<\/p>\n
Alysha Hanin holds her son Adrian Hoffmann in a photo taken in New Zealand in January 1999.<\/p>\n
Courtesy of Adrian Hoffmann<\/p>\n
Adrian Hoffman wants to know what happened to his mother.<\/p>\n
More than twenty years ago, the young model vanished on South Beach, leaving behind a missing person\u2019s report that was light on the details and a toddler son on the other side of the globe.<\/p>\n
This week, that grieving son flew 20 hours from New Zealand to Miami with his mother on his mind. He\u2019s on a mission to uncover what happened to Alysha \u201cKrsangi\u201d Hanin, who mysteriously vanished in Miami Beach on Jan. 6, 2002. Hoffmann was last in Miami just weeks before Hanin disappeared. He was 3 years old.<\/p>\n
![\"Adrian](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/2O6A2353.jpg\" "\\"2O6A2353.jpg\\"")
Adrian Hoffmann poses for a portrait in the Miami Herald conference room after an interview about his mother Alysha Hanin\u2019s disappearance on Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. Courtesy of Warren Rodricks <\/p>\n
Hoffmann, now 27, returned to South Florida to retrace his mother\u2019s last known steps and to connect with investigators, as well as people who may have come across Hanin, who was 24 years old when she apparently vanished into the night alongside Collins Avenue.<\/p>\n
Hanin was staying at the Shore Club at the time of her disappearance. She apparently left the hotel to grab a bite to eat between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. but never returned. She left behind her luggage, identification and personal belongings.<\/p>\n
Since the day she vanished, there hasn\u2019t been a sighting of Hanin or any verified activity on her bank accounts.<\/p>\n
In the days following her disappearance, Hanin was expected in several places: She was set to move in to a new apartment in South Beach with friends. She was subpoenaed to appear in court, court records show, in a domestic violence case in which she was the victim. And she intended to come back to New Zealand to reunite with her son.<\/p>\n
But Hanin was not reported missing until a friend called police on Jan. 27, 2002, 21 days after she was last spotted, according to her missing person\u2019s report.<\/p>\n
Miami Beach detectives, who are leading the investigation, presume Hanin, a former model, is dead and suspect that she met with foul play, according to a letter they sent Hoffmann\u2019s family in 2008. The Miami Beach Police Department did not reply to the Miami Herald\u2019s requests for an interview about the case.<\/p>\n
Alysha Hanin poses in an undated headshot. Courtesy of Adrian Hoffmann <\/p>\n
No one has been charged in connection to Hanin\u2019s disappearance, and the cold case investigation remains active.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe main instigator of all of this, really, is me reaching the age that she reached, 24, when she went missing and realizing that you don\u2019t know everything and you are young,\u201d Hoffman told the Herald on Monday, the day after he arrived in Miami. \u201cAnd wow, she just vanished.\u201d<\/p>\n
A son\u2019s hunt for answers<\/p>\n
Hoffmann\u2019s first memories of are his mother. He remembers being hoisted on her shoulders at Sea World as they watched whales jumping from the water. He remembers them going swimming together at an apartment swimming pool. He remembers his mother pushing him in a stroller and dropping him off at daycare.<\/p>\n
Hoffmann reminisces on those memories, which are also the last he has of his mother.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pictures in my head that I do have are great, but mostly I have the lack of her as a result,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m sure a lot of people don\u2019t remember interacting with their parents when they were three, but that\u2019s all I had.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alysha Hanin smiles in an undated photo with her son Adrian Hoffmann. Courtesy of Adrian Hoffmann <\/p>\n
Weeks before Hanin disappeared, she took her toddler back to New Zealand because she was supposed to undergo surgery for a medical issue. That surgery never happened, and Hanin never returned. Hoffmann was raised by his grandmother in the Pacific island nation. His father, Modesto Alex Hoffmann, died by suicide at age 29 in 1999.<\/p>\n
As a young, inquisitive child, Hoffmann said he constantly brought up Hanin to his grandmother. His mind wandered with thoughts about where she could be, and if they would ever find out what happened to her. By age 5, Hoffmann said, he knew that his father killed himself and that his mother had disappeared.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure for a grieving mother, my grandmother, I would have been quite triggering to have around because I was very pushy…\u201d he said. \u201cI would always talk about my mother.\u201d<\/p>\n
When he became a young adult, Hoffmann said he began to wonder more about his mother and where he came from.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could justify my father to myself. I could sit with that, and it hurt, but I could understand it,\u201d Hoffmann said. \u201cBut my mother\u2019s [disappearance]…, I just couldn\u2019t understand, especially the contrasting image that is portrayed of her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alysha Hanin, right, and Modesto Alex Hoffmann, left, pose in an undated photo taken in Miami Beach. Courtesy of Adrian Hoffmann <\/p>\n
That drove him to begin sleuthing. He browsed online forums that discussed the case and occasionally looked up his mother\u2019s name to see if any new information surfaced online. Then, in January 2023, a Miami Herald article popped up focused on police asking for tips in Hanin\u2019s disappearance, at that point a cold case. The article shocked Hoffmann because no local news outlets originally covered her disappearance.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore that, I kind of figured that no media outlet cared at all, or did anything,\u201d Hoffmann said. \u201cI just thought she was written off.\u201d<\/p>\n
READ MORE: A woman went missing in Miami Beach two decades ago. Police are still looking for her<\/a><\/p>\n Hoffmann reached out to the Herald and commenced his pursuit for answers. In the last three years, he compiled a timeline, began contacting Hanin\u2019s friends and dug into theories of what may have happened to her. He sifted through dozens of files belonging to a private investigator Hanin\u2019s mother hired shortly after her disappearance. He launched findingalysha.com<\/a>, a website that includes a tip line and information about the case.<\/p>\n A handwritten, two-page missing person\u2019s report is all that is publicly accessible in the missing person\u2019s case. The report lists an ex-boyfriend as a suspect and notes that Hanin and her ex had a \u201cviolent domestic past.\u201d Hanin, according to the report, had stayed with him on New Year\u2019s Eve \u2014 five days before her disappearance.<\/p>\n On Jan. 1, 2002, Hanin\u2019s ex, who was an attorney but has since been disbarred, pushed her to the floor and punched her in the mouth, according to an arrest report the Herald obtained in a public records request. Hanin bled from her gums and said her bottom teeth were slightly loose.<\/p>\n Hanin was supposed to appear in court for that case on Jan. 10, 2002, records show.<\/p>\n But that wasn\u2019t the first brush with police for the young couple.<\/p>\n The year prior, in 2001, Hanin\u2019s ex dragged her out of the house as she carried her son, according to another arrest report. He allegedly slammed her against the wall and took her keys. Both the 2001 and 2002 misdemeanor battery cases were dropped. Also in 2001, Hanin was arrested for allegedly attacking her ex with a knife, although charges were never filed. Hoffman said he has memories as a toddler of his mother being abused and of police coming to their home.<\/p>\n But while at the Shore Club, Hanin was staying with another man, a friend who told police she left the hotel to eat but never returned, according to the report. That friend later left her luggage and belongings in the hotel lobby. He did not report Hanin missing; another friend was the one who made the call to police 21 days later.<\/p>\n The cops never got very far with the investigation into Hanin\u2019s disappearance. Hoffman suspects it might be because his mother\u2019s party-focused lifestyle, which included dabbling in drugs. But in his armchair detective work, Hoffmann discovered aspects of his mother that stood in stark contrast to that portrayal.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was young. She wanted to clean up her life,\u201d he said. \u201cShe wasn\u2019t a lost cause at all.\u201d<\/p>\n Hanin was born in India to New Zealanders who followed the Hare Krishna movement. She had a California accent because she was raised in Bakersfield. She went into modeling in Los Angeles, where she met Hoffmann\u2019s father, who was also a model. Hanin also went by Krsangi, her Hare Krishna name, although she had several other names on her official documents, including Alysha Krsangi Devi and Yami Senk.<\/p>\n Her loved ones, Hoffmann said, remember her as a young mother who traveled the world and got caught up in the glamor of the Miami Beach party scene.<\/p>\n \u201cI learned of her innocence, her sweet nature, perhaps some naivety,\u201d Hoffmann said. \u201cI have a personal diary from when she was a teenager as well. That was quite personal. I felt like I connected with her there…\u201d<\/p>\n Upon arriving in Miami on Sunday, Hoffmann headed to South Beach. He said it had a familiar aura, as if he were in a blurry dream. On Monday night, he retraced his mother\u2019s final known whereabouts. He looked up at the shell of the hotel from which his mother vanished. Most of it, aside from its historic Art Deco buildings, were torn down in 2020 to be developed into a luxury resort.<\/p>\n Hoffmann then walked from the hotel site to the 11th Street Diner, the restaurant where Hanin was supposedly headed that night.<\/p>\n Near the intersection of 11th Street and Washington Avenue, Hoffmann stopped and stared at the illuminated building across the street \u2014 the Miami Beach Police Department.<\/p>\n \u201cThis freaks me out, that it\u2019s so close,\u201d Hoffmann said.<\/p>\n Throughout his life, Hoffmann said he has felt a heavy weight related to his mother\u2019s disappearance. His grieving process, he said, has been like repeatedly watching half of a movie and never knowing the ending.<\/p>\n Hoffmann believes his mother was killed. But he wanted to be able to say that he brought his own investigation to Miami Beach to, one day, have answers for his future kids when they ask him about their grandmother.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the final photos that I have of her, she\u2019s going to be 24 forever, and I\u2019m 27 now,\u201d Hoffmann said. \u201cI\u2019ve lived longer than she ever got to live, and she\u2019s my mother… It\u2019s not how it\u2019s supposed to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n Anyone with information about Hanin or her whereabouts should call FDLE at 1-888-356-4774 or the Miami Beach Police Department at 305-673-7900.<\/p>\n Alysha Hanin smiles in an undated photo with her son Adrian Hoffmann. Courtesy of Adrian Hoffmann <\/p>\n
Alysha Hanin poses in an undated modeling photo. Courtesy of Adrian Hoffmann <\/p>\n
![\"Adrian](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/2O6A2422.jpg\" "\\"2O6A2422.jpg\\"")
Adrian Hoffmann discusses his mother Alysha Hanin\u2019s disappearance on Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. Courtesy of Warren Rodricks Retracing her last steps<\/p>\n Alysha Hanin smiles in an undated photo taken shortly before she disappeared. Hanin vanished in Miami Beach on Jan. 6, 2002. Courtesy of Adrian Hoffmann <\/p>\n
![\"Profile](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_6789.jpg\")