel also joining us, renowned psychologist Karen Stark. Karen Stark, I want to circle back to you because the last thing you want is your ex popping up in the seat beside you.

Starting point is 00:09:58 God forbid it be a middle seat. That said, this woman, gorgeous, brunette beauty out of Hawaii, gets as far as LAX, then seemingly vanishes between flights. The first place you look in an airport, Scott Eicher, how do you, I mean, LAX is over five acres. Where do you start looking for her in an airport? The bathrooms, the lounges, the restaurants, but should be easily spotted there. So then you have to go behind the scenes, behind the doors that say employees only. I mean, how do you do it, Scott? Well, as you said, those cameras in the airports are just fantastic. And I mean, you have a starting point, you know, the exit from the plane

Starting point is 00:10:51 into the terminal. Then you just follow that person. Hopefully, I mean, I've been to LAX. It's a nut place. And it's just so many people. I can see it might be difficult, but still possible to follow her through the terminal as she goes, you know, away from the airplane itself and then to other parts of the airport itself. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. The search for Hannah is riddled with mystery. She leaves Maui, scheduled to catch a flight at LAX, a flight to New York City, but missed it because of a short layover, according to her family. Police working with the family to find her in a desperate search. So what happens next? 30-year-old Hannah Kobayashi is on a bucket list trip from her home in Hawaii to New York. She is going to visit an aunt in upstate New York and take photos at a DJ show in Brooklyn.

Starting point is 00:11:54 Kobayashi plans the trip with her boyfriend, but they break up before the trip. Unable to get a refund, they agree to fly together to New York and go their separate ways upon arrival. Hannah and her ex arrive at Los Angeles International Airport on Friday at 9.53 p.m. and have a connecting flight to JFK in New York scheduled for 11 p.m. What happened to a Hawaiian beauty on her bucket list trip? She takes a photo with Simon in New York. She finally gets to go see the city. She gets to L.A., L.A, LAX airport, and then vanishes.

Starting point is 00:12:28 Something is very wrong with this scenario. Then I hear Alexis Tereshchuk that she's at the airport overnight. She's waiting for an early morning flight, hopefully. And then suddenly she pops up at the Grove. Hold on. I need to shrink. Karen Stark joining me. We're now a psychologist, TV, radio, trauma expert, and consultant. If you're looking for her online, she's at karenstark.com. Karen with a C. Karen, a lot of this isn't making sense to me. Now she travels with the ex, even though they're broken up. At first I was hung up on that. Then I found out they couldn't get a refund. So, you know, they had to grin and bear it.

Starting point is 00:13:08 He goes on to catch his flight. You know, LA law enforcement has looked at all the surveillance of him leaving his flight and walking just like we saw Caitlin Armstrong every step of the way to his connecting flight. He made it. He is not a suspect. But why? This is the part I don't get. When you're trying to catch a flight to get to your destination, why do you leave the airport and decide to go shopping at a mall? It's an outdoor mall. It's famous. So I don't get that part. Well, Nancy, that's the part that everyone is wondering about.

Starting point is 00:13:46 And it certainly seems like somebody else may have been involved because it doesn't make sense. And the only thing I can think of is that she's being coerced or manipulated. Somebody has her with some kind of Stockholm syndrome trauma, and she can't leave. And they are making her go to these destinations to have it seem that things are normal. Hold on right there. You know much, as much as I'd love to dive down that rabbit hole with you, let me just get the bus out of the weeds and back in the middle of the road. Because isn't it true, Alexis Therese Chuck, that while at the Grove, she takes pictures of herself and sends them to her aunt and there's nobody coercing her. She looks happy. Yes. She went to the Grove two days in a row. So she lands on Friday

Starting point is 00:14:40 night. She goes to the Grove on Saturday. Then the next time we see her again, she's back at the Grove for this is the LeBron James event at the Nike store. Okay. Now the story becomes even more bizarre. How do tarot card readings fit into Hannah's disappearance? Listen. On the evening of Saturday, November 9th, Hannah Kobayashi makes two Venmo payments. One payment is made at 6.25 PM to a woman named Veronica Almendarez. The payment includes a description of a bow and arrow emoji. Less than one hour later, at 7.19 p.m., Kobayashi makes a Venmo payment to Jonathan Taylor. In the subject line of the second Venmo payment is the word reading. Okay, Alexis Drozdchuk, tarot card readings.

Starting point is 00:15:28 Number one, I don't believe in them. Number two, I had one done during the Atlanta Olympics as a lark. A defense attorney also read tarot cards. And as a lark, I said, okay, read my cards. And he said, in 1996, you will marry a man that's already in your life many years from now and you will have twins a boy and a girl oh really that was 96 2007 i married david who i've known since my senior year of college. And we had two children, a boy and a girl. Still don't believe in it. Okay. Because I can't bring it into evidence in court of law.

Starting point is 00:16:15 I hear Gregory Moore's high profile law going, that's right. But tell me, where does she get a tarot card reading? I mean, they're everywhere. So the Grove is a shopping district. So the mall's in the middle. There are streets north and south, east and west of there. It's the Melrose District. Tarot card readings all up and down the street. She could walk to any of them. This is a busy area.

Starting point is 00:16:43 She could find it anywhere along those streets. Okay. That's leading me somewhere else to Irv Brandt. Now I've got her leave. She's left the airport. She's at the Grove, not one day, but two days still planning to catch a flight. Now she leaves and wanders down the side of the street and gets a tarot card reading. Now, it sounds to me like she's just kicking back, enjoying herself like you would at a street festival, going into the various stalls, maybe eating, taking pictures. Unlike what Karen Stark just said, I am not buying any sudden Stockholm Syndrome or trauma bonding. She's only been gone 48 hours, and still everything seems to be on track, but we know she's going to go back to LAX to catch another flight. So what do you make of this turn

Starting point is 00:17:34 of events? She's walking along a street near the Grove and has a tarot card reading and pays for it with a Venmo. Nancy, I don't find that unusual. If you were going to be in Los Angeles for a couple of days and you were going to continue on and she went to a place like the Grove and like you said, maybe just past the time waiting for a flight and she's interested in tarot card readings. And so she stopped in for a reading. I don't find that unusual. I'm sure investigators on the case are trying to find if there's video of her. Well, they found the tarot card reader. They found him, Irv Brandt.

Starting point is 00:18:22 His name is Jonathan Taylor. But what I find probative is that I've got her sending a Venmo at 719 and it has reading written on it. We know who it goes to. We know where she is. So that's pretty strong evidence. She's alive and well, two days later at 719. But Venmo has been a source of evidence. In other cases, does anyone remember Deborah Collier, the Georgia mom who leaves her house with her car keys, debit card, everything? The last we know of her is a Venmo. Deborah Collier leaves her house with her car keys and debit card, drives to a dollar store an hour from her home. It's seen on video in the store and in the parking lot. She sends a $2,300 Venmo payment to her daughter, Amanda Beard, with a cryptic message. They are not going to let

Starting point is 00:19:17 me go. Love you. There's a key to the house in the blue flower pot by the door. Beard says she wasn't expecting money and calls Collier right away, but gets no answer. Deborah Collier has vanished. Her daughter and husband report her missing and police begin the investigation focused on the Venmo payment. Sunday, November 10th, Hannah Kobayashi is back at The Grove in downtown Los Angeles in a scene on a video posted to YouTube at the LeBron James trial experience at the Nike store. A photo of the event is posted on Kobayashi's Instagram. Hannah had been texting with family members, telling them she couldn't wait to get to New York, and it was a nightmare trying to get another flight. Back to Gregory Morse joining us, partner King and Morse Palm Beach. Gregory,

Starting point is 00:20:01 the significance of this, I mean, we know she went to the Nike store and this video is for the LeBron James trial experience and that is at the Nike store. But her posting of this video on YouTube gives me another hard time in my timeline scenario. And she's provided all that herself from the Venmo to the posting. So we have her alive and well Sunday, November 10. I mean, I don't see anything odd about it. I don't think anyone's controlling her. I don't think anyone has abducted her and it's making her go to the LeBron James trial experience. I think we can count on that as being a significant factor in our timeline. I think it's significant, but I think it also can be seen as a problematic that she may have been being controlled. You know, there's connections of her.

Starting point is 00:21:04 Why is she being controlled? Because she's had the LeBron James experience. Well, when you look at the picture, she does not look happy. She does not look like she wants to be there in the sense that she's not smiling, hands raised or showing excitement for this. It's an odd event to go to if you had a connecting flight to New York. Greg Morse, so your theory, let's just follow this through to its logical conclusion, to the dead end I'm about to explain. Greg Morse, you're saying that someone is controlling her, they've abducted her, and they've taken her to the LeBron James experience? Okay, so they kidnap her not to rape her, not to get money from her, not to kill her out of

Starting point is 00:21:49 some thrill kill desire, but they kidnap her to force her to go to the LeBron James experiment. Is that what you're saying? That's exactly what I'm saying potentially. And it seems like that could have occurred to make her seem like she's doing fine. Your law partners are not going to be happy with you because that doesn't make any sense. Here's a chance for you to retract it. She was kidnapped to force her to go to the LeBron James experiment. You're going to stick with that?

Starting point is 00:22:18 I'm going to stick with that because from everything else, it seems like she's not intentionally doing that. Someone is trying to create the impression that this girl is fine. And I go back to the ex-boyfriend who was with her on a connecting flight, but didn't go with her to the connecting flight. That is very bizarre. Hold on. Let's just rule him out to make Greg Morse happy. Alexis Tereschuk, at the time that this photo was taken in front of the LeBron James trial experiment, the boyfriend has, this is two days later, the boyfriend is already where he was going. He's at his destination. She's alive and he's in another jurisdiction. He went to New York. He made a slight. He actually has spoken with the police. They have,

Starting point is 00:23:04 they have said that he has been very helpful and they do not believe that he is involved in this at all. He has no knowledge of what is going on. Where is Hannah Kobayashi? Friends, family, police are stumped. Family desperate. Then after she's spotted at the Grove and the LeBron James experiment, an odd twist. The texts that she is sending to friends and family suddenly don't sound like her at all. Hannah Kobayashi's family is concerned about odd text messages they are getting from Hannah because the messages don't sound like her. The messages use terms like hon and babe and saying someone is trying to steal her identity and all of her funds. The messages also don't include any emojis, something everyone knows to expect from a text message coming from Hannah Kobayashi. You know, Greg Moore's high profile lawyer, he's tried a lot of cases. There is the reality of routine evidence.

Starting point is 00:24:10 And again, by that, I don't mean stereotypical or run of the mill evidence. I mean, evidence of someone's routine. If I were to send you a two paragraph text, you would know I'm dead and somebody's got my phone. My texts are two sentences max with a lot of abbreviations. This woman always included an emoji. Always. No emojis in this. She started using pet names like Babe and Hun spelled H-U--N, as in Attila the Hun, as opposed to Honey,

Starting point is 00:24:49 they all noticed that was totally unlike her. And I submit and would submit, even in a court of law, that that is where my true timeline begins with these odd texts. Well, I don't think the timeline begins there. But I do agree with you that those texts seem out of character, according to her family. And we all know when something's wrong, we've had a loved one or a friend send us a text, hey, are you mad? This text seems off. We have it very quickly. And Hannah's family knew her habits. And it does seem like someone sent those texts to try to make it seem like she is alive and somewhere, even though they're negative texts that talk about her disappearing. And that could all be a ruse to let her family think something that's not true and she's somewhere else.

Starting point is 00:25:45 So I think you're right. The texts are important. But the timeline starts when she leaves Hawaii and then goes from there. And these texts are one piece that help describe this odd situation. And that something is amiss here with this with Hannah. I am, of course, referring to the criminal timeline when I believe that something went awry with Hannah. This has happened before and we can prove that it's evidence of wrongdoing. Remember Gabby Petito? On August 27th, 2021, it's believed that Brian Laundrie sent a text to Nicole Schmidt in which he refers to Gabby Petito's grandfather Stan by name. Gabby Petito never called her grandfather by this name. Calling your grandfather by their first name and not a common nickname like Papa or Grandpa or something like that was very, very unorthodox. And Nicole Schmidt had very, very strong feelings connected to that text

Starting point is 00:26:39 message that something wasn't right, that something was drastically wrong. I mean, these texts get really bizarre. Let's see that visual of the text. Deep hackers wiped my identity, stole all of my funds, have had me on a mind F since Friday. I got tricked into giving away all my funds for someone, listen, I thought I loved. Then she's no longer replying to messages from family and friends. No new messages are coming to their phones. At that point, family reports her missing. To Alexis Tereschuk, family and friends thought everything was fine up until this point. At this point, they reach out to police, they file a missing persons report, and they begin to blanket social media. Describe.

Starting point is 00:27:34 They put out, the local police put out a message on their social media. They put, say that she is a missing woman here in Los Angeles. It was on the local news and it has been all over TikTok, Instagram. I don't know about Twitter, but it's everywhere. And here's the thing. She's beautiful. She's young. She has lots of friends. They are all worried about her now. And her family has been very proactive. They've reached out to multiple news stations to get the message out there that she is missing. Family and friends of Hannah Kobayashi arrive in Los Angeles to begin searching, reaching out to police and filing a missing person report. They also cover social media

Starting point is 00:28:12 and the news media asking for help. It is determined that Hannah's phone last pinged around 4 p.m. Monday, November 11th at LAX with no new activity. The phone has not been found. The family obtained surveillance footage showing Hannah Kobayashi around the metro train station near Crypto.com Arena. In that video, she appears to be accompanied by someone. The family posts on social media that the video shows Hannah is not alone and, quote, does not appear to be in good condition. Okay, a lot to figure out from that news report. To Scott Eicher, a founding member of the FBI cellular analysis team, former FBI, 22 years. Scott, let's talk about the ping.

Starting point is 00:28:57 The ping places her phone, which I believe is with her, back at LAX, but no new activity from the phone. We just get a ping. Then you've got footage showing her at the Metro train station near the Crypto.com arena. What is that telling you? I'm not sure if the surveillance video at Crypto arena is before or after the LAX ping. Alexis Tereshchuk, which one is first? That's important. The crypto.com spotting is after she was at LAX.

Starting point is 00:29:32 And how far is Crypto Arena from LAX? About 10 miles. Not very far. Okay, so what about it, Scott? Her phone is pinged at the airport. Then 10 miles away, she's at a train station at Crypto Arena. Well, we know she went back to the airport to try to get another flight to New York. So that makes sense. And I think there was a text that she was trying to charge her phone at one of the places over by the Grove.

Starting point is 00:30:03 What does LAPD have to say? Listen. On Friday, November 8th, 23-year-old Hannah Kobayashi missed her connecting flight from LAX to New York, which the investigation determined was intentional. Over the next few days, she maintained contact with her family and was active on Instagram. However, the family last heard from Hannah on November 11th. After receiving concerning text messages and losing further contact, her family traveled to L.A. on November 13th and filed a missing person report. Alexis Terescheck, it's my understanding the family, Hannah's family, vehemently disagrees with the LAPD saying her missing her connector flight to NYC was intentional. They think she just missed the flight and then went to travel hell.

Starting point is 00:30:49 That's exactly right. They disagree with this. They say that she missed her flight. She was trying to get back. She was trying to get on another flight. She went back to LAX that she was trying to continue on because she had told them, I'm going to go see my aunt and still go to New York. And so they believe her that that's what she says.

Starting point is 00:31:06 They do not believe that this was an intentional missing of the flight and then hanging out in Los Angeles for no reason. Then an extremely bizarre twist. After 11 days of searching for his daughter, Ryan Kobayashi is found dead around 4 a.m. near a parking structure at LAX. The Los Angeles medical examiner says the cause of death is multiple blunt force trauma injuries. Police confirmed the 58-year-old died after jumping off the seventh floor of the parking structure. The family issues a statement expressing grief and asking for the public to focus on the search for Hannah Kobayashi.

Starting point is 00:31:47 Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Alexis Tereschuk. This is a crazy, a bizarre twist in the disappearance of the Hawaiian beauty, Hannah Kobayashi. So let me understand. The father who has previously been estranged from Hanna flies all the way to LAX and starts looking for her and then suddenly kills himself? He does. He flew to Los Angeles. He went to the crypto.com center. It's the stadium used to be the stable center in Los Angeles downtown. Got together with a lot of people was on the press and the news trying to bring awareness for his daughter. He searched for her. He searched all the downtown, the downtown Los Angeles area.

Starting point is 00:32:34 This is one of the areas known as Skid Row. He was down there looking for her searching literally feet on the ground, looking for his daughter and all these really tough parts of town. And he was searching. He was talking to anybody who had maybe seen her because this was where she'd been spotted and trying to find her and was unable to do so, had never had contact with her. And he spoke to the media and he said, I have so much regret. I was very much estranged with her, but all I want to do now is help to find her, to find my little daughter. And he then went back to LAX where it was the last time where she was seen on video about 12 days before this. And then he went on top of a parking structure, seventh floor, and he jumped off.

Starting point is 00:33:17 And his body was found at four o'clock in the morning. So straight out to Irv Brandt joining us, former U.S. Marshal Service. Irv, how do I know he jumped and wasn't pushed? Well, that's a good question, Nancy. It would appear that the authorities, the FBI and the LAPD and the coroner's office, believe it's a suicide. And I'm assuming that they have something substantial to back that up. I would imagine it would probably be something like maybe video from the parking garages. Most secure parking garages do have video cameras.

Starting point is 00:33:58 And if he was alone, if there's pictures of him stepping up on the wall, you know, with no one else around. And he was pushed. Let me follow up on that. Alexis Tereschuk, the parking deck where the dad reportedly jumped to his death, was that connected to the airport or near the airport? Yes, it was very near LAX. And I believe that there was surveillance. Okay, so they're covered in surveillance. Okay, Alexis, I hope you're sitting down. I've got another curve ball to throw at you at 90 MPH. What is the Twin Flames Cult? And what, if anything,

Starting point is 00:34:37 does it have to do with Hannah? So the Twin Flames Cult is an organization that was started by this couple., they were in Hawaii and they have started this organization where they tell people that they have a twin flame. And it's based on an old book from the 1800s that, so you match with somebody, you are a twin and you both have intense feelings for each other, but they encourage people to not only, and they, the founders of this cult, they are the ones that select who the twin flame is for you. So you say you are, you join this and they say, we know who this person is, but it can possibly be not even somebody within the organization. So they say,

Starting point is 00:35:15 this is your twin flame. You must go after them. You must make them love you and make them realize that this. So Hannah had followed quite a few people that were involved in this cult on her Instagram page and people that this has been very suspicious that perhaps that this had a connection because they are their headquarters for their organization are listed in Carlsbad, California, which is about 90 minutes south of Los Angeles. It's just north of San Diego. And this is where this is located. There are other texts that are alarming. And Karen Starr joining us, renowned psychologist. They're very disturbing to me because I don't think she wrote them. They say things like, quote, Matrix underworld girl. And that she would never have written. Matrix Underworld girl.

Starting point is 00:36:10 This is way beyond me. The friend writes, did you get catfish? I said, dude, you were talking to on the internet. She says, no, we met. I can't explain all of it. Just be open with this, please. This is so beyond anything that Hannah Kobayashi would ever have written. That would be like me telling you my mind had been hijacked and I was going through some matrix, S-H-I-T. Okay. You would know I did not send that. And that's what her family and friends are getting. This woman is gone. She's not sending these texts. Well, you know, Nancy, if you sent that to me, I would think to myself, either it's not you or something terrible has happened to you and your personality is changing. And I think both of those are a possibility because something awful is going on with Anna. And in fact, it very well could be that she broke up with the boyfriend, who knows, because

Starting point is 00:37:15 there was someone else that she fell in love with. And it was somebody that she met there, or she coincidentally met someone there who somehow manipulated her and did things to her that she doesn't understand, and she's losing her sense of self. And that is a strong possibility to me that something is going on that we don't understand, but she doesn't understand either. Someone is manipulating her, coercing her, and making her do things that she would not normally do, and she's confused, anxious, desperate. On November 15th, our missing persons unit assumed investigative responsibility.

Starting point is 00:37:57 Detectives have been diligently reviewing video surveillance and employing various investigative techniques to locate Hannah, while her family has continued their personal search efforts. Tragically, on November 24th, during the search for his daughter, Hannah's father, Ryan Kobayashi, was found deceased. Preliminary findings indicate his death was by suicide. Our hearts go out to the Kobayashi family during this unimaginable time of grief. We remain fully committed to locating Hannah and supporting the family as they navigate their way through this tragedy.

Starting point is 00:38:28 This case has had so many twists and turns. It's hard to make sense and determine what's fact and what's fiction amongst the twin flames cult claims. Now conspiracy theories about African hackers. Gregory Morse, isn't it true you discovered that Twin Flames cult is actually the government, was listed in addressing Carlsbad, California, which is in the San Diego area. And, you know, her conduct, her texts, her leaving the airport, going to do different things is in line with people who, you know, get, whether the word is duped, whether get sucked in to a cult and they act very bizarre. You know, it's, you know, Jim Jones was a real person. Jim Jones caused people to do horrible things to themselves because they were desperate and they

Starting point is 00:39:38 thought that was an answer. And this could very much be what this young lady is dealing with right now, especially with a nonprofit about finding your soulmate and we'll pick it for you. I mean, this this screams of, you know, cult trying to control in the vein of David Koresh or Jim Jones. And it's and she could be very well down that rabbit hole. Alexis Tereschuk, does she have any known connection to Twin Flames? She follows people on her Instagram account that are involved with Twin Flames. But right now, there's no specific connection that she is involved with. But she follows them on it. What about the theory that African hackers are involved in her disappearance?

Starting point is 00:40:23 It's one thing to steal your money. It's another thing to make you go completely missing in the airport. This is what people are worried about, that somebody has hacked into her account. She's saying, all of my money has been stolen. My identity has been changed. I can't get anywhere. She seems like she's very desperately upset about everything that's happening. She hasn't sent screenshots of, say, her bank account showing that she has no money.

Starting point is 00:40:44 But she also isn't anywhere. She's not going anywhere, getting any help, doing anything, say, her bank account showing that she has no money, but she also isn't anywhere. She's not going anywhere, getting any help, doing anything, even calling her parents and her mom now and saying, I am here in Los Angeles. Please come and get me. So the characterization of her going missing at LAX is not entirely true. I think before his death, the father was on the right track. We're not going to find her in some closet at LAX. She's long been gone from LAX, the LA airport. If you know or think you know anything about the disappearance of Hannah Kobayashi, please dial toll free 800-222-8477. Repeat 800-222-8477. Where is Hannah Kobayashi? Nancy Grace signing off. Goodbye, friend.

Starting point is 00:41:54 You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.

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Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - EERIE TWIST: HAWAII BEAUTY DISAPPEARS BETWEEN FLIGHTS AT LAX, WHERE’S HANNAH?

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