An aunt of the missing photographer Hannah Kobayashi has denounced conspiracy theories surrounding her disappearance.
Larie Pidgeon suggested that the theories contributed to the suicide of Kobayashi's father, Ryan, on Sunday.
Hannah Kobayashi, 30, had flown from Maui in Hawaii to Los Angeles on November 8 and was due to continue on to New York to visit an aunt.
However, she missed that flight and was last seen in Los Angeles on November 11.
Since her disappearance, amateur internet sleuths have suggested that she was abducted by a cult, that her father may have abducted her or that she was sex trafficked by a Los Angeles gang.
"It's bulls**t! It's such bulls**t!" Pidgeon told The New York Post on Monday. "If Ryan is looking at all this s**t, imagine that weighing on him?"
Los Angeles police said Ryan Kobayashi, 58, had been searching for his daughter at Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday. He then jumped to his death from the airport's parking garage.
The Los Angeles County medical examiner said on Monday that his death was a suicide and that he died from blunt force trauma to the head.
Newsweek sought email comment from the Los Angeles Police Department on Wednesday.
Pidgeon suggested that online conspiracy theories had broken Ryan Kobayashi's spirit.
"He broke," she told The Post. "He died of a broken heart. We were tirelessly searching, and Ryan was a big, giant teddy bear. He's sensitive. Imagine looking in places like Skid Row, picturing his daughter being sex-trafficked, not getting sleep. He just broke."
"It's people wanting more out of the story than that the world is cruel and evil and a woman traveling alone can get taken in the blink of an eye," Pidgeon said.
Kobayashi was seen in a Los Angeles mall on November 9 and November 10. On November 11, her family and friends received strange texts from her phone.
One text received by a friend read: "Deep Hackers wiped my identity, stole all of my funds, & have had me on a mind f—k since Friday."
Another text said: "I got tricked pretty much into giving away all my funds ... For someone I thought I loved."
Her aunt in New York received a text that read: "I just finished a very intense spiritual awakening."
Pidgeon said the texts were likely not sent by her niece. She said Kobayashi loved photography and art and had not shown any signs of mental illness.
"Everything was normal until the 11th. We're the kind of family that if you f–k up, you ask for help. She wouldn't hide something," Pidgeon said.
English (US) ·