Edward Snowden’s most intimate connection to Hawaii in the months leading up to a massive leak of top-secret American surveillance techniques is a 28-year-old acrobatic dancer named Lindsay Mills. 

The U.K.’s Daily Mail reported on Monday that Mills was Snowden’s live-in girlfriend. The blonde dancer lived with him in a now-vacant suburban home in Royal Kunia near Waipahu.

Mills became the focus of the media frenzy surrounding Snowden on Monday, shortly after it was reported that the former National Security Agency contractor had left the Hong Kong hotel in which he had been hiding for several weeks. 

At this point, there are questions about what, if anything, Snowden told Mills regarding his plans to notify the world about the NSA’s secret internet and phone surveillance programs and seek refuge in Hong Kong. 

He told The Guardian in an exclusive interview that he disclosed few details to Mills, only telling her he’d be gone for a few weeks. He said this was a normal explanation given his job as a covert intelligence analyst.

Sources close to Mills told Civil Beat that she doesn’t want to talk to the media. Her friends are working to protect her from the unwanted publicity. It’s unclear whether she’s still on Oahu.

But Snowden’s disappearance seems to have caught Mills by surprise, at least according to a blog she writes in which she describes herself as “a world-traveling, pole-dancing super hero.”

In a June 10 post titled “Adrift,” Mills writes that her world “has opened and closed all at once” and that she feels alone. She also says that, given current circumstances, she won’t be posting on the blog anytime soon.

“Though I never imagined my hand would be so forced … sometimes life doesn’t afford proper goodbyes,” she wrote.

According to news reports, Mills has recently started performing with the Waikiki Acrobatic Troupe doing pole dancing and aerial acrobatics.

Former neighbors of Snowden and Mills told Civil Beat on Sunday they assumed Mills was here on military duty given her Maryland license plate. They described her as a quiet person who never went out of her way to speak with them.

Meanwhile, the defense contracting firm Snowden worked for — Booz Allen Hamilton — has become the subject of much scrutiny since news broke of the analyst’s involvement in the leaks. The company’s stock has taken a hit, tumbling 5 percent, its biggest fall in four months.

Booz Allen gets most of its money from the federal government and reported a profit of $446 million last fiscal year, according to various media reports.

On Monday, Civil Beat visited Booz Allen’s main Hawaii office in downtown Honolulu. The space takes up the 30th floor of a Pacific Guardian Center tower.

Security was tight at the office.

When a photographer attempted to snap photos of the Booz Allen company sign, an unidentified employee emerged from the office and told him to stop taking pictures. He also ordered the photographer to delete any photos he had taken. But the photographer simply walked off.

The unidentified Booz Allen staffer refused to answer Civil Beat’s questions about Snowden, nor would he respond to inquiries about the company. He referred questions to the company’s main headquarters in Virginia and provided the same three-sentence statement Booz Allen had issued Sunday when the news broke.

Snowden has once again disappeared, even as the U.S. continues its investigation into the leaks. News media reported he left the Hong Kong hotel. More than 40,000 people signed a petition asking President Obama to pardon him.