Hannah Kobayashi’s Family Deactivates Facebook Page Due to Death Threats, FBI Called In

The family of missing Hawaii woman Hannah Kobayashi has closed down the Facebook page dedicated to her search due to receiving death threats.

The Help Us Find Hannah page was deleted from the social media platform on Sunday after an unidentified Facebook user sent a message stating that Hannah’s sister, Sydni, and mother, Brandi Yee, made the decision.

‘Sydni and her mother acknowledge that while most people on the page genuinely want to help find Hannah, the negative comments and attacks on their family have become overwhelming for them.

‘As recent[ly] as yesterday, there were threats against their lives and the lives of their small children,’ the message read.

‘This has prompted them to make formal reports to the FBI and make the difficult decision to remove this page.’

The message goes on to note that the Kobayashi family will ‘continue to rely on the private professionals and legal counsel to assist in their efforts moving forward.’

The decision to take down the page comes as the family expressed their fury at a Los Angeles police chief who claimed Hannah had ‘intentionally’ missed her flight to New York City on November 8. 

Sydni has argued the Los Angeles Police Department never provided the family with any evidence suggesting her sister purposely missed her flight and argued Hannah would not continue to remain off-grid after their father took his own life.

She said in a statement on social media that the family was ‘unaware of the alleged findings presented at the Los Angeles Police Commission meeting until multiple videos of the meeting were sent to us by multiple citizens,’ PEOPLE reports.

‘These alleged findings have yet to be relayed to my mother and I directly from the Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department or any detective involved in Hannah’s case,’ Sydni said.

She and her mother, Brandi Yee, also claimed that certain details McDonnell shared about the case at the meeting were inaccurate.

‘Specific facts contained in that report were inaccurate, such as Hannah’s age. Hannah is 30 years old, not 23. Also, Hannah was reported missing to law enforcement on November 11th, not November 13th, as stated by the chief of the Los Angeles Police Department.

‘The lack of communication surrounding some important details has left us feeling excluded from potentially crucial developments,’ Sydni argued.

‘However, we do remain hopeful and optimistic that the Los Angeles Police Department is doing everything in their power to assist us in locating Hannah. 

Sydni also hit out at the report to Hawaii News Now, saying the police chief ‘kind of seems to state it [as if] she went out and about to do her own thing,’ which may discourage people from searching for her.

‘I don’t want to bash the LAPD. I don’t want to discredit them if they are doing what they are doing,’ she said. ‘But at this time, it makes us very confused as to where they are at.’

The family is now concerned about Hannah’s safety, noting that she seemed not to have been acting like herself in the days after her disappearance – citing some cryptic text messages and Venmo payments to people they did not recognize.

She claimed in one text message she recently underwent a ‘spiritual awakening’ after she was due to meet family in New York. 

In another, she claimed: ‘Deep Hackers wiped my identity, stole all of my funds, & have had me on a mind f**k since Friday.’

A third text message to a friend said she was ‘tricked pretty much into giving away all my funds for someone I thought I love.’ 

Venmo payments also show Hannah sent an undisclosed amount of money to a person named Veronica Almendarez at 6.25pm on November 9, with the description of the payment only showing a drawn bow and arrow emoji. 

The second payment was made less than an hour later to someone called Jonathan Taylor, also for an undisclosed amount, with the description only saying: ‘Reading.’ 

The recipients’ relationship with Hannah is not currently known, but the missing woman’s family told the Sun that the LAPD is investigating the matter. 

A missing-persons poster also notes: ‘Prior to going missing, [Kobayashi] sent a message on November 10, mentioning feeling scared, and that someone might be trying to steal her money and identity. She hasn’t been heard from since.’

Kobayashi had taken a flight from her native Maui to Los Angeles International Airport with her ex-boyfriend, who bought tickets for the two of them before they broke up.

Kobayashi was then caught on security camera footage disembarking a plane at LAX just before 10pm on November 8.

She was seen wearing a black hoodie and colorful sweatpants, with a pair of headphones. 

But while her ex-boyfriend continued on to the connecting flight to New York City at 11pm, Kobayashi never made it.

Instead, she was seen the next day at The Grove shopping mall between midday and 3pm. She spent a considerable amount of time at Taschen Books, where she stopped to charge her phone. 

She then snapped a photo and sent it to her aunt at 2:43pm, before returning to the airport where she is believed to have spent the night. 

Kobayashi was later spotted at a Nike event featuring LeBron James in Los Angeles, where she was wearing the same clothes she had on at the airport. She even shared a post on her Instagram page from the event on November 10 at around 3.30pm, with an eye emoji as the caption.

Later that evening, at around 5pm, the photographer was spotted talking to a ticketing agent at LAX.

That same day, a missing-persons report was filed by her family.

The next day, November 11, Kobayashi was spotted boarding an LAX Metro C line at Aviation/Century Station.

She got on board at 9:02pm, before transferring to a different train at the Rosa Parks Station. 

Kobayashi was finally seen leaving the Metro Pico Station with the unidentified person at 10:03pm 

The family also noted that the young artist’s phone has been off since November 11 and her last pinned location was at the Los Angeles Airport.