Going West: True Crime - Hannah Kobayashi // 456 (Happening Now)

Episode Date: November 23, 2024

On Friday, November 8, 2024, a 30-year-old Maui woman on her way to New York missed her connecting flight in Los Angeles. While attempting to get on a standby flight for the weekend, she ventured out ...into Los Angeles, having been spotted around the city. But when Monday arrived, her family received some strange text messages from her before she was caught on surveillance footage with an unknown man Downtown. Her family is adamant that she is in danger, as she hasn't been heard from since. GOFUNDME: https://www.gofundme.com/f/4fmxej-support-the-search-for-hannah-kobayashi If you have ANY information regarding her whereabouts, PLEASE contact the Los Angeles Police Department at 1-877-527-3247. Those wishing to remain anonymous are urged to call the Los Angeles Regional Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477, or go to lacrimestoppers.org. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 What is going on true crime fans? I'm your host, T and I'm your host Daphne and you're listening to going West. Hello everybody. Today's episode is a major call to action because this case is happening right now in Los Angeles. So we're gonna run through the details that we do know and piece together a timeline for everybody. You know, this story originally popped up on my phone
Starting point is 00:00:36 here in LA as a citizen notification the other day, which is by the way, a safety network app. And you know, it was talking about her disappearance and that just felt so huge because they have been updating it all week on her disappearance and all week we've also gotten a ton of recommendations for this story so many of you on socials and on email actually way too many to name so big thank you to everybody who has been following Hannah's story and sending it in to us yes and we
Starting point is 00:01:03 will mention that due to this case still being an active investigation, law enforcement has decided to keep some of these details close to the vest in order to not hinder any progress that they've made thus far. But we have spoken to Hannah's family and it is incredibly important to share this episode because they are desperate for answers.
Starting point is 00:01:23 So please, if you listen to the show, you love this show, do us a massive favor, do Hannah's family a massive favor, and share, share, share. Yeah, you guys know that Heath and I love covering cases like this that are happening now to help spread the word, but this one is just hitting very close to home for us.
Starting point is 00:01:40 Her family is here in LA, actively trying to find her. So we need to help get this story out there now. So without further ado. All right, guys. This is episode 456 of Going West. So let's get into it. The Spider-Man No Way Home and The Mandalorian comes a brand new series. It's dangerous out here in space.
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Starting point is 00:02:50 about a struggling Asian actor who gets a bigger part than he expected when he witnesses a crime in Chinatown. Now streaming only on Disney Plus. Our top story, a Hawaiian woman vanishes here in LA without a trace. A woman missing from Hawaii has not been seen or heard from in nearly two weeks. Hannah Kobayashi's family says she was on her way to New York, but missed her connecting flight at LAX on November 8th. From Maui, Kobayashi had a 35-minute layover on her way to visit family in New York.
Starting point is 00:03:30 Her ex-boyfriend, on the same pre-booked trip, arrives at his destination. Surveillance footage shows Kobayashi get off the plane at LAX and never get back on that second flight. Her family says they received text messages from her that were out of character and they also obtained new surveillance video that shows her near the Pico metro station and they say she wasn't alone in that footage. They think she was abducted or even trafficked. Everything that we have been telling the media that we've been telling the police has now been confirmed. We cannot speak on it because we're not wanting to do the investigation.
Starting point is 00:04:06 What we have believed to be telling people is true. And that is in danger. Hanna Kobayashi was born to parents Brandy Yee and Ryan Kobayashi and has a sister named Sydney. Hanna is 30, almost 31 years old and is a resident of Maui, Hawaii. Now I know this is not super typical to how we start off going West episodes. We usually like to dive deep into somebody's backstory,
Starting point is 00:04:55 the victim's backstory, but because we are currently still waiting on a lot of information, again, we are going to relay what we know and focus on what is most important, which are the details regarding when Hannah was last seen, because everybody is hoping that she is out there alive and that if we all work together to get the word out, she will be found. So we didn't want to waste her family's time by getting some of those back details. But we do know, according to Hannah's sister,
Starting point is 00:05:23 Sydney, that Hannah is, quote, a free and independent spirit who liked to travel. She has also been described as creative and artistic. She's a photographer actually. And this is all very evident when looking at her Instagram page. Her bio reads quote, artist here to stoke your healing and creative journey. Here to stoke your healing and creative journey. And we are gonna talk about her Instagram here shortly because it does have a small role in Hannah's disappearance or at least there's something on there that a lot of people have talked about that is a part of her timeline. But first, let's get into the days leading up
Starting point is 00:05:57 to when Hannah vanished. Now this November, Hannah had been gearing up for a very exciting trip to New York City with her boyfriend to go to some concerts and to visit family. A few months before her disappearance Hannah was dating a young man named Ammon and they made plans to take this trip together, spending thousands of dollars on hotel rooms and a few hundred dollars on concert tickets. And it was a trip that they were both very excited to take.
Starting point is 00:06:26 They were both really looking forward to this. Hannah has an aunt who lives in New York, a woman named Laree Pigeon, who has been in the news a lot lately, just trying to spread the news on her niece's story. So the plan was to spend some time with family, attend some fun concerts, and Hannah, who is a talented and aspiring photographer,
Starting point is 00:06:45 also wanted to check out the art scene as well as do a concert photography gig in Brooklyn. But shortly before making this joint plan trip, Hannah and her boyfriend actually broke up, but they both still really wanted to take the trip. They already booked it, they already planned everything, they couldn't get a refund on their flights, so they decided to do this trip but do it separately even though they would still be on the same flights and doing probably a lot of the same activities. Hannah even had a full itinerary that she had scribbled out on a notepad and I just want to read it to you guys so you
Starting point is 00:07:22 know what she was supposed to do. Here is what she wrote. So at the very top of the white notepad it says 11-9-24 to 11-16-24. So November 9th, 2024 to November 16th, 2024, New York City. Notes in mind, star or asterisk. Presidential Election Announcement Prep. I don't know what she is referring to, but that is what it says. Then under it listed in the notepad lines, it reads, November 9th, check into hotel.
Starting point is 00:07:55 Arrive at 7.28am JFK. And JFK is the airport in New York. Yes, thank you. Settle in and ease into the Big Apple and surrounding area. Options Brooklyn Folk Festival 12 p.m to 10 p.m at St. Anne's Church Brooklyn. Jeff Mills star star star. So maybe this is something she really wanted to do. It says pioneer of techno at Knockdown Center, which by the way is in Queens, New York. at Knockdown Center, which by the way is in Queens, New York. Then under that it says Honey Dijon,
Starting point is 00:08:28 who is a DJ at the Brooklyn Storehouse. November 10th, AM, question mark, open flow, go off of vibe and bucket list items. PM, Pat Thomas and Ebo Taylor at Webster Hall 7 PM. November 11th. Time with Auntie heart? Question mark. Open flow based off our vibes.
Starting point is 00:08:52 Bucket list dreams become a reality. November 12th. AM? PM Tycho! At the Brooklyn Steel, 7pm. Note, reach out to see if I can get a press pass. November 13th, gig day! AM?
Starting point is 00:09:13 PM. JW Francis, this is a music artist by the way. Photography gig, 7pm, arrive at 6pm? And that is at the end of the page she did have three more days of the trip after this photography gig on November 13th but we don't have the rest of the itinerary but it doesn't really matter this just gives you guys a good idea of the type of trip that she was preparing to have you know lots of fun lots of concerts and events and time with her aunt so on Friday
Starting point is 00:09:43 November 8th of this year 2024 Hannah boarded a flight in Maui that was ultimately bound for New York City, but she did have a layover in Los Angeles, California. She and her boyfriend separately boarded the same flight and reportedly didn't speak or sit with each other on this flight, but they both made it to Los Angeles, though it has not been released what airline she flew with. Now after a 5 hour flight, their plane landed at the Los Angeles International Airport, or LAX, at 10.03pm, and 31 year old Hannah Kobayashi is seen on airport security cameras exiting the loading bridge from her plane into the
Starting point is 00:10:25 airport so most of you guys know that the loading bridge is that kind of indoor hallway that you have to walk through to get on and off the plane so in this footage Hannah is seen wearing colorful pastel tie-dye leggings running shoes a dark colored hooded sweatshirt and some type of headphones they kind of look like those bulky over-the-ear black type headphones. And by the way I just want to mention that in this security camera footage, Hannah does not look like she's in any distress at all at this point. So as I just mentioned, Hannah had a connecting flight that she needed to catch in order to make her way to her
Starting point is 00:11:02 final destination, which again was New York City. But here's the thing, she only had about 35 minutes to do so because her next flight was scheduled to leave around 11 p.m. that night. Now strangely, Hannah's ex-boyfriend actually did make this connecting flight to New York on time, but for whatever reason, Hannah did not. Yeah, and her aunt even said in an interview that she ran to her flight and then was on standby, so we have no idea yet why she didn't make it. That's not the smallest window of time.
Starting point is 00:11:37 It is pretty small. You know, LAX is really big, so if she needed to stop to go to the restroom or to get some food, or she got off the plane later than her boyfriend boyfriend even though I will say a lot of airlines will Prioritize de-boarding to anybody with a connecting flight. You know, it's not unusual at all that she missed this flight This is a small window Absolutely, I totally agree and you and I have been to LAX many times and like you said it is a massive airport I mean there sometimes you have to take a bus to get to
Starting point is 00:12:10 Different connecting parts of the airport. Yeah, different terminals. Absolutely exactly so it is massive So now it's late at night Hannah misses her flight and ends up spending the night in the airport Just waiting on standby in hopes of getting a red-eye to New York City, which would have been another 5 hour flight, or getting a flight in the morning. And again, she spent a lot of money on this trip, so getting a standby flight would have been a lot cheaper than getting a whole new flight day of. But standby flights depend on availability of course, so there's no guarantee and they
Starting point is 00:12:44 can be tough to get, depending on a lot of different factors like airline ticket type, time of year, flight loads, etc. So due to the fact that Hannah couldn't get another connecting flight to New York right away, she decides that she's gonna exit the airport and explore the city of Los Angeles for a few days before catching another flight to New York. Obviously she doesn't know how long it's going to take at this point, but basically the following day after spending the night in the airport just waiting and resting on Saturday, November 9th, 2024, all we know right now is according to her family's most recent timeline,
Starting point is 00:13:25 Hannah was seen at The Grove between 12, 12 p.m. noon, and 3 p.m. that day, that Saturday. By the way, The Grove is described online as a high-end shopping mall featuring trendy retailers, restaurants, and a theater amid a bustling promenade. It is a very safe, nice, you know, bougie shopping plaza here in LA that everybody loves. It's very quaint. They have a lot of great stuff there. There's basically a large parking structure
Starting point is 00:13:55 and then a parking lot. And then all the shops are located in this almost fake town looking place. That's the best way I can describe it. We're gonna post photos, but I feel like it's relevant to describe the surroundings here. It's almost like there's, you know, the parking is outside of it and the Grove is this outdoor place that has a street down the middle of it where shops face each other. There's a trolley. It's really,
Starting point is 00:14:18 really cute, especially this time of year when it's decorated for the holidays. So it kind of looks like, you know, like the back lot of like maybe an amusement park or something. Yeah, or like Universal Studios. Right, right. Yeah, it's it is really, really, really cute. So so she goes here, she's spotted at the Grove that Saturday, specifically at Tashin Books, which is an art bookstore, boutique and gallery.
Starting point is 00:14:44 Now while she's there, it has been confirmed by an employee that she was charging her phone for a publicly unknown period of time. Hannah actually sent her aunt a photo of herself at this bookstore at 2.43 p.m. And just by the way, so everybody knows, the Grove is 12 miles away from LAX. It is just south of Hollywood and east of Beverly Hills.
Starting point is 00:15:07 So it's very much in the hustle and bustle of all the good LA stuff. I can absolutely see why it is kind of a tourist must go to. According to Hannah's Venmo account, for those who live outside the U S Venmo is an American payment service app that a lot of us use to pay for different services, but usually to send money to friends and family, et cetera, you know, for like that slice of pizza or your half of the electricity bell, things like that. So on Hannah's Venmo, because profiles are public, you can go to people's Venmo. If they don't make the actual transaction private,
Starting point is 00:15:44 then you can see who people pay when when they pay them, and what they pay for. It's kind of like a payment social media almost. There are only two transactions from her trip on Venmo. The first is to somebody named Veronica Almondarez, and an unlisted amount of money was sent to Veronica from Hannah on November 9th at 6.25pm. This is the same day she was at the Grove. And about four hours after she sent that photo of herself at Tash & Books to her aunt.
Starting point is 00:16:16 The description of this Venmo payment is just the emoji of a bow and arrow, so no idea what that means. I know sometimes when I send Venmo payments, I'll just do an emoji too. Sometimes you're feeling lazy or you don't want to list what the money is actually for, so not too weird, but definitely curious as to what this was and who this person is. Well then, 55 minutes later at 7.19 p.m.,
Starting point is 00:16:42 Hannah sent another Venmo, but to a man named Jonathan Taylor, and the description on this transaction says, reading. Now, we actually did look up both of these people, and we can't find any confirmed social profile for Veronica, and her Venmo page is pretty much empty and only includes this transaction. And there is no profile photo. But then we looked up Jonathan Taylor's username on socials, which is RollinWheels88, wheels with a Z, and we actually found his TikTok page.
Starting point is 00:17:16 Now it seems like a bunch of other internet sleuths found him too, because he actually made a TikTok about Hannah this week. We actually did save the video before his account went private, but we didn't note the upload date But it was sometime around November 18th or 19th that he posted this so We're gonna play the audio from the video now so that you guys can kind of hear Jonathan's side of the story Hi everyone, here's a scoop. I don't know this Hannah chick and Alright everyone, here's a scoop. I don't know this hannah chick and she came to this dude from South Africa asking for
Starting point is 00:17:56 a reading. And in the readings, this guy told me that he's a psychic, and she came to him. The only connection is between me and her. I gave my demo to this guy and he gave it to them to send her payment. That's it. So if you would please stop asking me where she is or also stop asking me all these questions. It's really getting ridiculous. So I'm posting that y'all are gonna mess this up, mess this case up. You're absolutely right, it will.
Starting point is 00:19:04 So please, stop. Yeah, so he's basically saying that the guy who did a reading for Hannah was from South Africa and he did not have Venmo because it's only available for domestic money transfers in the US. But he doesn't explain how he was able to help. My personal guess is that he maybe had cash on him or some other way to pay the South African guy and he did so after receiving payment from Hannah for the service that she was allegedly provided. Although we still do not know how much money she paid for this. Yeah, and we absolutely we can't confirm you know with 100%
Starting point is 00:19:45 certainty that this is what happened but it kind of feels like this is probably what did happen. Yeah and I personally also don't believe that this guy has anything to do with anything. I also saw on his page that he posts a lot about his physical recovery and his life in a wheelchair so by all accounts it seems like he was just in the same place Hannah was, which we do not know where she was at that time, but he didn't seem to know her or see her after this. ["Sweet Home Alone"]
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Starting point is 00:23:00 Grove, Hannah went back to LAX, likely to check on standby flight availabilities again. It's believed with the information available that she spent the night at LAX again just waiting. Possibly while she was at the Grove on Saturday, November 9th, according to Hannah's friend, Hannah discovered that there was a Christina Ricci tarot reading event taking place at the Barnes and Noble bookstore located at the Grove the next day on Sunday the 10th so she was there on the 9th and after staying at LAX again she's headed back to the Grove and for those of you guys wondering Christina Ritchie released a custom tarot deck back in
Starting point is 00:23:41 October it's called cat full of, and it seems like something that Hannah would have loved. But there was another event at the Grove that day that we know she at least somewhat attended, and that was the LeBron James Nike event. This LeBron trial experience was to showcase his new collection of basketball sneakers with Nike, and this was being held at the Nike store at the Grove from November 8th through the 10th. And how do we know Hannah was there? Well a young man made a YouTube video or a vlog just highlighting the event and its features when Hannah can be seen passing through the frame as this guy records. It's only a few seconds that she's on camera as he showcases part of the event, but it
Starting point is 00:24:28 is so wild that he was able to unknowingly capture her that day. And he posted this not knowing who she was or not knowing that she was relevant to anything. And then people started commenting and reaching out and saying hey that girl in this clip in this part of your video is missing right now So he submitted it to the police She is seen wearing glasses black headphones the ones that she was wearing at the airport and a black hoodie and a backpack And this happened at 3 40 p.m. That day again Sunday But to confirm this even further, that same day, Hannah posted her most recent Instagram post. It is a black and white photo of a Nike
Starting point is 00:25:11 placard at the event and the lower half of the photo under the placard or under this kind of sign about the event is someone's legs wearing a pair of Nike shoes. Yeah, it seems like this person is kind of standing behind the placard and Hannah took a photo of the placard and you can kind of see the person's legs behind it. Yeah, and there is a song on this video and the song that Hannah chose was A Change is Gonna Come by Sam Cooke. Now personally, I don't see anything strange about this post at all.
Starting point is 00:25:45 A lot of people in the comments are trying to pick it apart and say that there's like a hidden message or that the song is trying to relay something. But Hannah's an artistic person. She was somewhere new at a cool event. So to us, it just seems like a regular post. Yeah, she's just kind of highlighting part of her trip and going, hey, I was at this event.
Starting point is 00:26:07 Yeah, this isn't a mystery novel. I don't see at all how it's helpful to just assume that she is leaving breadcrumbs. I don't see that at all. But this is the last post that she made to Instagram again on Sunday, November 10th, 2024. After this event, we have no idea where Hannah went, but according to her family, she is believed to have returned to LAX that night.
Starting point is 00:26:35 So it kind of seems like she was utilizing LAX as a place to sleep and continue to wait for standby flights, but then, you know, exploring the area in the day. and I do think this makes a lot of sense that you know she missed her connecting flight and she wants to explore the city she's already in for a while while she's trying to get a new flight. It just seems like she's making the most of a kind of negative situation especially after the trip already wasn't going quite as planned without her boyfriend who by the the way, did make it to New York. And then of course if Hannah can get a standby flight to New York, she would still be able to enjoy at least a few days there. So the next that we know about Hannah's whereabouts are a big focus of this case.
Starting point is 00:27:19 Because things really seemed to take an unsettling turn on Monday, November 11th. That day we do not know where Hannah was all day until later that night, but she did send a text to an aunt in New York saying, quote, Hi loves, I just finished a very intense spiritual awakening. I'm charging my phone and heading back to the airport to get to NYC. I might need some help getting there. It's a long story. I'll keep you posted.
Starting point is 00:27:50 I think I still have my hotel room." Hannah also allegedly apologizes for the quote craziness and says quote, I have definitely been intercepted. I say apparently because there is a screenshot of the text that I just read but these other ones, we don't have a text of them but this is what her family is reporting was said. But definitely concerning, you know, the first one seems kind of normal. Oh, I am still coming to New York. But then to say I have definitely been intercepted is a little bit concerning, especially with what else was said. Yeah, and we can't confirm when these other text messages were sent.
Starting point is 00:28:29 This hasn't been released, but at some point while Hannah was in LA, she texted a friend saying quote, I got hacked. Now the friend responds quote, hacked by who? Then Hannah responds again saying stripped of my identity. I can't fly. The friend then says, saying, Stripped of my identity, I can't fly. The friend then says, Wait, what? How did you get to LA from Maui? Hannah then replies,
Starting point is 00:28:52 Some weird shit, babe. The friend then asks Hannah to explain so that she can try and help, and Hannah says, I can't go to the Po, likely meaning the police. Hannah's friend then says, Explain it to me so I can try and be of help to you. Hannah then alarmingly says, I got tricked pretty much into giving away all of my funds for someone that I thought I loved.
Starting point is 00:29:17 I've been on the streets. She also apparently told a friend, quote, Deep hackers wiped my identity, stole all of my funds, and have had me on a mindfuck since Friday. So this is really concerning, but as far as we know, she didn't say anything else to explain further what exactly she's talking about, how somebody was able to take her money, if it has anything to do with the Venmo payments, if this is a separate situation. Yeah, it kind of seems like... her money if it has anything to do with the Venmo payments, if this is a separate situation. Yeah, it kind of seems like, obviously her family explained that Hannah appeared to be
Starting point is 00:29:52 scared. She was scared that somebody was either following her or something was going on here, that they were trying to steal her identity. But in some of the other texts, Sydney, who is Hannah's sister, actually says that she doesn't believe that some of these texts are coming from Hannah, because she's using different words like hun, and she said that babe and love are pretty typical for Hannah, but that Hannah would never say the word hun. So it's interesting here, because were these texts coming from Hannah herself, we don't really know. Yeah, and again at this point, because like you're saying, the police are keeping a lot of the
Starting point is 00:30:30 information to themselves, the family is not able to release certain details. We don't know when a lot of these other texts were sent. And again, if there was other communication, if anybody talked to her on the phone and, and confirmed that she was okay and what was happening, if she had any money, if she was on the streets, what does that mean? We know she slept at the airport a lot, but how was she eating? How was she getting around? We know we're going to talk about in a second that she took the metro, but was she taking the metro the whole time?
Starting point is 00:31:01 Because to get from different parts of LA to LAX, LAX is not in the middle of LA, it's in Inglewood, it's not, it's out of the way. Right, and Los Angeles just as a whole is not a walkable city, like you pretty much have to drive to get anywhere or take some sort of public transit. Absolutely. But let's go back to Monday, November 11th, after Hannah sent that text to her aunt that she was headed back to the airport and was going to find a flight to New York City. And this is a very important piece of this story because at 4pm that day, Hannah's phone
Starting point is 00:31:36 pings for the very last time at LAX before going dark. At 5pm, according to her family's most recent timeline, Hannah was seen talking to a ticketing agent at LAX, but that would not be the last time that she would be seen, because hours later at 9.04 p.m. Hannah is seen boarding the LAX Metro sea line at Aviation Century Station, which is the metro station located right outside of LAX. So this would obviously make sense if she couldn't get a standby flight still and decided to take public transportation to go somewhere else.
Starting point is 00:32:18 But where was she going? This line travels east, but then Hannah transferred trains at the Rosa Park station so that she could then travel north more into Los Angeles by taking the A-Line. According to a story shared with her family on the Help Us Find Hannah Facebook group, someone remembers being on that train with Hannah and another man. And Hannah's sister Sydney was actually the one that shared this post, and this is what it said. Hello, I remember seeing Hannah alongside a male, African American male. Hannah had a suitcase with her.
Starting point is 00:32:56 The male with her offered my son and I his seat when we got to the sea line station at the Lennox Hawthorne entrance. We were coming back from the L.A. Rams game. I then began speaking to the Sea Line station at the Lennox Hawthorne entrance. We were coming back from the L.A. Rams game. I then began speaking to the mail about the football game and about the Sea Line access to the game shuttle. During our conversation, Hannah did mention something about transportation,
Starting point is 00:33:18 where she's from. I asked her where she's from and she quietly said she was from Maui. She was wearing her hair down. She had glasses on and a dark colored sweater. When they got closer to their exit, the male did tell Hannah that they were going to be getting off on Avalon exit. That is where they both got off and only the man said goodbye.
Starting point is 00:33:41 He also told me thank you for the information about the transportation history we discussed, and I just said, no problem, make sure you look it up. I had shared that the first person that was ever fatally struck by the Metro when it first opened up years ago was mother to my aunt's husband. We also discussed information about the Metro and 105 freeway. Hannah didn't really speak much. She seemed really tired and out of it and disassociated. Lost even. They didn't seem to know each other well. I am almost 100% sure this was her. I hope the cameras can be checked on the platform of Sea Line
Starting point is 00:34:20 and or inside the train. And remember Sea Line is what she was taking from LAX before switching lines at the Rosa Parks station, like Heath said. This person is saying that they got off at Avalon. That is the exit right before Rosa Parks station. Her family says she got off at Rosa Parks. Rosa Parks station is where she would then transfer
Starting point is 00:34:43 to take the A line to go into Los Angeles and not be taken further east. So I think this person is confused. It does seem to be Rosa Parks. But this is crazy if what this person is saying is true. If they really did see Hannah, if she seemed disoriented or out of it, if she was with this chatty man. And then on top of that, I think what, you know, is just as important is hopefully this person who potentially saw them is able to identify this male that she was with, any facial features, what he was wearing, if there's anything else
Starting point is 00:35:19 that they could have noticed about this person. Yeah, I mean, finding that person would be really important. And of course we're all wondering, have police looked at the train footage? Is it still available? Did they get it in time? What is shown on the footage? Is it Hannah? We do not know at this point.
Starting point is 00:35:36 Right. Yeah. Those are, those are some of those details that have not been released. Um, that's kind of the stuff that police are still working on behind the scenes, so we don't have that information for you guys. Well, something that kind of disturbs me is that usually in situations like this, if police are able to access this kind of footage, they release it and say, do you know this man? Do you know this person to help identify them? So in my head, either A, they don't have the footage or B,
Starting point is 00:36:04 they have the footage and they already know who this person is. Yeah, and a lot of the time that's kind of the case as we saw in the Dustin Jersom case, they already kind of knew what was going on behind the scenes, but we didn't really know. They were kind of silently working on the investigation. I feel like that's probably what's happening right now.
Starting point is 00:36:25 And then on top of that, they probably don't want to release these details because they don't want this person to potentially flee. That's always a potential. Yeah, if they know who he is, they don't want him to know that they're onto him. Exactly. Exactly.
Starting point is 00:36:40 Well, at 10 o' 3 PM on Monday, November 11, Hannah is spotted for the very last known time on another surveillance camera. But this time, she's seen about 17 miles northeast of the airport in downtown Los Angeles in the vicinity of the Pico Metro station. And this would be a stop, you know, on the A-line. So this this matches up. Yes. And this station is a rail system located on Flower Street at the intersection of Pico Boulevard,
Starting point is 00:37:12 near the Crypto.com Arena, which is a massive sports and concert venue with a sporting event scheduled for that night. This footage has not been released to the public, but Hannah's family has seen it, and they described that Hannah, quote, "'does not appear to be in good condition, "'and she is not alone.'" Yeah, they are staunch on the fact that Hannah is in danger, especially after seeing this footage,
Starting point is 00:37:39 that she is very much in danger. So basically on the footage, she's departing the station with an unknown individual. Likely the person that was described in the post that Daphne just read. Hannah's aunt said more on her communication earlier that day, quote, We started getting texts saying that she didn't feel safe, that someone was trying to steal her funds, that someone was trying to take her identity, weird things, calling us babe, things that weren't quite the normal way that she speaks. But the problem is, with Hannah's phone last pinging at LAX, it
Starting point is 00:38:15 seems that her phone likely died. And now it's been almost two weeks since this happened with no confirmed sightings after this. The Rad Movement, which is a non-profit organization, has been assisting in a search, and a spokesperson for them explained, quote, "...the areas that need to be really watched right now are Downtown L.A., Skid Row, specifically Compton." Hannah's aunt, Loree, said in an interview this past Tuesday, quote, "...we try not to think the worst. We're trying to keep hope alive."
Starting point is 00:38:49 But it has now been basically a week and a day since November 11th, when she was last spotted with this unknown person and didn't seem to be okay. So our mind is now going to, you know, abduction and I hate to say the word but you know, trafficked. She then followed up on this by saying quote, Hannah, we love you. We are all here. Your mom's here, your sister's here, your father's here. The entire world is looking for you. If someone has Hannah, I want you to know that she is the kindest, most beautiful soul
Starting point is 00:39:23 in the entire world. Please don't hurt her. Please just give her back to us. No questions asked. Just don't hurt her. Please. 31 year old Hannah Kobayashi has long brown hair, hazel eyes, and stands at 5'10", weighing around 140 pounds. If you have any information regarding her whereabouts please contact the Los Angeles Police Department at 1-877-527-3247. Those wishing to remain anonymous are urged to call the Los Angeles Regional Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or go to lacrimestoppers.org. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode.
Starting point is 00:40:25 I do want to mention that Hannah's family has a GoFundMe. We are going to put that in the description of this episode and we're also going to share it on all of our social media accounts. So make sure that you share it and help donate alongside us. Yeah, the title of the GoFundMe, also if you want to look it up, is Support the Search for Hannah Kobayashi. And the description just says that, you know, of the GoFundMe also if you want to look it up is support the search for Hannah Kobayashi. And the description just says that, you know, they need the money to help looking for her
Starting point is 00:40:50 or to help look for her, sorry, to stay in LA for food and hydration for the search teams, transportation for the family, you know, communication devices, media campaigns, of course hotels. Yeah, all that stuff. So it really, really helps. So we're gonna donate. We hope you guys can too. They are, her family is here in LA. They flew here specifically to look for her. They are displaced right now and really just desperate for answers. Please make sure you share this story on your socials. We're gonna post her missing poster along with the the security footage that is available so you guys can see. Please share that on your Instagram stories, share the post on your Facebook,
Starting point is 00:41:30 share this episode with a friend, anything can help. Alright guys, so for everybody out there in the world, don't be a man, I'm gonna be a man I'm gonna be a man, I'm gonna be a man and meet you where you're going. Shopify is the only commerce platform relentlessly focused on one thing and one thing only, commerce. We challenge the status quo so that your business can do bigger, better and focus on building what's next so that you're always moving further, faster. For enterprise brands that believe there's a better way, there's Shopify. Learn more at Shopify.com slash enterprise

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