A sister of missing Hawaii woman Hannah Kobayashi said on Wednesday that someone may have been forcing Hannah to send strange text messages to her family.
"It feels like someone was controlling her," Sydni Kobayashi told NewsNation's Cuomo show.
"Intuitively knowing her and being so close to her my entire life, I just know this is absolutely not like her."
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.
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."
Others 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."
Her phone was switched off later that day and her family have not been able to make contact since.
Sydni Kobayashi said in the NewsNation interview that her sister would not simply have switched off her phone and ended contact with the family.
"This whole situation is so bizarre. She would never have done anything like this to our family," she said.
She said her family have received many tips from the public but are cautious about releasing details in order to protect the police investigation.
That echoes a missing person poster that Sydni Kobayashi posted on her Facebook page which states that Hannah was last seen near a Los Angeles sports stadium and was not alone.
It also said that the family could not reveal more in case it jeopardized the police investigation.
"She was last seen in alarming video footage in the Crypto.com Arena/LA Convention Center area in downtown LA and she is NOT alone," it reads. "We are unable to share more details due to the ongoing investigation."
Sydni Kobayashi also told NewsNation that her father, Ryan, had ended his life last Sunday after many days searching for Hannah.
Fighting back tears, she said that her father "gave it his all" during the search for Hannah.
"He deprived himself of sleep, he wasn't eating. He was caring about everyone else's feelings but his own," she said.
She also said she wanted to correct media reports that Hannah was seen at LA airport with another person after she missed her flight to New York.
"[Hannah] was not seen at the airport with anybody," she said.
English (US) ·