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On the day she disappeared, Chris Hillyard said, he and his wife had breakfast together at home before he dropped her off at a BART station near their Oakland home. She was headed to a therapy appointment in Walnut Creek, Chris Hillyard said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She texted him around 1:40 p.m. to say that she was home, and her credit card was charged for the BART trips to and from Walnut Creek, Chris Hillyard said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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About five minutes after arriving home, she took their dog for a walk, and talked to a neighbor on her way back, Chris Hillyard said, citing surveillance footage from a neighboring home.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When he returned home around 3:15 p.m., the back door was open, Chris Hillyard said. His wife\u2019s belongings were on the kitchen counter, including her car keys, cellphone, wallet and handbag.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Surveillance video later showed Amy Hillyard in the area of Dimond Park, located at the base of Dimond Canyon and hiking trails, around 4:30 p.m. the day she disappeared, Oakland police said. The agency did not provide further details.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Six days later, on March 31, police, with assistance from Alameda, Contra Costa and Marin county sheriff\u2019s offices, as well as 60 volunteers, fanned out in the Dimond District park for a search, to no avail.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the past few months, Amy Hillyard was dealing with \u201ca lot of loss and intense feelings of sadness\u201d related to the death of a close family friend, Chris Hillyard said, as well as intensive caretaking of close relatives and the loss of one of their dogs. \u201cAmy prides herself on being there for others, taking care of others, and all of these stressors took their toll,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Overwhelmed, Amy turned to a professional and was prescribed medication for depression and anxiety, he said. His wife, he said, was \u201cworking on recovering and doing all the right things to heal\u201d when she went missing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Police previously said she was at-risk because of a medical condition but did not elaborate.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact is that being without her medication is dangerous and that\u2019s why it\u2019s important to bring Amy home,\u201d Chris Hillyard said.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cThere\u2019s no real explanation for why she has gone missing. She did not leave a note behind or any other clues.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Volunteers, including family and friends, in collaboration with law enforcement agencies, have searched for her, handed out fliers about the case and canvassed for any footage of her in spots she frequented, including neighborhoods around Lake Merritt and the Oakland Hills. They\u2019ve scoured coffee shops, restaurants, farmers’ markets and trails.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Amy loved to hike in and around Reinhardt Redwood Regional Park. \u201cIt was a place of calm, a retreat in many ways,\u201d longtime friend Tejal Patel said. It\u2019s why some searches have focused on that area.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Patel, who is helping to organize search efforts, said volunteers were using Google Maps to mark the places they\u2019ve searched, pinning spots they\u2019ve checked, as well as Strava, a GPS tracking app that records their walking routes. At 8 p.m. every night, Patel contacts volunteers and comes up with a game plan for the next day.<\/p>\n
Police told the Chronicle they were following up on multiple reported sightings and reviewing video footage. Investigators have also obtained search warrants, canvassed residential neighborhoods for any videos of Amy Hillyard, among other investigative efforts. Police have also shared surveillance video for the family to review. \u201cThey felt we were best equipped to spot Amy on streets and BART stations,\u201d Chris Hillyard said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He and Patel said the outpouring of support from police and the community had been\u00a0 heartwarming. Patel said restaurants have donated food for volunteers and printing shops have offered their services for the fliers. The support echoes Amy Hillyard\u2019s character, Patel said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf she\u2019s reading this or hearing this, we want her to know how much we love her and that we will welcome her with open arms,\u201d Patel said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Chris Hillyard said the day-to-day searches and other efforts have helped the family stay focused and \u201cless likely to break down in tears.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAs each day goes by, it is more and more painful,\u201d he said. \u201cAs you can imagine, it\u2019s hard to sleep, and it\u2019s impossible to keep any kind of normal schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cAmy is precious to me, to her daughters, to her family and friends. She has always been there for others, and we are filled with gratitude that the community is there for her now, doing all it can to bring Amy home.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Amy is 5 feet, 4 inches tall and weighs about 120 pounds, with blond hair and hazel eyes. Police asked anyone with information about her whereabouts to call the department\u2019s Missing Persons Unit at (510) 238-2641. Police also asked the public to contact them with any relevant video.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, call the free 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing \u201c988\u201d 24 hours a day or text \u201cHOME\u201d to 741741 to reach a crisis counselor anytime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amy Hillyard, a Bay Area coffee shop owner, has been missing since March 25.\u00a0 Provided by the Hillyard…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[184,7,332,413,143,145,144,412,101],"class_list":{"0":"post-260262","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-bay-area","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-east-bay","11":"tag-food","12":"tag-oakland","13":"tag-oakland-headlines","14":"tag-oakland-news","15":"tag-restaurants","16":"tag-san-francisco"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}