Police Say Missing Hawaii Woman Walked Into Mexico

Authorities say surveillance video from the US Border Patrol shows Hannah Kobayashi, the 30-year-old Hawaii woman who went missing in Los Angeles last month, crossing into Mexico the day after her family last heard from her. Kobayashi flew into Los Angeles International Airport on Nov. 8 but missed her connecting flight to New York; her family last heard from her on Nov. 11 in a series of disturbing text messages. Now, however, the Los Angeles Police Department is saying Kobayashi appears to have intentionally missed her New York flight, and that the video shows her crossing the border on foot and alone, with her luggage and apparently unharmed, on Nov. 12, the Los Angeles Times reports. She is now considered a "voluntary missing person," KTLA reports.

Police earlier said Kobayashi was spotted on surveillance video picking up her bags, which had originally been checked through to New York, at the LA airport on Nov. 11; authorities discovered she'd arranged for the bags to be sent back to LA. "The investigation further revealed that Kobayashi knowingly departed LAX with her luggage and traveled to Union Station," says the LAPD in a press release. "While at Union Station, she used her passport to purchase a bus ticket for a destination near the Mexico border." Nearly two weeks into the search for his daughter, Kobayashi's father apparently took his own life in LA. Her family pushed back on the LAPD's suggestion that Kobayashi purposely missed her flight, but has not commented on the border video.

Police say there's no sign of foul play, and they suspect she may have left her cellphone in California, NBC Los Angeles reports. She had previously spoken on social media of a "desire to step away from modern connectivity," the police chief says. Law enforcement sources, meanwhile, claim she's had similar disappearances in the past. While the search will not continue in Mexico, police are urging anyone with knowledge of Kobayashi to contact law enforcement, and are urging Kobayashi herself to contact her family: "A simple message could reassure those who care about her," police say. (More missing woman stories.)