What Police Say About Key Questions in the Strange Case of Hannah Kobayashi, Who Walked Into Mexico and Off the Grid

Hannah Kobayashi’s family says they’re still seeking many answers about why she went off the grid and they lost contact with her in Los Angeles last month — just one day before she was seen on video crossing the border into Mexico.

On Monday, Dec. 2, L.A. police shared their own findings so far in what’s now being classified as a “voluntary missing persons case,” some three weeks after Kobayashi’s loved ones say the 30-year-old disappeared.

The priority, authorities say, remains her “safety and well-being.”

Sara Azari, an attorney working with Kobayashi’s mom, Brandi Yee, and her sister, Sydni Kobayashi, says “they don't believe that there's anything voluntary about this, because there was no ... Hannah doesn't have any drug addiction, mental illness.”

“There was no distress, there was no argument, there was no animosity,” Azari tells PEOPLE, adding, “None of this makes sense.”

While the family says their own search will continue, here’s what police say they have determined so far.

Related: Fear for Hannah Kobayashi's Safety ‘Has Not Lessened’ After News She Went to Mexico, Aunt Says (Exclusive)

What was Hannah doing in L.A.?

She arrived in the city from Maui on Nov. 8, L.A Police Chief Jim McDonnell told reporters at a Monday news conference.

“For unknown reasons, she decided not to board her pre-scheduled flight to New York that same day,” he said. “From Nov. 8-11, video footage and still imagery showed Hannah at various locations around Los Angeles. This information was subsequently verified by LAPD detectives.”

“While she did check her bag through to New York, she requested her bag be sent to her at LAX [the airport], where we have surveillance footage of her retrieving it from the baggage carousel on Nov. 11,” McDonnell said.

That’s also the last day that her phone pinged — at LAX.

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Alan Hamilton, the L.A. police’s chief of detectives, was asked at the news conference on Monday about an unidentified man whom Hannah had been seen traveling with on public transit.

He said she met this person at the airport.

“We have identified that individual, that individual was cooperative in the investigation,” Hamilton said. “That individual cooperated by allowing himself to be interviewed with his attorney present and family members. He gave a full disclosure of the entire sequence of events.”

“We utilized independent investigative techniques to verify his story, and it fully checked out,” he said.

What steps did they take in their investigation?

The police maintained that as part of their work on the case, they have “conducted extensive witness interviews, reviewed video surveillance and collaborated with local and federal law enforcement agencies on this case,” McDonnell said.

Asked to comment on criticism from Hannah's family — who says they haven’t been as communicative or as “diligent as they should be,” according to their attorney — Hamilton, the chief of detectives, pushed back on that.

“We’ve been very transparent with the family to this point,” he said. “We’ve had daily communication and contact with family members, and we've given all the information that we can provide, in terms of what our investigation has entailed, what the efforts have been on behalf of the LAPD and other partner law enforcement agencies.”

“We’ve put a lot of resources into this investigation,” Hamilton continued. “So just to be clear to the public: The LAPD has taken this report seriously from the moment that we received it, and we have expended a lot of resources — to include a trip this past weekend to the U.S.-Mexico border to collaborate with our partners there.”

“We've really left no stone unturned,” Hamilton said, “and it's led us to this conclusion.”

What did they learn at the border?

“Late yesterday [Sunday, Dec. 1] … we reviewed video surveillance from U.S. Customs and Border Protection which clearly shows Kobayashi crossing the United States border on foot into Mexico,” McDonnell said. “She was alone with her luggage and appeared unharmed.”

Police later clarified that Hannah used the San Ysidro crossing into Tijuana just after noon local time on Nov. 12. 

Azari, representing Hannah’s family, took another view.

“That word is so loaded and broad,” she says. “To me, ‘voluntary’ means that somebody's doing something completely on their own volition. It's their own decision. There's no influence, there's nothing. … Given what I know from the family and just even whatever's public, none of it at all adds up to voluntary to me.”

No signs of foul play, investigators say

“At this point, we have not been able to determine any crime has been committed,” McDonnell, the police chief, said on Monday.

“To date, the investigation has not uncovered any evidence that Kobayashi is being trafficked or is the victim of foul play,” he said. “She's also not a suspect in any criminal activity.”

McDonnell stressed that police see this as a case of a woman making her own choices that have nonetheless drawn widespread scrutiny.

“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,” he said. “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.”

He went on to say that though L.A. police cannot continue their work in another country — and that no interaction had yet been had with Mexican 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,” he said. 

What was Hannah's state of mind?

Echoing the family attorney, McDonnell said on Monday when asked about potential “arguments” or “problems” that may have happened before Hannah left Hawaii that there was “no indication that there would be anything to cause this to happen in this fashion for her to go off.”

“But like any family situation, you know, who knows what the dynamics are,” he said.

When asked about concerning text messages that Hannah’s family said they had received from her phone, Hamilton, the chief of detectives, said authorities couldn’t “speak to her state of mind.”

“I think some of the communication can be interpreted in a number of different ways,” he said. “So at this time, we're not able to interpret those communications without having Hannah present to explain how she felt when she sent them and what the specific meanings were for those messages.”

Lt. Douglas Oldfield, an investigator on the case who appeared at Monday’s news conference, said there had been indication from Hannah’s past posts online that she wanted to “disconnect,” but he declined to elaborate. 

“By looking at her past social media, we then saw indications that there were some desires or posts that would be consistent in somebody who would have the desire to disconnect from their phone,” he said.

Still, he added, “Are we a 100% right on that? We can't say … we just know that she did not have her phone after she left LAX.”

Answering follow-up questions from the press, Hamilton said that “we have no information that she's working with anyone else” and that her feelings were more of a “generalized individual desire” than something that was attached to another person or group.

Grief upon grief

Amid the search for Hannah, her dad, Ryan, died by suicide in L.A. amid what the family has called a mental health crisis.

“I’m very sorry to the family for all that they've been through throughout this ordeal,” McDonnell said. “We’re very sorry for their loss.” 

“I don't know that words can express the feelings that they're going through during this very difficult time,” he said.

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