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An important discovery for the police in the case of Hannah Kobayashi was to learn the truth about the reports that she was seen in Los Angeles with an unknown person who could have put her in danger.
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As the officials learned more, their view of the man’s relationship with Kobayashi changed
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“The time they spent together, he had a listening ear,” says a detective
Before she entered Mexico and disappeared – either by choice, as the police believe, or perhaps as a result of something bad, according to her family – Hannah Kobayashi slept in Los Angeles with a stranger she met at the airport. .
The pair formed an instant bond after crossing paths and ended up spending nearly nine hours together, walking through downtown LA and wandering to Union Station, where they slept.
In the morning, Kobayashi, a 30-year-old photographer and smoke shop worker, was gone.
This is according to members of the missing person’s La Police Department who spoke at length with PEOPLE this week after announcing that Kobayashi was considered a voluntary disappearance – a determination that his family loudly protested, saying they would now make their own. search itself.
But the law enforcement officers say that they have used significant resources since mid-November to solve Kobayashi’s case after he arrived in the city from Hawaii and was found missing at the Los Angeles International Airport on Nov. 11.
Now they are detailing what they have learned.
The key discovery, the police say, was in learning the truth about reports that Kobayashi had been seen with an unknown person who could put him in danger.
“[It’s] she’s already in the news that she’s got this horrible guy, and she’s in big trouble,” Lt. Doug Oldfield tells PEOPLE.
“For a while, he was the last person we saw when we didn’t know where he was,” he says.
“So we spent a few days on this to make sure that nothing bad happened,” he says.
Oldfield says investigators were able to track down the man a few days after Kobayashi was first reported missing and, in their work, later corroborated his story about the time they spent together, including videos and the man’s statements.
In an interview with WAN with Detective Omar Franco, who leads the missing persons unit, Oldfield says that the authorities looked at the man with an open mind in the days after Kobayashi’s case was opened.
“I would say, with this case, there were days and days where there were as many reasons that something could have gone wrong as there were reasons that everything was fine,” says Oldfield. “So that’s where we sit in the middle, and that’s when we have to keep thinking about what facts we can find, what video we can find, and then go to the next thing that will lead us to it.”
As the officials learned more, their view of the man’s relationship with Kobayashi changed.
“We have this prince, we have them walking [on video]. We’re looking at — hey, this person seems to be in trouble, what’s he like? We see a lot of smiles,” says Oldfield. “We see a smile from the boy.”
“There is one video where he passes by two police officers and has the opportunity to say, ‘Help, help,’ if something is wrong,” the lieutenant continues. “So, from here, we can get a better idea of who this man was and we got to know him.”
The man, who has not been named by the police, spoke to them twice, giving his side of the story.
He and Kobayashi met at the LAX train station and started talking around 9 pm local time on Nov. 11 when he was leaving the airport.
“We haven’t spoken to him yet, but what we are seeing is that he was trying to understand how to get to Union Station and how he would help him get there,” says Oldfield.
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“The time they spent together, he was a listening ear,” says Franco, a detective. “He just talked and talked about his life in Maui, his life, his love life and stuff like that. And he just listened to him.”
The man described Kobayashi as a “free spirit” but said he seemed friendly and normal. He didn’t show any fear. He said he wanted to go see the redwoods and talked about plans to be in New York. (He was supposed to fly there on November 8, but never did; police believe he tried to book a flight again but the price was too high.)
Once at Union Station, Kobayashi and the man spent several hours and had dinner. They went to sleep in the waiting area, as travelers sometimes do.
Then Kobayashi got up on his own, gathered his luggage and “walked away[ed] to go alone,” says Franco.
“These things, we were able to confirm,” says Oldfield.
He bought a bus ticket at 6:10 am local time on Nov. 12 and boarded shortly after, arriving at the border four hours after this. He entered Tijuana in the afternoon.
His phone, for whatever reason, was left at LAX.
Hannah Kobayashi buying a bus ticket from Los Angeles on November 12
Because police believe Kobayashi is in Mexico by choice, their investigation is on hold, although he will remain in the system until his health is confirmed.
His family, which drew the world to his story, spoke in public about him, including their concerns about his life.
His mother and sister said in a statement earlier this week that they are “committed to doing everything possible to bring him home safely.”
They also warned against what they called “speculation”.
“Spreading information and sharing verified information about his case is important, and we greatly appreciate your support in this effort,” he said.
Police say they want to hear from Kobayashi, too.
“We’re all just – everyone else is very invested in this right now, and what his thoughts within this were, and what his end game or goal was,” Detective Franco says.
Oldfield says: “We don’t have his side of the story.”
Read the first article on People