Hannah Kobayashi, a Hawaii woman who went missing from Los Angeles International Airport in November, kicking off an international search before resurfacing in Mexico a month later, spoke out on social media this week about her “loss, pain and suffering.”
“Hi, everyone. I just want to come on here and take the time to say how grateful I am for everyone. Every single person who dedicated time and energy into looking for me,” she wrote in an Instagram Story.
“Every day is such a gift. Especially, after such loss and pain and suffering,” she said in the post. “We should all learn to be kind to one another.”
Kobayashi, 31, was traveling from Hawaii to New York when she disappeared in Los Angeles during a layover on Nov. 8. While her family feared she was abducted or worse, police described her disappearance as “voluntary” when video emerged of her crossing the border into Mexico days later.
However, before she made contact with her family, her worried father, Ryan Kobayashi, traveled to California in search of her but died by suicide roughly two weeks later. He appeared to have jumped from a parking structure near LAX.
Upon her return in December, Kobayashi said she was “unaware” of the commotion she had kicked up and asked for privacy.
“I was unaware of everything that was happening in the media while I was away, and I am still processing it all. I kindly ask for respect for myself, my family and my loved ones as I navigate through this challenging time,” she said in a statement.
She offered a little more in an interview with the SFGate on Monday.
“Given my particular situation on the other side of my experience, I understand how some people would choose to cast me in a negative light, but I know who I am, I know my truth and one day, I will share it,” Kobayashi told the outlet over Instagram. “I do believe that we can all learn to be kinder to one another because we never really know what someone else has been through unless we’ve walked in their shoes.”
She more directly addressed her situation in the comments of a different Instagram post after someone asked why she missed her father’s funeral.
“You don’t know the whole story. My intention in this post is to acknowledge that I am going to speak about my experience — and to stand up against all the hate that was cast upon me,” Kobayashi responded to her critic. “I hope that in your darkest hours, you are shown compassion and love versus hate and judgment.”
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