As members of the Hong Kong media scrambled to locate Edward Snowden on Monday, journalists in the U.S. flew to Hawaii to learn more about the life the former National Security Agency contractor left behind.
Snowden revealed his identity on Sunday as the person responsible for giving The Guardian and The Washington Post top-secret documents uncovering the NSA's secret surveillance programs. In an interview with The Guardian's Glenn Greenwald, Snowden said that he lived a comfortable life in Hawaii with his girlfriend, but was willing to give that all up to protect "basic liberties for people around the world."
Snowden also said that he told his girlfriend that he had to be away for a few weeks, but was vague about the reason. "That is not an uncommon occurrence for someone who has spent the last decade working in the intelligence world," Snowden told Greenwald. Snowden then boarded a flight to Hong Kong on May 20. The Associated Press reported that a real estate agent said Snowden and his girlfriend moved out of the home they shared on May 1.
Inside Edition reportedly identified Snowden's alleged girlfriend as a 28-year-old dancer named Lindsay Mills. Multiple sources reported that Mills was a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art, who took to her blog on Monday to seemingly describe her current situation:
My world has opened and closed all at once. Leaving me lost at sea without a compass. Surely there will be villainous pirates, distracting mermaids, and tides of change in this new open water chapter of my journey. But at the moment all I can feel is alone.
Mills' blog carries the title "L's Journey," with the subtitle "Adventures of a world-traveling, pole-dancing super hero." Buzzfeed put together a post titled "This Might Be The Girlfriend Edward Snowden Left Behind" that featured multiple photos from Mills' blog, including photographs of her boyfriend she described as "E."