More often than not, traveling is an exciting adventure and a way to embrace life. But there's a dark side to traveling as well, and sometimes it ends in tragedy. Take the troubling story of this 31-year-old Hawaiian woman. She went missing while on her way to complete a bucket list vacation in New York City.
But Hannah Kobayashi never made it to the Big Apple. She disappeared after not getting on her connecting flight in Los Angeles. Her haunting final texts only offer her family part of the puzzle. Where is she and is she okay remains the main issues as her disappearance stretches more than a week. She had texted a friend that she "got tricked into pretty much giving away all my funds." According to HawaiiNewsNow, she also said that she was tricked "for someone I thought I loved."
In a series of bizarre messages, she claimed that "deep hackers" stole all her money and identity. She also said that she would go to a homeless shelter or catch a bus to the redwoods. Whatever she did, the Hawaiian woman never got on her connecting flight in Los Angeles.
Hawaiian Woman Goes Missing
"I didn't hear from her," said Kobayashi's mother, Brandi Yee. "I texted her, 'Hey, are you in New York City yet?' She just texted me, 'Not yet.'"
According to family, the Hawaiian woman was very excited to see New York and was visiting an aunt. She said that New York was a chance to make "bucket list dreams become a reality." However, she was still in Los Angeles on Saturday, appearing in a short video at an event in the city. But she since turned off her phone.
"She texted [the friend] that she was scared and that she couldn't come back home or something. It was just really weird texts," Yee said. Her mother said that the texts don't sound like her.
Kobayashi told her aunt via text that she was on a "very intense spiritual awakening," She also apologized for "craziness." The family filed a missing persons report with authorities.
"This is so unlike Hannah, she's very responsible. I mean, she was looking forward to the event so much. She had a hotel room booked that was a couple thousand dollars, the tickets for the event was a couple of hundred dollars," the Hawaiian woman's mother said. "We just wanted to get the word out as soon as possible, because the more time that passes, the less we know what happens. Anything could happen."
