Police give major update on missing woman who vanished at airport after missing connecting flight

Warning: this article mentions suicide which some readers may find distressing.

Police have issued a major update on the missing case of Hannah Kobayashi, who disappeared over a fortnight ago after missing her flight to New York.

Kobayashi flew into LAX Airport from Hawaii on 8 November, and was last seen on 11 November, following a number of peculiar events where she acted 'out-of-character'.

Kobayashi's family have commented on the police investigation up to now, with her sister recently suggesting that 'someone was controlling her' after a number of her friends and family received weird text messages from her phone.

A number of noted sightings of the Hawaiian had also been highlighted as the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) carried out their investigation into the matter over the past few weeks.

She was seen at a shopping mall, a Nike event, and a metro station as well as the airport in LA, before vanishing without a trace, as her phone went offline on 11 November too.

Kobayashi's father made his way out to LA on the same day too, though after two weeks, he was found dead at the bottom of a parking garage, as the Los Angeles County medical examiner determined was caused by suicide.

Family have eagerly waited for a police update, and it looks like they may have finally got one.

An LAPD Board of Commissioners meeting took place on Tuesday, with newly inaugurated LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell addressing the case of Kobayashi.

The 31-year-old was seen in a number of locations on CCTV (California Attorney General's Office)

McDonell clarified that the family is carrying out their own search for the missing American, while detectives reviewed footage from areas where Kobayashi was spotted.

But after using a number of techniques, they determined that Kobayashi missed her flight on purpose.

The Chief stated: "On Friday, Nov. 8 23-year-old Hannah Kobayashi missed her connecting flight from LAX to New York which the investigation determined was intentional,

"Over the next few days, she maintained contact with her family and remained active on Instagram."

He further explained that her family travelled to Los Angeles on 13 November after filing a missing persons report.

"Our hearts go out to the Kobayashi family during this unimaginable time of grief. We remain fully committed to locating Hannah and supporting the family as they navigate their way through this tragedy," McDonell concluded.

Flyers of Kobayashi have been passed out in LA in recent weeks (Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

The news comes after the discovery of two mystery payments from Kobayashi while she was in LA.

Her family discovered that a pair of payments made over Venmo on 9 November, and that they are under investigation.

One of them was made at 6:25pm to someone called Veronica Almendarez and was noted with the bow and arrow emoji, while another sum was paid to someone called Jonathan Taylor less than an hour later at 7:19pm, with the transaction having the reference 'Reading'.