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December 4, 2024 41 mins

In a surprising development, Hannah Kobayashi's family learned she crossed into Mexico on November 12 at 12:13 p.m., after no communication since November 11 and no sign of her since that date. Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) investigators reviewed surveillance footage at the U.S.-Mexico border, which clearly shows the 30-year-old crossing on foot into Mexico.

The footage reveals Kobayashi crossing alone, carrying luggage, with no indication she was accompanied. Investigators determined she had checked her bag through to New York but later requested it be sent to her at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Surveillance video from November 11 shows Kobayashi retrieving her luggage from the baggage carousel.

Using video and still images, LAPD created a timeline of Kobayashi's movements in Los Angeles from November 8 to November 11. After collecting her luggage on November 11, she traveled through the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to Union Station, where she used her passport and cash to purchase a bus ticket to the border. The following morning, she took a bus to San Ysidro, California, and crossed the border into Mexico via a pedestrian tunnel.

The LAPD stated they would not release the surveillance footage of Kobayashi crossing the border due to privacy concerns. A department spokesperson explained that as a private citizen who has not committed a crime, Kobayashi is entitled to privacy. LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell reiterated this, saying she "has a right to her privacy."

Although Kobayashi's family has urged police to continue searching for her, the LAPD confirmed they are not investigating further. They stated Kobayashi has left the country voluntarily, is not suspected of a crime, and there is no evidence she is being trafficked.

Joining Nancy Grace today:

  • Gregory Morse – Partner at the law firm of King Morse, PLLC. Current CJA counsel (Southern District of Florida), Former West Palm Beach Public Defender’s Office. Author: “The Untested,” Website: kingmorselaw.com
  • Dr. Jeff Kieliszewski – Forensic Psychologist, Author: “Darksides;” FB: forensicsandmediapsychologist/TikTok: Dr. Jeff Kieliszewski
  • Steve Fischer  – Missing Persons Private Investigator, Search & Rescue Specialist, & Owner of Search Investigations; X: @SF_Investigates (helping in the search for Riley)
  • Scott Eicher-   founding member of the FBI’s Cellular Analysis Survey Team (C.A.S.T); Historical Cellular Analysis Expert; Former FBI agent of 22 years; Former Police Officer and Homicide Detective with Norfolk Virginia Police Dept. having served 12 years; Currently with Precision Cellular Analysis handling Criminal, Defense and Civil case
  • Alexis Tereszcuk - Crime Online Investigative Reporter

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Did a Hawaiian beauty who goes missing at lax Dump
modern life, imploding her family and ends up into Tijuana.
As we go to air tonight, that video allegedly showing
her in Tijuana is brought into question. Is that her

(00:30):
has she been misidentified? I'm Nancy Grace, this is Crime Stories.
Thank you for being with us.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
As the family is aware. Late yesterday, after traveling to
the US Mexico border, we reviewed video surveillance from US
Customs and Border Protection which clearly shows Kobyashi crossing the
United States border on foot into Mexico. She was alone
with her luggage and appeared unharmed. At this time, Kobayashi's
case has been classified as a voluntary missing person, a.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
Voluntary terry missing person case.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
After all this and we are learning at this hour
that there is a motive for her alleged voluntary disappearance,
and that motive is and I want to get this
wording exactly right, that she wanted to quote step away
from modern connections.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
Could she just unplug her cellphone? We all know where
the off button is. How about that? Why do you
have to lead us all on a merry wild.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Goose Chase spending tens of thousands of dollars of resources
to find her.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
If in fact, that video.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Purporting to be her one hundred and forty five miles
away from La in Tijuana is correct, the calls for
the release of that video are mounting at this hour.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
But you know what, Let's start at the beginning.

Speaker 4 (01:55):
Listen picture show Hanna Kobe Ashia arriving in a black
hoodie with colorful sweatp while wearing a pair of headphones
as she walks through Lax. Her ex boyfriend makes it
to the connecting flight to JFK in New York, but
Hannah does not. There isn't a lot of time between
landing from Hawaiian and catching the connecting flight to JFK,
just over sixty minutes, and some believe she simply missed

(02:15):
the connecting flight and we'll take the next available flight
on Saturday. Her suitcase is on the plane to JFK.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
That is where it all started. Let's try to figure out.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
Let's dissect what we know and this Greg Morris, wouldn't
you agree with me?

Speaker 2 (02:30):
You're a high profile lawyer out of Palm Beach and
author of the untested on Amazon, greg Before you can
mount any case, before we can say tonight what we
think happened.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
We have to analyze all the evidence.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Now we're basing our analysis on what we've been told.
And I like the family, and like a former FB
I er I want to see that video too, the
video that the LAPD is not really sing. Normally I
don't support spying on a private individual, but in this case,

(03:06):
I think the family needs their minds and hearts at
rest that she has really been.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
Spotted into Ijajuana.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
That said, Gregory Morse, you have to look at not
only her frame of mind, but you have to look
at her actions.

Speaker 5 (03:24):
She has a major life change that seems to be happening,
whether it's related to this cult, whether it's related to
her wanting to quote unquote disconnect from modern society, which
by the way, is generally since the beginning of time.
What cult leaders tell people, it doesn't matter what error
we're in. It could be the eighteen hundredths. Cult leaders

(03:45):
then gave some excuse as to why the people they're
trying to get to follow them should quote unquote disconnect
with regular society, and why it's better to do that,
and Also, just on a point, there is no privacy
at the border. The constitution doesn't apply at the border.
The government can do checks. The surveillance video you're out

(04:05):
in the public. So they should really have that video
made available to the public so people can look in
the family, Okay, determine if it's credible.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
The family starts to get worried when they get odd
texts from Hannah. Now, the reason I'm bringing these up
is because it gives me an insight into her frame
of mind. Because if this woman is in Mexico, doesn't
speak Spanish, has nothing but her suitcase, no money, no anything,

(04:39):
in a bad frame of mind. I mean, I write
in my book, don't be a victim because of the
crime rates in Mexico, just don't go there. So if
an ordinary person can end up being a crime target
in Mexico, what about a woman on her own that
doesn't know anybody does this the language.

Speaker 1 (05:01):
And all she's got is a suitcase full of clothes.
Uh huh.

Speaker 2 (05:04):
What's happening to this woman if in fact that is
her in Tijuana. Now, this is where the family really
gets worried.

Speaker 6 (05:11):
Listen, Hannah Kobyashi's family is concerned about odd text messages
from Hannah because the messages don't sound like her. The
messages used terms like hun and babe. The messages also
don't include any emojis, something everyone knows to expect from
a text message coming from Hannah. Kobyashi Kobyashi sends messages
to a friend saying she doesn't feel safe and someone's

(05:33):
trying to steal her identity and monity. Deep hackers wiped
my identity, stole all of my funds and had me
on a mind f sends Friday. I got tricked pretty
much into giving away all my funds, followed by for
someone I thought I loved.

Speaker 2 (05:47):
Did this woman simply step away from modern connectivity again?

Speaker 1 (05:54):
Why not just.

Speaker 2 (05:55):
Turn your phone off? Is she in her right mind?
Is that even her her?

Speaker 1 (06:00):
In Tijuana? Okay?

Speaker 2 (06:02):
Doctor Jeff Kalishwski is joining me. A forensic psychologist and
author of Dark Sides. You can find on YouTube, Doctor
Jeff Kalishewski, forensic psychologist, Doctor Jeff, thank you.

Speaker 1 (06:12):
For being with us. Do you hear these texts?

Speaker 2 (06:14):
No? Wonder the families beside themselves claiming that her identity
has been taken, her money has been hacked. Someone seems
to be controlling her. Her texts don't sound like her,
and we all have a clear pattern as to how
we speak, how we text, how we think, how we act.
We may not want to believe where creatures have habit,

(06:36):
but we are so does that tell you that something
is not right in her mindset? Right?

Speaker 7 (06:43):
We've talked about this on this program before. Kind of
the first step in investigating situations like this is that
people have routines and people have patterns, and if people
are doing things outside of their normal routines or behave
is that they normally exhibit, you start to question, right,
a couple of things here. You know, some of these

(07:06):
odd texts, like you had mentioned Nancy, what was her
frame of mind, particularly going through life change? But the
other part there seems to be she's keeping some kind
of secret. I don't know if it's a relationship, if
it's a contact, but she's doing things outside of the
ordinary and seems to be holding a secret. And does

(07:26):
that lead to another person who's involved that we don't know.

Speaker 2 (07:31):
A secret, don't care, I don't care. If he's got
a secret that is not relevant. What is relevant, doctor Jeff,
is is she in her right mind? And even more so,
why won't LAPD release that video? You just heard Gregory Morse,
as a veteran child lawyer, state, there is no right

(07:51):
of privacy, no US constitutional right of privacy once you.

Speaker 1 (07:55):
Cross that border, joining me.

Speaker 2 (07:57):
Alexis Tereschuk Crime online dot Com investigative reporter Alexis all Along.
LAPD has been saying it's a voluntary.

Speaker 1 (08:09):
Disappearance.

Speaker 2 (08:10):
She's chosen to leave a voluntary disappearance.

Speaker 1 (08:16):
They knew this piece of the puzzle that we didn't know. Listen, well,
she did.

Speaker 3 (08:21):
Check her bag through to New York. She requested her
bag be sent to her at LAX, where we have
surveillance footage of her retrieving it from the baggage carousel
on November eleventh. LAPD Missing Person's Unit has conducted extensive
witness interviews, reviewed video surveillance, and collaborated with local and
federal law enforcement agencies on this case.

Speaker 2 (08:42):
That from our friends at KITV Island News, Hey, Alexis.
For those people that have not been in LAX, it's
a madhouse, all right, especially when it's under construction. On
ternal three, I think, oh, you have to walk down
long on ground tunnels at LAX that are constructive cement.

(09:05):
There's no phone reception down there. There's a really long wall.

Speaker 1 (09:09):
It's a very.

Speaker 2 (09:10):
Confusing airport to a lot of people that have been
there many, many times. So many people understood, yeah, she
got twisted around and missed her flight. But this piece
of the puzzle alexis the police knew that.

Speaker 1 (09:25):
She her bag had already gone on to JFK.

Speaker 2 (09:29):
But then somehow she had the wherewithal to demand it
comes back to her, and she actually had her bag
re routed back to her, and police saw the video
of her getting that bag off the baggage carousel.

Speaker 8 (09:44):
That's very probative, it is, and it's a decision she made.
She contacted the airline, she said, I need my bags
back here. You know, she was supposed to go on
to New York.

Speaker 1 (09:53):
She did not.

Speaker 8 (09:53):
She missed the flight, and so she had them bringing
the bags back to Telly. She had not been at
the airport this whole time. She wasn't camped out at
the airport like that movie. She had left the airport.
She'd gone to the grove twice. She had apparently met
with people to do Tarot card readings because she was
paying for that via her VENMO. She was taking public transportation.
She was seen around town. She even sent her own

(10:14):
aunt a picture of her at the growth. But she
goes back to Lax and she gets her luggage, and
that is where they have the video of hers with
This is different from her arriving the first day in Lax.
She gets off the plane. It was a one hour window.
She did not get on that flight. Three days later
she gets her luggage back again.

Speaker 2 (10:33):
That's her originally between flies and then when she got
her back off the carousel, Alizais, you're telling me she
had on something different.

Speaker 8 (10:41):
She did, so she in that picture she has on
those really colorful pants. She doesn't have that on when
she's back the next time, so she probably she has
closed there when she was in the grove.

Speaker 1 (10:50):
She could have got new clothes, but it was different.
Day crime stories with Nancy Grace to Scott Iiker.

Speaker 2 (11:09):
Joining me founding member of the FBI Cellular Analysis Survey Team,
also form a police officer homicide detective in Norfolk currently
with Precision Cellular Analysis.

Speaker 1 (11:23):
Scott, thank you for being with us.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
See I find this fact possibly the most probative other
than a shot of our Union station with her passport.
But right here. Have you ever tried to retrieve a
bag that has been misdirected? Much less at LAX. I
mean you can practically not do it at them making

(11:46):
Georgia International Airport, where there's one terminal, much less at LAX.
For Pete's sake, the bag was already gone. She had
the wherewithal the mindset, the understanding to retrieve the bag.
Gets noticed that the bag had made its way back.
She comes back to the airport, gets the bag. Why

(12:07):
is that probative? Because it shows me it's her decision
not to go on to New York right there.

Speaker 1 (12:15):
That says it all.

Speaker 2 (12:17):
And Lapd kept saying, this is voluntary, This is voluntary.
She chose for her bag not to go to New York.
She chose to come back and get it and leave.
But the family, in their hurt and confusion, didn't believe it.
And I don't blame them. If somebody told me my
husband went missing in LAX, there's no way. If an

(12:37):
angel flew down, Angel Gabriel, let's go with him and
said David has gone voluntarily missing. He wants to disconnect
from modern connectivity. I would say, BS, you're a liar.
You can go straight to Hell and.

Speaker 1 (12:54):
I to Heaven.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
I wouldn't believe it. That's where the family was at
that point. They wouldn't believe it.

Speaker 9 (12:59):
I totally agree. I mean, you've got that pattern of
constantly talking to family members, being on social media, and
then all of a sudden you're going to go and
you know, disconnect yourself in the middle of a flight
and jump kind of jump off the train, so to speak.
It just doesn't make sense in my mind. And there's
a lot of things that even though I somewhat agree

(13:22):
with the l ipd's assessment on voluntary because of you know,
getting the bag back from JFK so she can now
have clothes, you know, a lot of different things seem
to be voluntary, her movement around LA. But then there's
those texts, the weird texts where you know someone's stealing.

Speaker 1 (13:40):
There and they're very learning. Scott Iiker.

Speaker 2 (13:44):
You know Steve Fisher has been on this. He's a
missing person's private investigator, search and rescue specialist and owner
of Search Investigations. Steve, you've been working on this and
investigating it yourself.

Speaker 1 (13:57):
What do you make of it? To me, that's the
big tail that she got her bag back and left.

Speaker 10 (14:02):
This was very much it was it was planned.

Speaker 11 (14:04):
I mean, I know a lot about this case, and
there's a lot that the family has not disclosed. She
was estranged from multiple members of her family. This was
definitely planned. She recalled her bags. I listen, it's her
in Mexico. I have I've worked with Greyhound to obtain

(14:25):
verification of her mind the ticket. I felt that this
had gone on too long, and that's why the other
day I announced that, and I said the reason I
was doing it telling that she got on the six
thirty five am the Santa Sidro was because it was
time for LABD to come out with the press conference,
and they finally did it that afternoon.

Speaker 10 (14:43):
But there's more too, There's a lot more to this story.
But that is it's her.

Speaker 11 (14:47):
I've seen other angles of this shot, and you know,
for whatever reason, the family doesn't want to accept it.
But I think it's important to remember that all this,
all these resources poorted in and everything handed did not
request that she was already in Mexico by the time
this started, and she's you know, she did not request

(15:08):
any of this. I understand by the family's searching for her,
but there's also a lot that they've known for a
while that they have not disclosed, such as the Greyhound
her being at the Greyhound station.

Speaker 1 (15:19):
See she is there.

Speaker 2 (15:21):
I can trying to figure out if you can see that,
Scott Fisher. Is that her retrieving her bag in a
different outfit, or is that her buy her bus ticket?

Speaker 10 (15:29):
This is this is her. I worked with Greyland.

Speaker 11 (15:32):
This is Greyhound station at Union Station in Los Angeles,
and she used her passport as ID. When they asked
her for her phone number, she said she no longer
had a phone.

Speaker 12 (15:42):
It is determined that Hannah's phone last pinged around four
pm Monday, November eleventh at LAX with no new activity.
The phone has not been found. The family obtained surveillance
footage showing Hanna Kobyashi around the Metro train station near
Crypto dot Com Arena. In that video, she appears to
be accompanied by someone. The family post on social media

(16:03):
that the video shows Hannah is not alone end quote,
does not appear to be in good condition.

Speaker 2 (16:08):
Straight back out to Steve Fisher joining us missing person's
private investigator, search and rescue expert and owner of Search
Investigations dot Org.

Speaker 1 (16:19):
Steve, let me understand you're saying that.

Speaker 2 (16:23):
You looked at the Greyhound bus photo that we were
just showing, and that you have determined she took the metro.
I mean, this sounds like a seasoned traveler. Hey, guys,
this is from Fox eleven. A season traveler that knows
how to catch the Metro at Lax take the metro,
which is like a subway or a rapid transit.

Speaker 1 (16:44):
All the way to Union Station.

Speaker 2 (16:46):
There she buys a one way ticket, no plan to
come back, one way ticket to Santa Sidro. And when
you get off at Santa se Acidro, you are directly
on the path as to go across the border.

Speaker 1 (17:02):
It's a tunnel, correct.

Speaker 10 (17:03):
Yeah, there steps away from it.

Speaker 11 (17:05):
Yeah, if you're going to Santra Sidro, you're crossing the border,
you know, most likely, I mean, there's no other reason
to go.

Speaker 10 (17:13):
Yeah, so she I think it was very much planned,
you know.

Speaker 11 (17:16):
I think the reason that people are so confused is
we've gotten some misinformation, like what they just mentioned about
the eleventh about her them having surveillance of her getting
off at Crypto dot Com not looking well. You know,
they've refused to show that footage the family house to anybody,
including those of us that were searching, and then we
find out just hours later, at six am on the twelfth,

(17:40):
she shows up a Union Station looking healthy, hairs washed,
she wearing clean clothes, She's got her suitcase with her.
So you know, we were told she was drugged and
you know this person was manipulating her. So I think
there's you know, a lot of misinformation going around.

Speaker 2 (17:56):
Okay, I need you to be blunt stave Fisher that
if you come on stories, sure we don't partake in niceties.
When you say misinformation, just call it what it is.
What are you talking about? What misinformation? Because if I
saw my husband, my daughter, my son wandering around LA

(18:18):
with a bag, showing up at Union.

Speaker 1 (18:21):
Station, showing up at Crypto.

Speaker 2 (18:23):
Arena, wandering through the grove, sending me odd texts about
how she's being controlled and someone's taken all our money,
I would be really worried that someone was either controlling her,
that had some sort of a mental breakdown, that someone
had given them drugs.

Speaker 1 (18:42):
But you're telling me it's misinformation.

Speaker 11 (18:45):
Well, it's being put out and there's some misinformation. I
think the family knows that. Listen, she's in a fragilemental
state for sure, However, the family knows a lot of
things that they're not disclosing, and they're making it sound
like this scenario where she's being traffic think that was
the narrative being pushed. In fact, when I came out
and said, you know, a couple weeks ago, I said,

(19:05):
this is not the case. This is a voluntary missing.
I got a voicemail from the family saying, we want
to control the narrative. You know, do not put this
information out there. That's just not the way they should
run they be.

Speaker 10 (19:16):
They should be honest information that's put out there for
those that are searching, and if you're going.

Speaker 11 (19:20):
To involve the public, and that's not the case in this.
You know, she for whatever reason made a decision that
she wanted to do her own thing and get away
and listen. Do I think she needs to be found
in her mental health check, Absolutely, but I don't think
there should be this manhunt for her that the family
is continuing with. She is a strange from several family.

Speaker 1 (19:43):
Members save Fisher.

Speaker 2 (19:44):
What about the family saying that she was spotted with
a male that they didn't recognize and they're worried about
that scenario.

Speaker 11 (19:52):
Yeah, so she was with the mail again. They they
said they did not know who this male was. But
then when I talked to places around crypto dot com,
they told me that the family members were coming in
and showing that male social media and asking if they
had seen him, so they knew who he was.

Speaker 10 (20:08):
Just like a laped said they know who he is.

Speaker 11 (20:12):
Again, I think you know it was to you know,
keep people involved in the search and just Declearver when
I said, preside, seed of mind, but I.

Speaker 1 (20:21):
Mean she's going through you're telling me something. Yeah, I'm
going through a lot trying to find her, much less
her family.

Speaker 2 (20:27):
But wait a minute, we were led to believe that
an unknown man was kind of telling her, possibly even
controlling her. Let me digest what you just said, because now,
aside from being upset and worried about this woman, now
I'm getting angry, and I'll tell you why.

Speaker 1 (20:47):
I have worked so.

Speaker 2 (20:48):
Many missing people cases, so many rape cases, murder cases,
molestation cases, horrible, horrible cases that need attention. You're telling
me that this misinformation that's certainly putting perfume on a pig.

Speaker 1 (21:02):
Isn't it that the.

Speaker 2 (21:03):
Family went with the unknown male's picture and said, have
you seen this guy?

Speaker 1 (21:11):
They know who the guy was that was with her
in the picture.

Speaker 10 (21:16):
You should be angry. I'm angry. There's a lot of
waste of time in this.

Speaker 11 (21:19):
Yes he was showing his social Yes, it was showing
his social media to places around town, asking if they
had seen him lapd you know, basically alluded to that.
You know how they knew who he was right away.
The family has known.

Speaker 10 (21:34):
A lot of it.

Speaker 2 (21:35):
There was all this and attempt to get to this guy.
It's not an ex boyfriend, he's long gone. So do
we know who this guy is?

Speaker 1 (21:43):
Is he a boyfriend? Is he somebody she met online?

Speaker 10 (21:45):
It's just literally just somebody that she met in town.
He wasn't the big bad guy that they you know,
we were told that he was. She was drugged, for
certain was drugged and he was controlling her. That's this
is not true.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
Do you know much bless me and our staff, how
many hours we have spent on the phone, pouring through
social media trying to investigate our contacts out in La
beating the street, trying to find things out, and all
along she was with some guy that she met. What

(22:18):
in the grove have they been humming around? What does
she use a shower and blow dryer.

Speaker 11 (22:22):
What yes, basically, and this guy, there's just somebody that
she met. He's not a player in this whole thing.
You know, it's a different story than we thought. And
I get everybody's put this time into it, and that's
why I was sitting on this information. When I found
out Greyhound, I was like, I'm just going to ahead
and release it because to force LAPD's hand.

Speaker 10 (22:44):
I don't know why LAPD.

Speaker 11 (22:45):
Did not come out earlier than they did and say
what was going on, But it was time for this
to happen. And there's a reason that the whole family
left town a week before this came down to what.

Speaker 1 (22:56):
Do you mean by that? There's a reason the family
left town.

Speaker 11 (23:00):
They knew Listen, they knew she had been to the
Greyhound station, and they knew she had left town. I'm
not saying they knew but that she went into Mexico,
because I think LAPD did hold that back, but they
knew she was in town. And that's when the ant in.

Speaker 10 (23:15):
A ray left town, you know, a week and a
half ago, and the search stopped.

Speaker 2 (23:19):
Where is Hawaiian beauty Hannah Kobyashi seemingly vanishing at LAX
the LA Airport.

Speaker 1 (23:28):
That is not at all what happened based on what
we are learning.

Speaker 2 (23:33):
Have we all been dragged along on a Mary Wild
goose chase. Take a listen to what Chief Jim McDonald LPD.

Speaker 3 (23:41):
Said I asked would be to anybody considering doing this,
Think about the people that you're leaving behind, Your loved
ones who are going to be worried, sick about you.
The number of people including law enforcement and other partners
who are going to be looking for you, which then
potentially takes them away from other work that is also
critically import So there's a lot other than somebody just

(24:03):
deciding that they want to leave and disconnect. Consider those
that are behind you and those that will be impacted
by your actions.

Speaker 2 (24:09):
Is Chief McDonald referring specifically to Hanna Kobyashi's father.

Speaker 1 (24:14):
That's from our friends at Kai TV. But listen to this.

Speaker 4 (24:17):
Ryan Kobyashi, the estranged father of Hanna Kobyashi, arrives in
Los Angeles to join the search for his daughter. After
eleven days of searching, Ryan Kobyashi is found dead around
four am near a parking structure at LAX.

Speaker 6 (24:30):
The Los Angeles Medical Examiner says the cause of death
is multiple blunt force trauma injuries. The family issues a
statement expressing grief and asking for the public to focus
on the search for Hanna Kobyashi Alexis to.

Speaker 2 (24:42):
Rest at Crime online dot Com investigative reporter, what happened
to her father?

Speaker 1 (24:47):
Ryan?

Speaker 8 (24:47):
So he came here. He was looking for his daughter
for eleven days. He was having he went to large groups.

Speaker 1 (24:55):
He held it assign.

Speaker 8 (24:56):
He went like knocking door to door down in skid
row of Los Angeles, which is not a nice part
of town.

Speaker 1 (25:01):
Desperately looking for her.

Speaker 8 (25:02):
Then he goes to a parking death near lax and
he jumped off the roof, fell to his death. And
now that we know this is twelve days after she
had already left the country.

Speaker 2 (25:13):
Okay, that just breaks my heart because she has alexis
disconnected from quote modern connectivity, so she may not have
even known her father was there looking for her. And
she was already on her merry way to Mexico before
her father committed suicide.

Speaker 1 (25:34):
Exactly while he was here looking for her. She was
already in Mexico.

Speaker 8 (25:37):
And there's been no activity from her phone, I believe,
and so she truly she may not have heard. May
not be on the news down there. She may not
be you know, she's young, she may not even be
watching the news, and so she really may not even
know this. And it seems that her family has and
did not let anybody know that she was out of
town at that time or out of the country.

Speaker 1 (25:56):
Sorry, and alexis are you telling me she was estranged
from her? Fe she was for sure? Yes, he said that.

Speaker 8 (26:02):
He said, I regret that we were so estranged and
that we had such a bad relationship. But now that
she's missing, I'm here now looking for her. So we've
broken hearted, thinking something bad has happened in Los Angeles,
not out of the realm of possibility. A lot of
bad things happened, and so he came here looking for her,
and then less than two weeks later, jumps off the
roof of a building and kills himself.

Speaker 2 (26:23):
Doctor Jeff Kelshewski joining me, forensics psychologist, Doctor Jeff, I'm
just trying to imagine what the dad went through, being
estranged for a period of time and then learning your
daughter is missing, and he flies all the way, I believe,
from Hawaii to LA and starts a one man search

(26:46):
team going all over the city, even the worst parts
of the city, imagining the worst all this time about
his daughter, thinking about all the time they had lost
from being estranged, and then realizing that he would never
see her again. She's totally lost, probably dead, and commits suicide.

(27:10):
That's a heartbreaking story. I mean, all I can think
about is my own father, you know, Doctor Jeff, I
remember on Dancing with the Stars the very first night,
I was about to be thrown off. I somehow managed
to cling on till the bitter end. But as I
was standing there in jeopardy, I looked across the dance floor.
I saw one face, my dad, and he was so upset.

(27:33):
I thought he was gonna have a heart attack because
he was upset for me. He thought I was going
to be broken up, which I would not have been,
but he looked so upset. I can't imagine this father
trying to make up for lost time, trying to find
his daughter and coming to the realization that she was
most likely dead, and killing himself.

Speaker 7 (27:56):
You know, when the private adst Gator mentioned that there's
some odd family dynamics and involvement in this case, you know,
I start to wonder, the estranged father, what information was
he being provided by the family that sort of increased

(28:17):
his despair and put him in a state of mind
where he felt the only way out of this agony
was to take his own life.

Speaker 2 (28:26):
What about it, Steve Fisher, You have personally investigated Hanna
Kobayashi's disappearance. You mentioned earlier and now I'm following up
on it that she was astrange from several members of
her family.

Speaker 1 (28:39):
Could you explain what you mean by that?

Speaker 11 (28:41):
Well, it's simply that I mean, you know, she did
not have a relationship with her father. There was tension
with other family members, so you know, I mean this
all kind of makes sense.

Speaker 1 (28:56):
Tension over what, tension over what.

Speaker 10 (28:58):
Well, I don't know the exact details.

Speaker 11 (29:01):
I didn't get into that, you know, what those dynamics were, like,
what the actual triggers were. However, it was evident, and
you know, I have talked to people that are close
with her on the island, friends and whatnot, and you
know this is this is not a secret. In fact,
I heard her father telling people that he was using
this as an opportunity to get back in her life.

(29:24):
I actually suggested the family I thought I didn't think
it was a good idea for him to be a
press point person could drive her further away. Now, of
course she's already in Mexico. We know now by time
this is happening. But you know, there's there's there's a
lot more to the story. I do believe there's going
to be a lot more when that comes out.

Speaker 4 (29:41):
The LAPD say they have no plans to release the
surveillance video, but it's showing Hannah Kobyanshi crossing the US
Mexico border due to privacy concerns. The public information officer
for the LAPD says they will not release the tape
because Kobyashi is a private citizen and has not committed
a crime. LA p D Chief Jimmy says Kobyashi has

(30:01):
quote a right to her privacy.

Speaker 1 (30:09):
Crime stories. With Nancy Grace.

Speaker 2 (30:15):
Joining us an all star panel to make sense of
what we are hearing now, and we're hearing an ear
full I'm just trying to determine why Hanna Kobyashi would
leave her family in the lurch, let them think she
was either dead or missing or being held captive, and
choose to head to Mexico with nothing but her suitcase.

(30:38):
To Steve Fisher, missing person's private investigator at Search Investigations
dot org. Have you seen the Tiawana video or have
you seen the video of her leaving Santa Sedro and
heading across the tunnel.

Speaker 11 (30:54):
I've not seen that footage now. I'm only aware of
her getting on the Greyhound.

Speaker 2 (31:00):
Union station, okay, And if she had gotten off somewhere
between here and there, there would be video of that.

Speaker 10 (31:06):
At a bus station, there's definitely video of her.

Speaker 11 (31:08):
There's video ad Santry Sedo station and absolutely customs More
Patrol has you know, facial organition cameras and everything as
you're entering and listen, there's been sightings of her down
south of Tiauan as well.

Speaker 1 (31:21):
What about that?

Speaker 2 (31:21):
Scott Ikerr, founding member FBI Cellular Analysis Survey Team, tell
me about the face recognition that is used at the border.
And I know you have to show your passport when
you enter our country, but when you were leaving you
also have to show.

Speaker 9 (31:37):
It, agreed, And that's part of the you know, the
border security that we do have, and it's important to
be able to identify the people coming in. And now
sounds like pretty good information that you actually went into
Mexico and you know, if she's by herself, then she's
by herself when we start taking all this together. It
sure does sound like we were kind of led in
the wrong direction.

Speaker 2 (31:58):
Man, you're not kidding with a ring through our noses,
you know, Steve Fisher, you keep alluding to more is
going to come out?

Speaker 1 (32:07):
Well, how about right now? Can it come out? Right now?
What are you talking about?

Speaker 10 (32:11):
No, I mean there is more to the story.

Speaker 11 (32:13):
It's not something it's not for me to discuss because
I don't have one hundred percent proof of it, so
I wouldn't want to put something out there and be wrong.
But listen, I'm confident there's more will come out.

Speaker 2 (32:26):
Okay, that's not really helping me, But let me go
to I'll give you a few moments to think about
what you're saying to a high profile lawyer joining us
out of Palm Beach. Gregor Remorse, author of the Untested
on Amazon. Gregory, can I talk to you about potential
criminal charges because as of right now, I don't see any.

Speaker 1 (32:47):
Now.

Speaker 2 (32:47):
We have been comparing this to, for instance, the disappearance
of super Mom Sherry Peppini, who disappeared. Her husband didn't
realize she was gone until the children were not home,
you know, after school. When he got home, her cell
phone was found on the side of the road as
if it had been yanked from her. Turns out she

(33:09):
just took a powder and was shacked up with her
ex boyfriend. She went so far as to beat herself,
starve herself, and even brand herself with a hot curling
iron to make it look as if she had been kidnapped.

Speaker 1 (33:22):
She blamed it on Hispanic women.

Speaker 2 (33:25):
Okay, she lied to police, right, that makes her different
from Hanna Kobyashi. Then we've got the so called runaway bride,
Jennifer Willbanks.

Speaker 1 (33:35):
That's a Georgia case.

Speaker 2 (33:37):
In that case, it was the night before a big
society wedding and she gets kidnapped.

Speaker 1 (33:43):
She also blamed.

Speaker 2 (33:45):
Some Hispanic men in that case and claims she had
been abducted.

Speaker 1 (33:50):
She lied about it.

Speaker 2 (33:52):
The last time I had eyes on her, she was
cutting grass as part of community service.

Speaker 1 (33:57):
All right.

Speaker 2 (33:57):
Then we've got Curly Russ, beautiful girl out of a
look at her Alabama. She fakes her disappearance and even
goes so far as to claim she's trying to rescue
a top boy who was wandering along the side of
a busy interstate and then she goes missing. Well, turns
out she was shacked up in a hotel ordering room

(34:21):
service while we were desperately trying to find her. She
since came clean, has apologized, has taken responsibility as trying
to make something good out of her life.

Speaker 1 (34:31):
But she lied. Hanna Kobyashi has not lied to anybody.
She just left.

Speaker 5 (34:39):
I disagree with you. This needs to be changed from
a missing person's report to a searching for a criminal suspect.
And if Hannah Kobayashi were smart, she would call my
law firm and seek counsel right away. This girl's father
is dead. He killed himself knowing anything about Okinawans, which

(34:59):
I believe her there was. This is an honorable culture.
It is foreseeable that he would take this so heavy.
And if his daughter knew that and set this course
in action that led to his death, I think there's
a chance that the police can be searching for or
looking into this for a murder to charge. You are

(35:20):
a prosecutor, Nancy, and if you know from maybe about
a decade ago, I think it was Suffolk County, New
York that started charging murder two for dui manslaughters. Most
places that doesn't matter anymore because they're the same type
of sentence usually, So this is something that is unique.
But those texts that were sent claiming she was lost

(35:44):
her money and kidnapped, this directed a story that's her lying,
very different than the story that you did. On the
guy who went to Uzbekistan. He didn't contact the police
until recently. He should have watched her show because now
he's made some statements that could get him charged with
a crime, but initially he didn't. So Hannah Kobayashi is
your typical. It seems to me from what I've read.

(36:06):
She doesn't have a real job, she's thirty years old,
she's floundering in life and set on this course of motion,
maybe taken advantage of by a cult. Sure that is
definitely seems like what this is. But her father is
dead and she sent information.

Speaker 2 (36:21):
Never heard, racking my memory. A worse distortion of the
criminal code in my life. There is no way that
this girl, and I don't care if she's unemployed, I
don't care if she's a deadbeat moves in our her family.

Speaker 1 (36:37):
I don't know if she is or.

Speaker 2 (36:38):
Not, But there is no way that she could have
foreseen her father with him she hasn't spoken to at
a long period of time.

Speaker 1 (36:46):
Is going to fly to La.

Speaker 2 (36:47):
She have to be a clairvoyant to figure out he's
going to fly to LA look for her, and then
jump off a parking debt roof.

Speaker 1 (36:55):
That's crazy talk. Okay, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (36:58):
If you're just trying to get a client. I don't
think of that hard up. But there's no way there's
a murder to charge in this. No, No, cut his
MC right now, because I'm not going to be responsible
for disseminating falsities or guarding law. You can put him up.
I'd like to see him react to what I'm saying.
But this woman is not going to be charged with
murder too. She left on her own and you say

(37:19):
she lied, she lied, Yeah, she lied to her mother.
If that's a crime, I bet I can prosecute you,
Greg Moore, she never lied to your mother, BS. She
did not lie to police. She's no Shery Peppini.

Speaker 1 (37:32):
She has no.

Speaker 2 (37:33):
Jennifer Willbanks, she's no Borgwart. That's the man you're talking
about that left his wife and family for some is
becky woman, and she's no Curly Russell.

Speaker 1 (37:41):
No, it's not going to happen.

Speaker 12 (37:43):
Days of searching the streets of Los Angeles and passing
out flyers have exhausted family and friends, but they still
push forward in the search for Hanna Kobayashi.

Speaker 1 (37:52):
But a shocking twist just might crack the case open.
Hannah Kobayashi spotted crossing the Mexico or at this hour.

Speaker 2 (38:02):
The family is asking LAPD and others to continue the
search for Hanna Kobayashi. To Steve Fisher, who has been
part of the investigation, local law enforcement is saying no
way and are dropping this like hot potato. And they
say that absolutely is her into Yawana.

Speaker 1 (38:23):
Case closed, correct.

Speaker 11 (38:25):
And she should be flagged at Immigration when she comes
back across and that's where they're going to talk to
her and evaluate her. But for the family to be
pushing this private search to continue, and that's really putting
people in harm's way. Tijuana going to the bard is
not a place to be going and looking and snooping around.
You don't have any right, you know, you don't have
your rights as an American citizen over there.

Speaker 10 (38:46):
It's going to get somebody hurt.

Speaker 11 (38:48):
What they need to do is they need to have
an investigator that can find her quickly and a physician
on call that can evaluate her and limit it to that.
But this should not be public anymore as far as
I'm concerned. It's going to get somebody hurt and it's
going to push drive her further into isolation.

Speaker 2 (39:04):
Steve, it's my understanding that Hannah Kobyashi's aunt, Laurie Pigeon,
is saying that she is still concerned about Hannah's safety,
and that concern has not lessened since she discovered Hannah
has crossed the border into Mexico. In fact, she's even
more worried that she is now in and a location

(39:26):
with which she is not familiar.

Speaker 11 (39:27):
I agree, Listen, it's not the safest place in the world,
that's for sure. I mean, my brother has lived down
though there is an xpac community. However, she's doing this
publicly now. I understand the part when they thought she
was in Los Angeles, but now she's in a different country.
I think it's got to be very sensitive. It needs
to be done with qualified professionals and call off the

(39:48):
public search for it. It's like there's a bounty on
her almost, you know, and there's people are you know,
crossing the border now going and looking for her.

Speaker 10 (39:56):
I just think it's a recipe for disaster.

Speaker 2 (39:58):
And it also I would look for family too, even
if they voluntarily disassociated, because I would be so worried
about them. But what about the private detective and retired
FBI Tom Simon who says he wants LAPD to release
the Customs and Border Protection video to make sure that's
really her.

Speaker 11 (40:16):
I don't say besides it's her. I mean I have
seen so this and that's her. That's all I can
see in it. But you know, when you say that
about the family, the family is not here looking for
They're asking others to do it.

Speaker 10 (40:27):
But they're in Hawaii and in the ants in Palm Springs.
They're not They're not on the ground searching.

Speaker 2 (40:33):
It's the bottom line. We've all been taken down a
rabbit hole. Tens of thousands of dollars have been spent
looking for a woman that wanted to unplug her cell phone. Okay,
as of right now, I don't see a crime. I'm
the last person that would say that, But I don't

(40:56):
see a crime in her decision to take off.

Speaker 1 (41:00):
Nancy Grace signing off goodbye friend
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