SERIALously - 223: The Truth About Hannah Kobayashi: Love Triangle Scam, She's Refusing to Leave Mexico & The Shocking Twist

Episode Date: December 16, 2024

30-year-old Hannah Kobayashi was traveling to New York from her home in Hawaii for work and to visit family in November of 2024. After missing her connecting flight after a layover in Los Angeles, Hannah’s family started receiving strange text messages from her. Then, she disappeared. This prompted police to conduct a full search for Hannah, but what no one expected was the shocking twists that were to come, including a tragic death… Omaha Steaks Go to https://www.OmahaSteaks.com and use Promo Code AE at checkout for an extra $30 off.  Helix Visit https://www.HelixSleep.com/Serialously and get 25% off plus 2 free Dream Pillows with your mattress purchase Rocket Money Go to https://www.RocketMoney.com/AE to cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster Robody Go to https://www.ro.co/ae to find out if you're covered for free Factor Head to https://www.FACTORMEALS.com/50ae to get 50% off your first box plus free shipping Shop the Merch: www.annieelise.com Follow the podcast on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@serialouslypodcast Follow the podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/serialouslypod/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/annieelise All Social Media Links: https://www.flowcode.com/page/annieelise_ SERIALously FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/SERIALouslyAnnieElise/ About Me: https://annieelise.com/ For Business Inquiries: [e-mail]    Sources: NY Post CNN NBC Los Angeles Daily Mail The Mirror Fox News Newsweek E Online People

Hey, true crime besties. Welcome back to an all new episode of Serialistly with me, Annie Elise. I hope you are ready for like a deep dive today because this case is very complex and like there are a lot of twists and theories and conspiracies and at first I wasn't going to cover this case. I couldn't quite figure out what was going on, but then as we were researching it, it was like there were so many different things and I hate this expression, but I'm gonna just say it. There were so many different layers as you peeled back the onion. I mean there's allegations of

joining a cult and being scammed through that, through twin flames. There's allegations of a secret marriage between a man and this woman, and he had a wife the whole time or a girlfriend the whole time who helped him do this scam on Hannah. There's allegations of foul play. I mean, there's a lot of different stuff to go over and if you haven't guessed by now today we are doing a mega deep dive into the case of hannah kibayashi and Again, just when you think there haven't been any updates It seems like there are and I'm gonna be really curious to know from you guys What you think along the way because I would imagine at this point by now Everybody is aware of this case to some degree.

Maybe you've seen it on your social media, maybe you've seen a news article, maybe you've seen it on YouTube. However, again, like I said, as we like really went into the trenches of it, there's something weird here. There's something weird going on in my opinion. So I want to lay it all out for you. And I will do a brief recap of, you know, what the situation is. But then I want to lay out for you everything that we found and all of the different theories out there too and

I want you to come to your conclusions and let me know what you think. Well the desperate search continues for a missing woman from Maui. She was on her way to New York but missed the connection at LAX. Tips are coming in but nothing solid. Now no one has heard from her in more than a week. All women beware. There are things happen, especially in California. Was she abducted? You know the word and I hate to say it but the word trafficked. Now before her case went viral and everybody was talking about it, Hannah Kobayashi seemed

like a normal 30 yearyear-old woman. She lived in Maui, Hawaii, and she was trying to build a career in photography. Now, while she wasn't super well established yet, she was definitely an up-and-comer, and she had a great future ahead of her. So to all appearances, Hannah seemed happy. She had a good relationship with her family, she had good friends. She had gone through a breakup recently, which we know that that's never easy. It's never a good time to go through a breakup. But other than that, things were okay. Plus, the breakup was amicable. I mean, as much as a breakup ever can be amicable, right? But the

point is, there were no big red flags or anything that was seriously wrong in Hannah's life. Not at all. It seemed like she was working on healing from that breakup, moving on, doing all of the things that brought her joy in life. And all to say she felt like a pretty normal 30 year old, like I said before. She had a lot going on in her life. Plenty of things to help her feel connected to her friends and her life. She had no reason to run away or want to abandon everything. And so far as everyone could tell, she also didn't seem to be in any kind of trouble or danger either. So that's where things stood on November 8, 2024.

On that day, Hannah was planning to fly from Maui to New York City. She had booked a photography gig in New York, and she also had some relatives who lived in the area that she was planning to visit with. She also made a little bucket list of sorts of what she planned to do while she was in New York. So this trip was going to be a blend of work and, you know, vacation, a little bit of both. It was a time to see her family, but also a time to make some money. Now Hannah was also planning on traveling to New York with that ex-boyfriend that I mentioned. Now as I mentioned earlier, they had an amicable breakup, so it wasn't really like that weird that they were traveling together. Yes, she was trying to move on from him, but they didn't want to waste and lose all of the money that they had, you know,

spent on this pre-booked trip that they were planning to take. So their plan was that they would fly to New York together, and then once they got to New York, they would go their separate ways. Hannah would go visit with her family, she would do that photography gig that she booked, and then her ex-boyfriend would go do whatever he was going to do. Sightseeing, vacation, whatever it was. So the flight that Hannah and her ex- it to LA. They made it there safely. They landed. They spent some time at the airport waiting for the connecting flight, what was gonna take them to New York.

But when it was time to board the other plane, that's what the ex did, but not Hannah. He scanned his ticket. He got on. He found his seat. He was like ready to go. But Hannah never did. She never got on the flight from Los Angeles to New York.

However, she did text her family though. After the flight took off, she texted them to say that she missed her boarding call, that she missed her flight, which, you know, that's happened to me more times than I care to admit. Sometimes I'm like either in the lounge or I'm at the restaurant and I'm eating and I'm just like not paying attention and then I miss it. I mean, obviously I know that's really irresponsible, but it happens guys. So I'm also guessing because her and her ex were, you know, not together anymore. Maybe he wasn't watching out for her. Although I can't imagine that once he was seated on the plane, he didn't text her to be like, uh, hey, you coming?

But because I would imagine their seats were next to each other. Who knows? I don't know. But in any event, she texted her family and said, hey, I missed the boarding call. I missed my flight. I'm gonna catch the next one. The flight took off and she told her family that she was just gonna sleep at the airport overnight and then hopefully fly to New York the next morning. I mean, not the most fun plan. If you've ever stayed at an airport overnight, you know that it is literally the worst. But Hannah was a 30-year-old woman. She was responsible. I mean, she could handle that kind of thing. She could problem solve and figure it out. Except the next day came around and Hannah didn't book a new flight and she didn't head off to New York. In fact, she was

texting her family and now making these very weird comments about how she was now sightseeing around LA. She even named the specific places that she wanted to visit while she was sightseeing. Particularly, she wanted to go downtown and then she also wanted to go to, it's a pretty well-known, famous high-end outdoor mall, which we call The Grove. Now, in and of itself, it's not unusual to go and see these things, especially during a trip to LA. A lot of people go to The Grove, a lot of people want to see downtown, even though FYI, I would highly advise against it. It is super dangerous right now, but maybe she was just in LA for, you know, a while and decided, hey, while I'm here, rather than sit at the airport, I'm going to go check some things out that are nearby. But you also have to remember with that that Hannah wasn't here for a trip to LA.

She was supposed to be getting to New York, not only to see her family, but for work. And weirdly, Hannah didn't sound like she actually wanted to get to New York. There was no sense of urgency in her text messages. Nothing about trying to find a flight with a seat in it, nothing about trying to problem solve and seem a little chaotic trying to get there. I mean, it would be one thing if she said something like, okay, so I talked to a gate agent and the next flight is available for another day or two. So I decided here's what I'm going to do.

Instead of staying at the airport, I'm going to enjoy my time here while I can. Something like that, right? But there was no indication or any kind of sign that she was even working on rescheduling that flight. It was more like she just wandered out of the airport without even trying to get her trip back on course. Now that was a big deal, because remember, she really wanted to make a name for herself as a photographer.

So the more time that she spent in LA, the more she was now at risk of missing that job that she booked in New York. It was a huge opportunity for her to just walk away from, spent in L. A. The more s of missing that job that It was a huge opportunity walk away from, not to me hurt her reputation if sh client with no advance no she was really excited to

because this was a big de a photographer, one of he was gonna make good money I mean, she, I talked to her a couple of times that week, you know, in depth about what she should bring, what she should wear, you know, how was the weather in New York that she called me out two weeks before that.

And she's like, Auntie Rhee, I got a press pass. I mean, that had been on her bucket list forever to get a paid, yo gig. Um, she'd been worki the past five years. Um, that she sent her mom tha It had, it had, you know, of where to eat, what muse

had a hotel room that she thousand dollars that sta time. Now, she had a hotel know, a couple of $1000, the whole time. Now I've persons cases before. And might be thinking, okay, w isn't the one who sent th going sightseeing and goi just hanging out in L. A.

got her phone and was send her behalf posing as Hannah? What if somebody else had access to her phone? I mean, they definitely could have pretended to be her, right? We've seen that happen more times than I can count. But the good news is that we know for a fact that Hannah did actually go to the Grove. Specifically, she went there on the 9th. She went into a bookstore, she showed up on their surveillance cameras, and she even signed

up for their newsletter. Then, over the course of that same day, she showed up on their surveillance cameras, and she even signed up for their newsletter. Then, over the course of that same day, she ended up making two different transactions on Venmo. Now, the other users on Venmo were not people that her family knew at all. They didn't recognize the names of the people, they didn't recognize any of their information, yet Hannah was sending and receiving money from them. At 6.25 p.m., Hannah sent some money to a woman named Veronica Almenderez. Now in the field where Venmo asks you

what the money is for, where you can put a little note or a memo, Hannah sent two emojis, a box and a bow and arrow. Then a little less than an hour later at 7.19 p.m., Hannah also sent money to a man named Jonathan Taylor. Now this time the memo description box just read, reading. So this is weird, right? I mean we can all agree that this was pretty confusing. She skipped her flight, she decided to hang out in LA for whatever reason, she was not really focused on getting to that

work gig that she had in New York, and now she was sending money to random people who her family didn't even know. But it got even weirder than that on the next day, on the 10th. See, that day, Hannah apparently went to some kind of event at the Nike store in the Grove. And we know that based on two things. First, somebody else who was also at this event

posted a video of all of the people who were there. And for a split second, Hannah showed up in the clip. Here's LeBron James event. So here's the line to get in. You'll walk down the tunnel, try on the new LeBron. On top of that, she also started posting pictures from this event on her Instagram account. So it was definitely weird and kind of odd that you would spend a two-day layover, but maybe she figured, hey, while I'm here, might as well not get to New York early. I've never been to LA. I don't know if she has or not. I'm just saying, let me go sightsee.

Let me go take things in. I get it. Maybe there's some explanation there. So then the day after that Nike event on the 11th, Hannah told her family that she was finally flying to New York. She had booked a flight. She made all of the arrangements. She was going to finish this trip that she had finally flying to New York. She had booked a flight, she made all of the arrangements, she was going to finish this trip

that she had originally planned. And sure enough, she headed to the LA airport, LAX. But instead of actually booking a flight to New York, like she indicated she was going to do, and you know, head across the country, instead Hannah was asking the employees if she could pick up her bag. See, way back on the eighth,

when she first missed that connecting flight, Hannah had also lost her pink suitcase. It had made it all the way to New York, even though she didn't. Then the airport flew the bag all the way back to LA since she never got on the plane to go to New York. So Hannah picked it up when she came back to the airport on the 11th. And this was now basically the complete opposite of what she told her family she was going to do. Instead of flying to New York, she now picked up her things, grabbed her suitcase and all of her belongings so that she could spend more time in California.

And if you're thinking that she must have had a good excuse for all of this, think again. Because that same day, she sent a few very bizarre text messages that didn't make any kind of sense. And then, she stopped contact altogether. You know that the holidays are always such a special time for me because I love finding the perfect gift. Something meaningful that really says I care about you.

So this year, I wanted to go beyond just socks, underwear, and stuff to give my husband, and I wanted to do something that he would actually enjoy and use, so I decided to get him Omaha Steaks. And let me just tell you, he is obsessed. Okay, Omaha Steaks makes it so easy to deliver comfort and joy with their curated gift packages. Their quality is unmatched, too. Every steak is hand selected by master butchers. It's aged for maximum tenderness and flash frozen at peak flavor. So it's truly next level. Now, I recently ordered the filet mignons.

They are USDA certified tender and oh my gosh, they practically melt in your mouth. My husband grilled them with just a little salt and pepper and he could not stop raving. Plus, their sides, like the scalloped potatoes, are like, mm, chef's kiss. It's not just steak, it's like an experience. So if you're looking for a gift that is thoughtful and delicious, Omaha Steaks has you covered. And right now, you can get 50% off site-wide at omahasteaks.com. Plus, you'll get an extra $30 off when you use my promo code AE at checkout. Minimum purchase may apply. But seriously, give the gift of comfort and enjoy this holiday season with Omaha Steaks. That's 50% off at o-m-a-h-a-steaks.com plus $30 off

with promo code AE. Your friends and family will thank you. Trust me. Hey everyone, it's Annie here and I just want to let you in on something that has truly been a game changer in my life lately, and I'm talking about my new Helix mattress. You know we all talk about the importance of sleep, but it's not until you're actually getting great sleep that you realize how much it can impact, well, everything. So let me take you into my figurative bedroom for a minute. But before Helix, I was struggling with staying comfortable throughout the night. I'd wake up with back pain, hip pain, or I would lose a full night of sleep tossing and turning, and I'd feel like I never even slept. But with Helix, that all changed. I took their quick sleep quiz and based on my preferences, Helix matched me with a mattress that was

designed just for me, and they really got it right. So I've had my Helix now for I think two years it is, and honestly, my sleep quality has skyrocketed. I even checked my aura ring, which you guys know I wear, and the data doesn't lie. I'm getting deeper sleep and my restlessness has dropped dramatically. Plus, I'm finally waking up feeling refreshed without any aches and pains. I also got my mom hooked on this. She spent the night one night over Thanksgiving and she's like, oh my god, this bed feels like a cloud. So I got her a Helix and she loves it. So if you're in the market for better sleep, now's the time. Helix is offering a deal of 25% off site-wide and two free dream pillows with any mattress purchase. And if you go with a Lux or Elite model, they're throwing in a free bedding bundle, two Dream

Pillows, a sheet set, and a mattress protector. Just go to helixsleep.com slash serialously to take advantage. Trust me, you deserve this. It has made such a huge difference for me and I think you're going to love it too. So before Hannah cut off contact with her family, she sent a few bizarre texts to the people that she knew. And when I say bizarre, I really do mean it, okay? Nobody was able to make heads or tails of what she was saying.

In one text to a friend, she wrote, Deep hackers wiped my identity, stole all of my funds, and have had me on a mindfuck since Friday. Another one said, I got tricked pretty much into giving all of my funds away for someone that I thought I loved. Now if you take those text messages at face value, it sounds like maybe Hannah had been scammed, that somebody tricked her into handing over some money, right? Maybe got access to her information online, something.

So of course, her friends and her relatives were all asking Hannah for more information. What happened? Who did this? How could they help? All of the things. But Hannah just kept dodging their questions, not really offering any real information. In fact, as the day went on,

her story changed in even weirder ways. She texted her aunt about going through a spiritual awakening. And then later on, she even mentioned something about being quote Intercepted in a metro train. Now I'm gonna be honest right now Nobody knows how to make sense of any of that. To this day No one actually knows what she was trying to say in some of those messages. I've seen some speculation online But since it's speculation, I can't really say how legit it truly is or isn't,

but some people have tried to tie all of these text messages together to see if they are related somehow. For example, one theory that I've heard was that Hannah had made those Venmo payments because she was paying for a psychic reading or a tarot session, you know, card reading, something that might be spiritual or related to a spiritual awakening. But then, they're suggesting, or this theory I should say suggests, that the person she paid might have ripped her off or scammed her. It's all vague, which makes sense because a lot of this is guesswork and not much is based on concrete information, but it is a theory. But then, in one of Hannah's text messages she wrote, I'm just really scared love and the redwoods if calling me and I know I'm meant to be there I'm being guided there like you have

before I risk my freedom if this goes the wrong way for me hun. Now that text message in and of itself felt a little bit off, right? It didn't really quite make a lot of sense. It felt a little not the most comfy, but there was one thing about that text that particularly felt especially off. They all felt off in a lot of ways, again, don't get me wrong, but I do want to highlight this one thing in particular. So when she was texting, Hannah apparently didn't usually call people hun. It just wasn't a term that she used very often. Sometimes in conversations, she would say it out loud,

but there's a difference between using a certain word when you're talking versus taking the time to sit down and type it out, letter by letter, you know, H-U-N, hun. Hannah didn't usually do that. She would say hun verbally, but she usually did not text it. And Hannah didn't just type hun in that one particular text message. She was saying it over and over again.

She was typing it to a whole bunch of different people. So again, the language that she was using was setting off red flags, making people wonder if maybe somebody else was impersonating her, messaging people on her behalf. Or maybe there was even some hidden messages that she was trying to get across. Now on top of all of that, her friends and family said that Hannah usually used emojis all the time. It was constant with her. But in those weird handful of texts that she sent on the 11th, she didn't use a single emoji,

not one. And it kind of, I get it, it sounds like grasping for straws when you first hear it, but if you really do sit back and think about the people that you text on a daily basis, pretty much everyone has a certain way of communicating, right? Certain quirks, certain way that they sound, whether they use abbreviations or punctuations, capital letters, complete sentences, all of those different things. You know how your loved ones and those people closest to you type and text. You can tell if they are talking to you in a normal way or not. And everyone

who knew Hannah agreed that she was not being her normal self. There was nothing normal about this entire situation. And that was all well and good before she ghosted everybody and went completely silent. And it didn't matter who was calling or texting. Beginning around the afternoon of the 11th, she didn't pick up or reply to anyone, and her phone pinged for the very last time at LAX. It was almost like somebody just shut it off. So after this, her family reported her missing,

and the police jumped right into their investigation. One early theory was that Hannah was maybe dead or even badly hurt and being held hostage somewhere. Again, the texts from her phone just didn't sound like something that she would have sent. So it was reasonable to wonder if somebody had done something to her and now they were impersonating her from her phone. But here's the thing. Hannah was seen that day. She was alive and well when she was spotted too. See,

she showed up on surveillance camera that was at a metro station in downtown LA. And she was also not too far from the Crypto.com arena, and when she was spotted, she wasn't alone. Now, as for who she was with, at first, the police wouldn't say. They didn't even announce whether it was a man or a woman at first. And they definitely didn't announce what they looked like. And needless to say, they were so secretive that, of course, the rumors went flying and everybody was coming up with their own theories.

Most people figured that there were a couple of possibilities here. One idea was that Hannah was fine. She was just out sightseeing, living her best life, doing whatever, you know, sparked joy for her. Sure, she was sending some very weird texts, but that could have been because she was too focused on her time in LA and having too much fun to be overly worried about getting, you know, all of her wording right or her normal punctuation or sending the perfectly crafted message. But another possibility though,

one that the majority ran with was that Hannah was really in trouble. Maybe the person that she was with was monitoring Hannah's conversation. I mean, they could have made it hard for her to come right out and ask for help, but she might've been trying to slip in little clues here and there into her conversations to signal to the people who knew her the best that things were not okay. Saying things like, hun, not using emojis, hoping that somebody might read between the lines.

Now, I've also seen some speculation that her companion maybe coached her on what to say. So the reason that the messages didn't sound like Hannah were because they weren't crafted from Hannah. Meaning even if she was the one physically pushing the buttons and typing out the words, that somebody else might've been dictating it, word for word, everything that she had to say. Those second two possibilities also sound a lot more likely when you keep in mind that some of the LAPD officers

showed that Metro security camera footage to her family. And later, when they described that footage to the press, they said that Hannah did not look well. Unfortunately, they didn't get into detail about what exactly it was about her appearance that made them so alarmed and so worried, but the point is they were upset, and they were getting as much press attention as they could to try and raise awareness. And really, it worked, because around this time, Hannah's case was a huge news story. There were theories all over the internet.

Everybody had a take on what was going on with her. And I'm going to take a moment to share some of these theories, because I do think that they're important to the overall story and worth covering. Now, of course, anytime I dive into speculation like this, you know what I say. Do your own research. Don't believe things just because I repeat them. And I'm not necessarily endorsing any of these ideas either, but I just want to present these ideas to you so that you can make your own conclusions. So one theory was that Hannah was trafficked. And I feel like you actually hear that one a lot. Almost anytime that somebody goes missing, people jump to the idea of being trafficked. But in this case, the evidence

actually did fit a bit with the idea of trafficking. She had texted about giving all of her money away to somebody that she loved. So maybe a predator groomed her into thinking that they were in love, thinking they had something real. And then the person took her money and her phone and made sure that she couldn't get away and abducted her. Now another theory that I've read is that she went to Los Angeles to join a cult. And again, that did fit with the text messages that she had sent about having that spiritual awakening. That's like the trigger word for every cult, right? It's like that's the entry fee is spiritual awakening, it seems like. Now again, these are just rumors, which I haven't been able to verify

But she was following some Sketchy Instagram accounts. I'll leave it at that sketchy these accounts were like twin flames types accounts and They existed to sort of promote certain viewpoints to lure people in and if you know anything about me You know that I do not believe in the twin flames nonsense I believe in having a soulmate sure the twin flames cult stuff I do not believe in for a second and if you haven't watched the documentary on escaping twin flames I highly recommend that you do so but also I did a full episode breaking this down my sister joined me on it

So I'll link that in the show notes, but to me it feels like another me on it. So I'll link that in the show notes. But to me, it feels like another guy and his wife, now wife, I believe, who are just trying to extort people for money. All they care about is money, showing their flashy cars, their flashy money. Of course, in order to participate, you have to give a percentage of all of your earnings to them. It feels very Scientology-esque, and not like elk. But instead of promising you what a Scientologist even promised and blinking. It's like the divine future or spiritual enlightenment. They're promising you the love of your life, a soulmate. So much so that they do make some people change genders, too. It's pretty wild. So I digress, but let me just, I want to throw that out there.

So she was following some of these types of accounts, which is very concerning in and of itself to me. Now, somebody else said that she was catfished. That Hannah missed her flight and then stayed in LA for somebody who just never even existed. And then things just got worse from there. So I mean the theories just went on and on. Some of them were super wild, super off-the-wall and outlandish, but some did seem possible. So either way, to recap, Hannah was texting people and seen on surveillance footage on the 11th. And then after that, there was a huge search. Everyone was looking for Hannah, hoping that she would turn up safe and sound. Her parents flew to LA, they started putting up flyers, they hung them all over the city,

and they got to be very involved with the search. And the search lasted for two weeks. And during that time, nobody could find her. There was no sign of her anywhere. Not only did nobody find Hannah, but they also didn't find any new evidence. I mean, besides the surveillance video and the text that I already covered, there was not a single clue about what might have happened to her. So a lot of people who knew Hannah and loved her

started speaking up. There was a huge push to get her name and her face in the news. They wanted to raise awareness. They wanted to make sure that everyone was watching out for her. Now, even though a lot of people were speaking up, there were three people in particular who were very central in a lot of this coverage. They kept showing up in interviews and in social media posts.

And everywhere else for that matter. They were just everywhere all the time. These people were her sister Sydney, her dad Ryan, and her aunt Loree. Her family even made a Facebook account that was dedicated to finding Hannah. And that's where they shared all of their updates. And let me just say this page did numbers. I mean, everyone was so fascinated. How could people not be?

I'm not going to repeat myself by rehashing the same points over and over again, guys. Don't worry. But for real, Hannah's disappearance was so weird and so impossible to explain. So, of course, any kind of mystery like that draws people in. But unfortunately, with that, and we see this sometimes with true crime cases that are really buzzy, some people don't approach the situation with respect. Some people want to treat a disappearance like this almost like a game, if you will. So some people even began attacking Hannah's family, picking apart their news reports, their

appearances, every little bit and piece that they would say, just saying a lot of really hurtful and, quite honestly, unfair things, trying to get attention, trying to get clicks, trying to show their own unique theory. For example, her dad Ryan and her aunt Loree gave a particular interview on November 21st. In this interview, like in any missing persons case, the interviewer was asking basic questions about Hannah, what she was like, what she loved, what her interests were. And throughout the interview, her dad Ryan continuously used the past tense when he was referring to her. You know, saying things like Hannah was like this or she was like that instead of saying she is like this, she is like that.

And Ryan, if you could talk to her, if she could see this message from you, if she could see some of your appearances, what would be could talk to her, if she could see this message from you, if she could see some of your appearances, what would be your message to her? Love you, Hannah. You know, just love all the love and support she has. Everybody's praying for her safe return. And you know, we're just grateful for everything that everybody's been outpouring.

It's been overwhelming. Yeah. And what is she like as a person? Oh, she's the kindest heart, you know? and it's been overwhelming. Yeah. And what is she like as a person? Oh, she's the kindest heart, you know. And everything about her was just beautiful, you know. Now this drove people absolutely nuts. They were all of course suggesting that the reason he was using the past tense

was because he must have known that she was dead, or even worse, that he had something to do with it. Like, he killed her or he had her killed. And for what it's worth, I'm just gonna say, I don't think that this is exactly a slam dunk piece of evidence, not by any stretch. Sometimes that's just how people talk. You might say something like, oh, I haven't talked to that friend in 10 years or so, but she was really nice. Okay, just because you're saying she was really nice doesn't mean she's dead, right? You might also say I used to hang out with this guy and he was so cool. It doesn't mean that that person is missing or that that person is dead. It's just a normal way of speaking. So the point in all of that is

that Hannah's family was getting a lot of hate and it just really did not seem fair. But they also didn't take a lot of time to try and defend themselves or try and set the record straight because, quite honestly, that just wasn't their main priority. They wanted Hannah to come home, safe and sound. But sadly, with each day that passed, that felt less and less likely. Which I can imagine how terrible it would be to worry about a loved one, be terrified for their well-being. And then on top of that, as they become internet famous, you see all of these online theories

about what awful things might have happened to them online. It's horrible. So it probably wasn't helpful or encouraging to be surrounded by all of that negativity all the time. But what else could they do? They weren't going to give up on Hannah. Time is of the essence and it's st are terrified. We're thin

thinking of things like w Um, you know, the word an the word trafficked. Then there was a huge update in Hannah's case but unfortunately it didn't have anything to actually do with Hannah or her whereabouts. Instead on that day every headline in every newspaper was all about how her father Ryan had been found dead near LAX, that same airport where Hannah missed her connecting flight. Now the initial coverage didn't exactly say what his cause of death was, how he was

found nothing. All of these articles were just saying the same thing, the big idea that Ryan was dead and that he had been found near LAX. That was really it. So with no hard evidence or clear details on what had actually happened, I'm sure you can guess what happened next. The rumors and the conspiracy theories, they started flying. Some people were speculating that he was killed by whoever hurt or took Hannah. Maybe he got too close to the truth. Maybe he was on their trail,

on their scent, and because of that he was killed over it. So because of all of these theories, eventually the LAPD had to come forward and share the truth. And the truth was that Ryan had taken his own life. He jumped off a parking structure near the LAX airport sometime around 4 a.m. on the 24th. We're getting triplets, you know, we just know that it's like what they've been telling us is that it's serious. The words like human trafficking, abduction, those are becoming a reality in our life. And I think that's another reason that Ryan just,

he just couldn't handle that reality. Now, even with this information now being released and being made public, a lot of people had their hot takes on the situation. Out of respect for the family, I'm not gonna be covering them, mostly because they are ridiculous and I don't think that there's anything to gain from putting those theories out there.

I mean, they're already out there if you want to look, so I guess if you really want to know, you can just go hit up Google. But there are some wild theories. But here's what I do know. Hannah's dad, Ryan, and she didn't have the strongest relationship. He admitted to that during the searches. There were long periods of time where they weren't even in contact with one another. And then, once she went missing, that was all really difficult on him. I mean, a child's disappearance would be difficult for any parent

to go through, of course. But now, add on this feeling of regret, a sense that you only had a small, precious amount of time left with your daughter. And then you spent that time fighting and not speaking. And now you might never not even have a chance to rebuild a stronger relationship. I can definitely see how that might have made him start feeling hopeless. And there's one quote that he gave in an interview that I personally have not been able to get out of my head.

He said, I wasn't too close with her growing up. We hadn't had contact for a while. I'm just trying to make up. I'm trying to get her back. That's my main focus. Her aunt, Laree, also described Ryan and Hannah's relationship in a separate interview. Take a listen.

I just wish that I could have been there more for her, you know? And now you are. Yeah, trying, you know. You know, it's just... Yeah. What's up? Trying to get closer to her, trying to find her, it's everything. This was just gut-wrenching, and I feel so much for the Kobayashi family,

because to lose one loved one to a disappearance, and then for another relative to take his own life. It's beyond words. But for their part, they tried to keep the focus where they felt like it mattered. They knew that if Ryan was still around, he would want Hannah to be found. So while it was too late to help Ryan, there was still a chance that Hannah might be out there alive. So everyone kept doing what they had been doing. The police were running their investigations, the family members were speaking out, the police weren't releasing many updates, so I don't know exactly what they were looking at or what they had found, but I

hope that it was helpful. And in the meantime, the keyboard detectives, they were riled up. Still throwing out their theories, still pointing fingers, still making accusations, but still trying to raise awareness. So at least that part was good in all of it. Now, when I say that Hannah's disappearance went viral, I truly mean it. As I said in the beginning of this episode, I would really be shocked if any of you clicked on this podcast or the video version of it without at least knowing a tiny bit about this case. Heck, even Dogg the Bounty Hunter weighed in on this and got involved in the discourse that was going on Because get this he and Hannah were actually distant family friends and and dog you actually knew

Hannah which I kind of wondered about because you're from Hawaii Hannah's from Hawaii. I know you've got a lot of connections there What do you know about her? Well, it wasn't me actually that nerd was my daughter Cecily and Well, it wasn't me, actually. That nerd was my daughter, Cecily, and Hannah had spent the night three or four times with us in Oahu, in Honolulu. And then Hannah, you know, moved on to Maui. But I agree with Jennifer 100%. You know, we used to teach our real children, we used to danger. And now it's gett

Hannah's 30 years or 30 31 beware. There are things in California. There are are unbelievable. And you was snatched. And one thi to God that she's still alive. So everything is continuing to go viral. It feels like things are finally coming to a swell.

And then finally the investigators got one of the biggest breaks that they had been waiting for. They identified the person who Hannah was with on that surveillance video. OK, tell me if this sounds familiar. You sign up for a streaming service to watch the one show that everybody's talking about, cough cough Yellowstone, and then months later you realize you're still paying for it, even though you finished the show ages ago.

Been there, right? That is exactly why I got Rocket Money, because it has been a total game changer for me. Rocket Money is this amazing personal finance app that lets you find and cancel unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and even helps you lower your bills, so it's honestly like having a financial assistant right in your pocket. I love that it shows me all my subscriptions in one place — I had no idea how many I wasn't even using anymore — and cancelling them? So easy. Rocket Money does all of the heavy lifting for you. But it doesn't stop there. RocketMoney gives you a clear view of your expenses across all of your accounts, and

it even alerts you if a bill increases in price or if there's unusual spending activity. Plus, they can help navigate your bills for you, so no sitting on hold with customer service. Seriously, they saved me hundreds in just the first few months of using it. So if you're ready to cancel those unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster, go to rocketmoney.com slash AE today. That's rocketmoney.com slash AE. You're going to love how much easier it is managing your finances with RocketMoney. So I don't know about you, but I'm all about finding ways to make my health journey more convenient and less stressful, and that's why I'm excited to share Roe with you.

If you've been curious about medications like Ozempic or WeGoBe, but you aren't sure if you qualify or if your insurance covers them, Ro is here to help. Ro doesn't just stop at helping you understand if GLP-1s are right for your goals, but they provide support throughout the entire process. That means no insurance paperwork and access to your provider on demand for any questions. Which, seriously, how amazing is that? And the best part, you can do it all online from the comfort of your own home. No waiting for in-person doctor's appointments, no commute, no just sitting in waiting rooms. Roe makes it so easy to take the first step. So join over the 250,000 people who have already chosen Roe to access GLP-1s and take control of their health. Go to roe.co.a.e to find out if you're covered

for free. That's ro.co.a.e. And for boxed warning and full safety information, go to ro.co.safety. Prescription only. Now the police still haven't come out publicly and said who this person was, who was with Hannah in that Metro security video. So for ordinary people like you and me, it's impossible to say who Hannah was with during the last day that she was seen in LA. But we do know a little bit more about this person than we did before. First of all, we know that it was a man. We also know that once he was identified, this guy cooperated fully with the investigation.

He went in, he gave a statement, he swore up and down that he had absolutely nothing to do with Hannah going missing and Whatever his alibi was it was good enough that the police accepted it They don't think that he played any role in her disappearance, but unfortunately, that's all we know about this guy right now Nobody has come forward to explain what this guy was doing with Hannah or who he was Nobody has said if they were spending the day together or if he just happened to be next to her for a brief period of time while she was spotted on camera. There is a lot that we don't know. And I think that is all done intentionally and on purpose.

I think that the police are keeping a lot of the information pretty close to their chests. Either way, from what I can tell, this guy has been completely cleared. Now, the next big update came a few days later on November 26th and let me just say this one was a huge twist. This was a humongous shift in terms of how the police were now viewing the case and how they were going to be investigating it. Because that day the Board of Police Commissioners met and

the investigators gave an update saying that they believed Hannah had missed her connecting flight on purpose. Meaning, they didn't think that she was just delayed, that she missed her boarding announcement by accident. They think that this was intentional. They also said that they didn't think that anyone or anything helped keep her from making it to New York, that it was all done on her own accord. They thought that her plan from the beginning was to always get stranded in LA. Now, unfortunately, they didn't explain how they came to that conclusion.

They didn't say if they found some new evidence, or if maybe they were just looking at the fact that she was sightseeing, texting people, and seemingly fine, and then drew a conclusion based on that. But either way, if the police are right about missing her flight on purpose, there is a lot to unpack there, a lot to figure out. Because a lot of people were wondering why she would even do that. What was she hoping to gain by skipping that flight to New York? I mean, if she just wanted to visit Los Angeles, she definitely could have done that. She didn't need to go through all of the hoops of booking a job in New York, then missing her flight, missing the

gig, lying to her parents, acting like she was trying to rebook a new flight. It just didn't make much sense. She was a grown 30-year-old woman. She could have just said, I wanna stay in LA or I'm going to LA. So on top of that, the police were also taking a big risk with this new announcement,

because some people might hear that she stayed in LA on purpose and figure that that meant that she wasn't in any kind of trouble at all. And if she wasn't abducted or if she wasn't forced to stay in the city, then maybe her case wasn't a high priority. Maybe people would stop looking for her, because it would seem that it wasn't as important to find her as quickly.

Maybe she was just a runaway who wanted to be left alone. Well Hannah's family didn't want her case to just fall through the cracks, so they stayed extremely active online. They kept giving interviews, they kept releasing new updates. And then the biggest update came on December 2, 2024. That was the date of a huge press conference where the LAPD announced that Hannah had officially been classified as a voluntary missing person. Meaning, like I said before, it didn't sound like anyone had done anything to Hannah,

or at least, the police didn't think that anybody had. Now, of course, they had already said that she had stayed in LA on purpose. But now, by saying that she was a voluntary missing person, they were also saying that they thought that the entire disappearance was voluntary. It's not like she intentionally skipped her flight and then something bad happened to her. Instead, to hear the police tell it, they just thought that Hannah was out of contact because she wanted to be out of contact.

Now as for how they came to this conclusion? Well it turns out that on November 11th, Hannah was at Union Station. Union Station is a huge travel hub in LA. Most of the metro, subway trains, and buses all have stops there. There's also a Greyhound bus and Amtrak stops that go out of there. So if you want to get from Los Angeles to just about anywhere else and you're not flying or driving, you're probably going to be stopping through Union Station. Now when Hannah was spotted, she was wearing a sweat suit and she had a pink suitcase with her.

Now I also think it's worth mentioning that this sighting was late in the day. It was late afternoon. It was after she had sent her last few text messages to her friends and family members, meaning that she was still a free person. She was still alive, still okay, after she ghosted everyone. And while she was at Union Station,

she bought a bus ticket that was gonna get her to the Mexican border. It would get her all the way to southern San Diego, as far as you can go while you're still technically in the United States. She paid for this ticket with all cash, almost like she was hoping that nobody would be able to track this purchase. Then, the next morning, at about 6-10 a.m., she took the bus out of town. Unfortunately, weeks had passed between the time that Hannah took the bus and when the police realized that's what she had done. So by the time that they realized that they needed to get to the border to try to find Hannah, it was already too late.

The investigators learned that all the way back on November 12th, witnesses had seen her walking into Mexico on foot. That was 12 days before her dad took his own life. Now there was a surveillance video of her that was filmed at 12-13 p.m. And in that clip, she was clearly alone. Nobody was forcing her along. Nobody was kidnapping her. Hannah didn't seem injured or harmed. She also still had her luggage with her. She had that pink suitcase that she had flown with all the way from Hawaii to LA, then it traveled to New York and back to her in LA. I mean, she had picked it up and it was with her

now. So clearly this was enough for the police to believe that this was a voluntary disappearance. They still thought that she left willingly, and apparently they didn't only base this conclusion on the fact that she walked across the border on her own, but also on a comment that she had made at some point before the disappearance Unfortunately, I don't know when Hannah said this or who she said it to and I don't know the exact context But I do know that she said that she wanted to quote Disconnect from the world. So from the sound of it, that's exactly what she did She ditched her phone at LAX because it was found

there later. She cut off all of her loved ones. She disconnected about as much as it was possible to do and then she left the country. She left behind very worried friends, family members, all who had no idea why she would ever do this or if she would ever come back home. LAPD Missing Persons Unit has conducted extensive witness interviews, reviewed video surveillance, and collaborated with local and federal law enforcement agencies on this case. To date, the investigation has not uncovered any evidence that Kobayashi is being trafficked or is the victim of foul play. She is also not a suspect in any criminal activity. Additionally, the investigators noted that before departing Maui, Kobayashi expressed the desire to step away from modern

connectivity. Our priority is ensuring Ms. Kobayashi's safety and well-being, and we urge Ms. Kobayashi to contact her family, law enforcement, or personnel at the U.S. Embassy to let us know that she is safe. She has a right to her privacy and we respect her choices, but we also understand that the concern her loved ones feel for her. A simple message could reassure those who care about her. While the LAPD investigation will not continue into Mexico, if anyone has credible information about Hannah's whereabouts, please contact local law enforcement. If anyone has credible information about Hannah's whereabouts, please contact local law enforcement. If Kobayashi returns to the United States, law enforcement will

be notified. The missing person case will remain active in the missing and unidentified person's system until her safety is confirmed by law enforcement." So all of this sounds like, okay, the case is all said and done, right? She left on her own, she didn't want to be found, that's that. Well Hannah's family doesn't seem to think so. After this press conference, the internet was going crazy. The announcement didn't discourage people or calm things down. In fact, the opposite was true.

Hannah's sister Sydney said in an interview that the whole family still believes that she was being controlled when she crossed the border. They don't believe that she willingly just walked into Mexico leaving her whole life behind her like it was nothing. I'm joined now by Hannah's sister, Sydney Kobayashi, and the family's attorney who's a very familiar face on this program, Sarah Azari, NewsNation's legal analyst. Thank you to both of you. Sydney, I want to begin with you.

And first of all, I'm just really sorry that you and your family are are going through what you're going through. I cannot imagine what it's like. And then to sort of see this this news conference, do you have any idea why Hannah is staying silent so long? I honestly, I. I said this from day one, I feel like she is in danger. I feel like this is completely out of character for her. I've known her my entire life. She's been one of my best friends. She's always kept in contact with the family.

She's always checked in and this is just absolutely out of her character. And especially after, you know, if she had seen what happened with my father and his passing, she would have definitely reached out by now. There's no way that she wouldn't have reached out knowing the person, the type of person that she is. reached out knowing the person, the type of person that she is. So Sydney, we all learned yesterday with the news conference that Hannah had crossed on foot, seemingly by herself of her own volition into Mexico. When did you and the family learn about that detail? We learned the same day that the public did. And that is very frustrating. It's very disturbing.

Wow, you weren't given any advance notice? No, no, not at all. We, you know, they claim to have been informing us They claim to have been informing us as up to date as possible with everything and whatnot, but we've literally found out the same day that they released this press conference, which wasn't even ran by us. And that's where they decided to let us know. Had we have known that she had crossed the border on the 12th, that would have given us so much more of a different direction of where to look and what to do as far as this is concerned.

So no, that's absolutely, it's just mind blowing to me that they're saying this, that they kept us in contact No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, phone. She never would have given everything up without a word of explanation. She never would have wanted something like this. And even if she did want to do that, she was too considerate to just take off like that. Up until this, everyone who knew Hannah had also known that she was just such a caring person. She would never in a million years put her family through this kind of pain and heartache, especially not her dad, who you'll remember, took his own life during this search. So assuming Hannah is who everyone believes that she is, and she hasn't been hiding some deep dark side of herself for her whole life, she wouldn't let this happen. She would have come forward and explained what was going on by now.

I mean that is, according to her family, if she had any say in the matter. And if anything, the fact that she still hadn't reached out after her father Ryan's death, it just proved that something weird was going on with her. And one possible theory, a possible explanation, came from an article that was published in Los Angeles Magazine. This article was published on December 4th, and the article was called, Did Hannah Kobayashi Secretly Marry for Money? Which I bet you can guess what this author's theory was. Because according to this article,

Hannah's mother actually found some kind of documents a short while before she went missing. And these documents showed that she was married and that she had recently had a wedding with an Argentinian man. -♪ married and that she had recently had a wedding with an Argentinian man. Have you noticed how the days are getting shorter but somehow your to-do list keeps getting longer? Just me? Not sure, but it definitely is.

So that's why I'm so glad that I found Factor, America's number one ready-to-eat meal delivery service. They have been an absolute lifesaver for my busy days. Factor makes it so easy to power through your day with chef-prepared, dietitian-approved meals that are fresh, never frozen, and ready in just two minutes. And whether you're a routine person or you like switching things up, Factor has 35 different delicious meals every week, plus over 60 extra options like keto cookies, pressed juices, and smoothies. Seriously, they've got everything.

And the meals are amazing, from feel-good comfort foods like homestyle chicken and gravy, to globally inspired flavors like Peruvian shrimp and red pepper collie grits. Everything is just packed with flavor. And don't even get me started on their gourmet plus options because the truffle butter filet mignon, I mean, it is so good, it's like having a restaurant quality meal without the takeout prices. Factor also saves me so much time. There's no shopping, no prep, no mess, so I can focus on important things, especially during these shorter, busier days as we prep for the holidays. I recently got hooked on their pressed juices.

I grab one every single time I leave my house. I just pull it out of the refrigerator and it just like makes me feel like I'm being so much more healthy. It makes my gut feel all good and not to get TMI, but you know what I mean? But like it's just I love it. It's like a staple in my morning now. So if you're ready to make life easier and stay fueled this season, head to factormeals.com slash 50 AE and use code 50 AE to get 50% off your first box plus free shipping. That's factormeals.com slash 50 AE and code 50 AE for 50% off and free shipping.

Trust me, you will thank me later. shipping. Trust me, you will thank me later. Now I know, stay with me. It sounds pretty out there, very lifetime movie-esque, and this all could just be another conspiracy theory. But it was published in a legit magazine. Meaning, there must be or should be some sort of evidence to back this up. At least the fact that the mom found the wedding certificate or license or whatever material she did find. I mean, it couldn't all

be completely made up and out of thin air. So anyway, as the theory went, Hannah's new husband was a man named Alan Kokoske. And allegedly, when Hannah missed her flight from LA to New York, somebody else was on that plane. Not just her ex-boyfriend, but Alan and Alan's girlfriend. It's said that when Hannah missed her connecting flight, Alan stayed in LA with her, all while his girlfriend and Hannah's ex went on to complete the trip to New York. But according to this article, Hannah and Alan's wedding wasn't the result

of some sort of secret whirlwind romance. Instead, Alan was allegedly scamming her. Now, unfortunately, the LA Magazine article is pretty vague about how that scam actually worked. It talked about it as both an immigration scam, but also a financial scam, but it didn't get into the details. So reading between the lines here,

it sounds to me like Alan maybe married Hannah in order to get US citizenship, by being married to a citizen, or maybe to get her money, or both, who knows? And then somehow, this plot involved him getting to Los Angeles with Hannah, and then her walking across the border into Mexico. Which I don't know, I don't know how that works or how that comes into play, those pieces don't totally add up for me. It could be true, maybe Hannah did get married, and maybe that did have something to do with her motives for going missing. Or maybe

Alan or somebody else was involved in this alleged scam and did something to her. But it's all hard to say given what we actually do and don't know. I think that if Hannah did get married, that must be pretty easy to verify and find out. There should be a paper trail, a wedding license, a certificate, all of those things. But of course, the question of whether she's married or not isn't necessarily the biggest question we need answered here. There's also the question of how deep people even should be digging. At what point do we decide that Hannah's okay, and we should just respect her privacy, and that she did all of this willingly? Or when do we decide to listen to her parents versus the police and

suspect that she is in some real trouble here? I mean, could she have been scammed by this Alan guy and his girlfriend? If all four of them were on the flight, the ex-boyfriend, Hannah, Alan, the Alan's girlfriend, that's a pretty big coincidence, right? To all be on the same flight, that seems like it was done intentionally. So does the ex-boyfriend know anything about this? Maybe he has shared things with the police, and they just haven't publicly announced that yet, because the investigation is ongoing. They haven't, to my knowledge, announced that the investigation

is officially closed. Maybe it is based on their statement. I don't know. Or was Alan and his girlfriend, like,ing her Hannah and scamming her? Did Hannah know that there was a girlfriend involved? Did she even know that she was on the flight? Was she in secret and then she found out at the connecting flight? I don't know. Something is very very weird. Or could it have been and I'm just like going here, this is definitely a conspiracy theory here but my mind is just like in a lifetime movie cycle right now at the connecting flight when they all de-planned in LA, when they were waiting to get on the

next flight, could Hannah have seen Alan with his girlfriend? Maybe a secret kiss. Maybe they were talking. Maybe she realized everything was fake and maybe she was so embarrassed that she was scammed that she wanted to get away to Mexico. Could that be why she sent those text messages saying, I was scammed. I had a spiritual awakening, somebody I thought I loved, it was identity theft, it was all those things. Did the girlfriend steal Hannah's identity? I don't know. But there's something, if there's truth to what this article is saying about Hannah's mom discovering that she

was secretly married to Alan, and that Alan had a girlfriend, and they were all on that flight together, there's something else weird here. I feel like until Hannah just outright comes out and says on video, I'm okay, I'm alive, I just wanted to get the heck away from everybody. I mean, the theories are going to swirl, the questions are still there, and still her family has no peace. And layer in the other horrific layer of her dad, right? Whatever reason she had for leaving, going to Mexico,

now her trying to grapple with the fact that her father was so distraught by her disappearance that he took his own life. Maybe that's why she left him. No, because that was 12 days after. So that wouldn't be why she left Mexico. It's very interesting. Now, this is all incredibly mysterious and confusing, right? Nobody seems to be able to make heads or tails of what really happened here

What's the situation and in another twist that kind of shocked everybody just last week? Literally the day after I originally recorded this her mom and sister released a statement through their attorney saying they found Hannah They said we are incredibly relieved and grateful that Hannah has been found safe. This past month has been an unimaginable ordeal for our family, and we kindly ask for privacy as we take the time to heal and process everything that we have been through. We want to express our heartfelt thanks to everyone who supported us during this difficult time. Your kindness and concern have meant the world to us. Now apparently Hannah even spoke to a member of the family and told them that she was in fact this difficult time. Your kindness and concern have meant the world to us." Now, apparently,

Hannah even spoke to a member of the family and told them that she was, in fact, safe. People are wondering, was this conversation in person? Was it a phone call? Was it a text message? Was it truly Hannah? And an LAPD spokesperson said, "...we are happy to learn that Hannah has been found safe. Now that we have this new information, this has become a private matter and we will wrap up our investigation." Okay now, although Hannah has been found, there is now an article too that has come out from the Daily Mail where they're alleging they know the real reason why she disappeared and what this whole thing was about and it does go back to the secret marriage. So in this article from Daily Mail, and I'm going to just read it because they are the source

and they're the ones making these allegations, but they say that not only was it due to this secret marriage but that it was actually all part of a bigger plan. And it was a green card immigration scam, saying that on that same flight, not only was she on that flight with her ex-boyfriend, but as I mentioned, she was also on it with her husband, this new husband, Alan. In addition to that, it was Alan's girlfriend, Marianne, who also, get this, is married to Hannah's ex-boyfriend.

You're hearing that right, which let me just break that down again because I know it's like very, very messy and I don't have a flowchart But it's basically it was Hannah and her ex-boyfriend on this flight Hannah's new husband Alan plus Hannah's ex-boyfriend's wife Mary Ann who also happens to be dating Alan So it's kind of like this not even love triangle But this messy love square which it begs the question was is everybody in on this and was it a double kind of immigration? It begs the question was everybody in on this and was it a double kind of immigration scam? But they are alleging in this article that the only reason they were even on this plane together and taking this trip and doing this marriage And all of the things was because Alan Hannah's husband allegedly gave Hannah 15 000 dollars He also gave her the promise of another 15 000000 once the immigration documents were issued that allowed him to stay in the United States.

So apparently they're saying, and I'm quoting here, the ruse of their sham marriage was already in the works after they tied the knot in October. Pictures of the ceremony were shown to Hannah's colleagues at the Up and Smoke Smoke Shop in Maui where she worked. They also say that she had a list once they got to New York where they were going to take photos in front of, you know, the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, Central Park, all to further prove that they were married, that they're in love, and hopefully persuade the immigration officials. But what's weird about all of this is that a

co-worker of Hannah's said, there was no secret here. She told us about her plans. They had planned to hop on this trip the last minute because it presented an opportunity for photos of their, quote, romantic vacation, again, to further persuade the immigration officials. But her colleagues also said that Hannah had mixed feelings about going on this trip, feeling not only both excited about checking off a location that was on her bucket list, but also frustrated that she was going to have to share a flight with

her ex-boyfriend. But again, if you're all in on this plan together, which who knows if they were, why would that frustrate you? It also still doesn't make a whole lot of sense as to why she disappeared. Why didn't she get on the connecting flight, did she get cold feet, and is that what those text messages meant? That she was a part of some sort of scam, that somebody had committed identity theft because maybe she didn't want to get caught for that, that she had this quote spiritual awakening because she now realized what she was doing was wrong, yet that doesn't explain why she went to Mexico. It also doesn't explain why she didn't reach out to her family, her dad, or anything like that.

So there still are just a lot of questions about this. It still isn't really making a whole lot of sense. However, I also will say this, that ever since her family came out with that statement about her being found and them wanting privacy, they also have said that anybody who donated to their GoFundMe, they would allow refunds up until December 18th. Which their online fundraiser on GoFundMe raised over $47,000. So they said not only are they turning off donations, but that any donor who wants a refund can submit a claim by December 18th and that it'll be honored. Her

family also has now spoken out just this last weekend saying that Hannah is refusing to return home from Mexico, that she is not going back to Maui. They also are saying, her sister and her mom, they've said they haven't even physically seen Hannah. They have spoken with her on the phone, but they say, quote, we do not have actual proof of where she is other than she is somewhere in Mexico, but they say, quote, we do not have actual proof of where she is, other than she is somewhere in Mexico. But they say that she does not want to return home. They also are talking about the Aunt Larrie, who has been very involved in this, of course,

as well. And what's interesting is they're actually saying now that they don't even consider Larrie as family, saying that they were kind of criticizing the statement that her aunt gave about Hannah being missing and how she handled the media, so they say they no longer consider her family. And the direct quote was, 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." So I don't know what's going on here. I don't know why she's still in Mexico. Her family physically has not seen her, yet she refuses to come home. Is there still something weird going on? Like what's the truth here? A lot of people still have questions like is this really the end? What still caused her to leave? Was this, like some some have suggested a Sherry Papini, Carly Russell type situation? Was this something else? When did she talk to the family member? Was it in person? Is she still with somebody else in Mexico? Like they just are saying okay we found her we want privacy but people are kind of like okay

well what happened? And look I don't know what the truth is. I am hopeful for Hannah's sake that this was just her leaving, whether it's mental health struggles or something else, that there was nothing like foul play or nefarious here. But I will say this should serve, if it was at all, for attention, for whatever selfish reason, Sherry Papini, Elk, whatever it is, iferry, pepini, elk, whatever it is, if it was that, which I'm not saying it is, I don't think it is one way or another, but if it is, it should serve as a cautionary tale for anybody who is thinking of pulling a stunt like that in the future because you want attention or because you just want a few days alone or whatever it is,

look at the fallout. Not only look at the fallout because of the wasted resources, the public concern, the worry, look at the fallout with her dad. He was so distraught and devastated by this that he took his own life. So I think sometimes people, again like Sherry or like Carly Russell, they do these things thinking it's either going to get me attention or it's just because I selfishly want a few days away and I don't know what else to say except that I was abducted or that something happened, but they're not taking it a step further to think, okay, who am I affecting in the ripple of all of this? Who is going, who might be so distraught of my disappearance that they might take their own life? It's not just a few-day break for me, you are

doing some permanent damage and again I am not at all suggesting that that's what happened here with Hannah. We don't know but if it is that and if now they just want to wipe their hands clean and say okay we're settling this privately our family's been through something I just think that that's something to consider for other people who may think that they want to take that path in the future like the Sherry Papinis and Carly Russell's of the world. That's just you know my soapbox statement for today. They're still not giving any answers though as to what this is, what really happened. So it doesn't seem like it was something mentally health related if

this marriage square scam triangle situation thing is true, but like what is really going on here? And again you layer in the fact of everything that happened with her dad. It's just what's going on? What is going on? And where is her you know husband, fake husband, Alan, whoever he is, his girlfriend, his are they answering questions? What's going on with her ex-boyfriend? Has he been arrested as part of this scam? Like what is actually happening here? I am very confused. So I wanna know your thoughts.

And all to say, even if this case is technically closed, and even if Hannah did disappear voluntarily, there are still a lot of questions that do not have clear answers. There's a lot that we don't know. So I think it's safe to say that Hannah's story is far from over. But let me know what you think.

Let me know in the Q&A section on Spotify. Maybe I'll put up a poll saying, do you think this was voluntary or not? Let me know in the Apple review section on Apple. You can just leave a review and let me know in the commentary area what you think. Please put five stars if you do leave a review. But I don't know.

I have a lot of questions. So I'm definitely interested to hear what you think. And of course, if you are watching the video version of this on YouTube, let me know in the comment section over there. If you have no idea that I even have a YouTube, I do. It is called 10 Like the Number to Life, almost like a death sentence or a prison sentence, 20 to life, but 10 to life. There we have all of these episodes in a video format version where you can see photos, see the videos, see videos of me on the mic talking about this case, and then I have a whole plethora of other cases. I usually release an additional two episodes over on YouTube,

true crime episodes on YouTube every week. So check that out if you haven't yet. All right, guys. Thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode to hear the Hanako Byashi story. So let me know what you think Alright guys until the next one. Stay safe. Don't join any cults. Don't definitely don't join Twin Flames Don't disappear always tell your friends and family where you are and just try to watch your back. Okay I think that's all the PSA is I've got for you today I'll be back on the mic with you first thing Thursday morning with headline highlights where we are breaking down Everything going on this week in the true crime world the new news with Jay Z all of the updates happening with that with the lawsuit Updates with the CEO. I mean so many updates going on this week and some brand new cases as well

So tune into that on Thursday and just to make sure that you don't miss it Take a moment hit subscribe to this podcast or follow or whatever the verbage is so that you, it's free, but so that you don't miss those episodes. That was really long-winded. I'm going to sign off. All right, until next time. Bye guys. Transcribed by https://otter.ai