What happened to Hannah Kobayashi? The public and police may never know

Editor’s Note: This article is about suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call 988, text or chat at 988lifeline.org.

A missed flight. Cryptic text messages. Sightings around Los Angeles. A family tragedy.

Each new update in the months-long search for a missing Hawaii woman captivated the nation. And after family members announced Wednesday that 30-year-old Hannah Kobayashi was safe, questions are still swirling about what might have caused the photographer to abruptly cut off communications with her loved ones and leave the country.

Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said Kobayashi voluntarily walked across the U.S.-Mexico border in California on Nov. 12, days after she missed her connecting flight to New York. She was not the victim of a kidnapping, crime or human trafficking, as has been speculated on social media, McDonnell said.

“We are pleased to learn that Hannah is safe,” the department said in a statement to USA TODAY. “Now that we have this new information, this has become a private matter and we will complete our investigation.”

But it’s unlikely the public will ever see the results of that investigation or learn exactly what happened to Kobayashi after she was reported missing last month, said Michelle Jeanis, an assistant professor in the criminal justice department at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

“If it is a voluntary departure, then there is no crime and there is nothing to investigate,” said Jeanis, who studies the missing persons phenomenon. “And they have no obligation to say anything to the public or the family.”

What happened to Hannah Kobayashi?

On November 8, Kobayashi missed a connecting flight from Maui to New York City at Los Angeles International Airport and was later spotted at various locations around the city.

She sent her family a series of unusual text messages in which she mentioned that she didn’t feel safe and that someone was trying to steal her identity and money. Kobayashi stopped contacting them days later, prompting her family to file a missing person’s report and launch a massive, personal search operation.

During the search, Kobayashi’s father, Ryan Kobayashi, 58, died by suicide near LAX. Police later said Kobayashi intentionally missed her flight to New York – a claim the family denies – and classified her as a voluntary missing person after reviewing footage that showed her crossing the southern border.

On Wednesday, lawyers for the family said she had been found in Mexico.

“The last month has been an unimaginable ordeal for our family, and we kindly ask for privacy as we take the time to heal and process everything we have been through,” the statement, from her mother Brandi, said Yee and her sister Sydni Kobayashi. “We would like to thank everyone who supported us during this difficult time. Your kindness and care meant a lot to us.”

Kobayashi has “no obligation” to explain his disappearance to police

It is not clear what prompted Kobayashi to cut off communication with her family and travel to Mexico. McDonnell told reporters that before leaving Maui, Kobayashi “expressed a desire to say goodbye to modern connectivity,” which may explain why she didn’t have a phone with her after leaving LAX.

Typically, voluntary departures are triggered by a stressful situation such as a divorce, a financial crisis or possible criminal charges, Jeanis said. “We rarely see a case reach this level of attention or attention to what looks like family dysfunction or perhaps poor communication,” she said.

Jeanis said it was unlikely that Kobayashi and her family would reveal further details about what led to her disappearance after enduring such an “incredibly, deeply traumatic” ordeal. And unlike cases where people misled law enforcement about her disappearance, police are unlikely to pursue further investigations into Kobayashi, Jeanis said.

“We haven’t seen them and at this point we have no reason to force them to see us,” Lt. Doug Oldfield, a member of the LAPD Missing Persons Unit, tells PEOPLE. “It’s big news, so she might decide to come with a lawyer, but she’s not obligated to talk to us.”

Oldfield told PEOPLE that if Kobayashi crosses the border back into the United States, she will still be “reported as a missing person.” He said the department is waiting for Customs and Border Protection agents or other law enforcement officials to make contact and determine she is OK.

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What happened to Hannah Kobayashi? The public and police may never know

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