Loved ones have provided an update on the search for Amy Hillyard, a Bay Area coffeeshop owner who mysteriously vanished over a week ago.
Hillyard, who is a co-owner of the popular Farley’s coffeeshops in Oakland and San Francisco, left her home on the 500 block of Radnor Road around 2 p.m. on March 25. The 52-year-old is believed to have departed on foot.
Her unexpected disappearance prompted a huge response from friends and family, who have relentlessly canvassed the area since she vanished. On Thursday, Oakland police and the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office search and rescue team searched Skyline Gate, a hiking trail in the Oakland hills. Loved ones who are providing updates on a website dedicated to search said the area is “one of Amy’s most beloved places to hike and walk.” The Skyline Gate staging area is over 5 miles from where Hillyard was last seen.
The hourslong search by law enforcement ended with no new clues.
On Saturday afternoon, an update on the Bring Amy Home site said dozens of friends are “combing through hours of tapes” to see if Hillyard can be spotted at BART stations. “Investigators with OPD also plan another video canvass this weekend and continue to follow up on information reported to OPD,” the update read.
Residents of Cleveland Heights, Lake Merritt, Lakeshore and Crocker Highlands are being asked to check their home security cameras for footage from the afternoon of March 25. Hillyard has an unspecified medical condition that makes her at risk, police said.
“As more time goes by without Amy, the agony of her absence is devastating,” her husband, Chris Hillyard, said in a statement. “We are still holding on to hope, thanks to Amy’s community of friends and volunteers who continue to search every day. They are a source of strength to our family and me.”
Amy Hillyard’s father-in-law founded the original Farley’s in Potrero Hill in the 1980s, and the small local chain now has locations at SFO, Oakland Airport and on Grand Avenue in Oakland. The Grand Avenue location made headlines last year when anti-Zionist graffiti was discovered in a restroom and several employees were fired.
Hillyard is 5-foot-4, 120 pounds and has blonde hair and hazel eyes. She was last seen wearing a white short-sleeve shirt, light-colored jeans and white sneakers with black stripes. Anyone with information is asked to call Oakland police at 510-238-3641.