Conspiracy theories may have sparked tragic twist in Hannah Kobayashi’s case

The mysterious case of missing Hawaiian photographer Hannah Kobayashi has been marred by wild conspiracy theories – including that she was brainwashed by a cult or blackmailed by African hackers – and they may have literally driven her father to his death, her aunt said.

Cops said Ryan Kobayashi, 58, leaped from a Los Angeles International Airport parking garage Sunday morning while searching for his daughter – who vanished earlier this month after missing a connecting flight to New York for a “bucket list” trip.

Ryan’s manner of death was ruled a suicide and the cause was found to be blunt force trauma, the Los Angeles County medical examiner said on Monday.

The devastated father was likely consumed with raging online speculation about his little girl – with armchair experts theorizing about her alleged ties to a mystic cult called Twin Flames, a possible rift between the father and daughter and even a psychotic breakdown.

“It’s bulls—t! It’s such bulls—t!” her aunt, Larie Pidgeon, told The Post on Monday. “If Ryan is looking at all this s–t, imagine that weighing on him?”

“He broke,” she continued. “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.”

Hannah, 30, flew from Maui to Los Angeles on Nov. 8 – and was meant to make a connecting flight to New York City for a trip to see an aunt. She and an ex-boyfriend had the same trip plans – but agreed to go their separate ways in the Big Apple, her sister Sydni Kobayashi told CNN last week.

But the budding photographer never made that second flight and, in the coming days, bizarre text messages were sent from her phone.

“Deep Hackers wiped my identity, stole all of my funds, & have had me on a mind f—k since Friday,” one text to a pal said.

Others said, “I got tricked pretty much into giving away all my funds … For someone I thought I loved.”

She had sent the aunt in New York a text, “I just finished a very intense spiritual awakening,” Pidgeon said.

Hannah was last heard from on Nov. 11 — and her case has since gone viral, with internet sleuths surmising her whereabouts in the depths of Reddit and even in the comments of her Instagram account.

She’d been brainwashed by cultists, some said – like the notorious love-obsessed faction Twin Flames, also the subject of a disturbing Netflix docuseries. Hannah’s Instagram account shows that she followed Twin Flames-associated accounts — but Pidgeon said she’d never mentioned the group. 

Others claimed she was blackmailed by African hackers.

Still more alleged Hannah was fleeing her abusive father, while others she was kidnapped by mobsters her dad owed money to.

Some even claimed her father was the one who engineered the abduction.

“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.

Pidgeon believes her niece was kidnapped while trying to book a flight at the airport, and the strange texts, which she said sound nothing like Hannah, were either sent under duress or by the kidnapper.

The family is loving and close, and Pidgeon, who lives in northern California, said she spoke with Kobayashi on the phone several times a week and she never seemed distressed or mentally unstable.

“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.

There was no big strife within the family, she said, and Kobayashi wasn’t involved in cults. Her father didn’t owe money to gangsters, and her niece definitely didn’t kidnap herself.

But Ryan’s tragic death has only egged on the conspiracy theorists. 

“Can’t imagine a parent truly wanting to find their child but ending it all before they knew what happened … I don’t know, this just feels like he might’ve been involved somehow,” one commenter wrote on the r/findhannahkobayashi subreddit, which was almost 2,000 members

“It’s a lot more likely than they are all in a death cult,” scribbled another.

“I do believe [the family] are leaving out key details because they think they will lose public support,” wrote Steve Fischer, a self-proclaimed “missing persons private investigator” with over 20,000 followers on X.

If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) or text Crisis Text Line at 741741.