Newly reviewed video placed Amy Hillyard in Dimond Park hours after she left her home, shifting the search for the 52-year-old business owner into the Oakland hills.
OAKLAND, Calif. — Police, sheriff’s deputies and volunteers widened their search this week for Amy Hillyard, a missing Farley’s Coffee co-owner, after investigators said video showed her near Dimond Park on March 25, hours after she was first reported last seen near her home.
The new video has sharpened the public timeline in a case that has drawn intense attention across Oakland and San Francisco. Hillyard, 52, is considered at risk because of an undisclosed medical condition, according to Oakland police. She has been missing since the afternoon of March 25. Officials say the investigation remains a missing-person case, not a criminal case with announced charges or a named suspect, and the immediate stakes are simple and urgent: finding where she went after the park sighting and whether anyone saw her after that point.
Oakland police first asked the public for help on March 26, saying Hillyard had last been seen around 2 p.m. the previous day in the 500 block of Radnor Road in the Cleveland Heights neighborhood. In that first notice, police described her as 5-foot-4 and 120 pounds, with blond hair and hazel eyes, and said she was wearing a tan-colored top and tan pants. As the search moved into a second week, relatives and friends said some of the early public description was no longer accurate. By Tuesday, the focus had shifted after investigators said newer video placed Hillyard in the Dimond Park area at about 4:30 p.m. on March 25. That gave searchers a later confirmed point in her movements and changed where officers and volunteers were looking. Search lines moved into the park and nearby hillside terrain, where teams walked trails, road edges and brush looking for any sign that she had passed through.
The search response grew quickly once that new video became public. KTVU reported that about 60 people from the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office joined Tuesday’s operation, with mutual-aid teams from Contra Costa and Marin counties also assisting. Friends and community volunteers searched alongside law enforcement, and family spokesperson Susan Eandi said more than 200 people had already spent days canvassing areas Hillyard was known to frequent. Brian Molyneaux, one volunteer who said he did not know Hillyard personally, told reporters he joined the search looking for small clues such as shoes or clothing that might have been left behind. Police have not said whether any personal items have been recovered. They also have not publicly described how Hillyard traveled between the time she left home and the later park sighting, whether she was seen on foot the entire time, or whether investigators believe she entered a vehicle. Those missing hours remain the center of the case.
Hillyard’s disappearance has carried unusual weight because of who she is in the city. She and her husband, Chris Hillyard, co-own Farley’s Coffee, a longtime Bay Area business with one shop on Grand Avenue in Oakland and another in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill neighborhood. The original Farley’s opened in 1989, and the Hillyards opened the Oakland location in 2009 after moving to the area. In a statement reported by SFGATE, the business said Hillyard has been “a passionate and active member of the Oakland community for 20+ years.” Friends have described her in similar terms. Serena Khaira said at a vigil that Hillyard “collects people” and is often the first person others call when they need help. That community standing helps explain why posters appeared across Oakland and San Francisco within days, why neighbors began checking home cameras, and why the case has stayed visible well past the first 48 hours that often shape a search.
The public response became especially visible over the weekend. A candlelight vigil near Lake Merritt on Sunday drew a large crowd of relatives, friends, customers and neighbors who gathered to support the family and keep attention on the search. Local reports described at least about 100 people at the vigil, while other coverage suggested the broader search effort had drawn several hundred participants over multiple days. During the gathering, a California Highway Patrol endangered missing advisory was sent to cellphones across the region on behalf of Oakland police, expanding awareness beyond the immediate neighborhood. Tom Green, a friend involved in the search, said the goal was to keep Hillyard’s name in public view and generate more leads. Searchers have worked from Cleveland Heights toward Lake Merritt and east into the Dimond Park area, reflecting both the original Radnor Road report and the later video evidence. Even with that stronger timeline, police have not said why Hillyard went to the park or what happened after she was recorded there.
What officials know, and what they have not said, now sit side by side. Police have publicly confirmed Hillyard’s age, physical description, the time and place she was first reported last seen, and the later park video. They have also said she is at risk because of a medical condition, but they have not described that condition. Authorities have not announced an abduction, a struggle, or evidence of foul play. They have not identified a person of interest, disclosed witness statements that place her after 4:30 p.m., or said whether phone, banking or transit records have added to the timeline. That leaves the case in a narrow but important procedural posture. It is still a missing-person investigation driven by leads, video review, interviews and repeated ground searches rather than by public court action. No charges have been filed, no hearing has been scheduled and no separate criminal complaint has been announced. For the family, that means each new detail still has the power to move the search map or change the direction of the investigation.
The places tied to the case add to its urgency. Cleveland Heights is a dense residential area above Lake Merritt, while Dimond Park opens toward wooded sections and hillside routes that can quickly become harder to search. Friends have described Hillyard as an avid hiker, a detail that has shaped some volunteer thinking about where she might have gone, though police have not publicly endorsed any one theory. Eandi said the family’s focus remains on bringing Hillyard home, and Khaira said the city’s role is to keep her name visible because someone may still remember seeing something out of place. That mix of worry and determination has marked the scene at both the park and the vigil. Searchers have moved carefully, looking not for dramatic evidence but for ordinary traces: a footprint, a piece of clothing, a camera angle, a witness who now realizes that a woman seen alone that afternoon may have been Hillyard.
As of Thursday, April 2, Hillyard remained missing, and police were still trying to close the gap between Radnor Road at about 2 p.m. and Dimond Park at about 4:30 p.m. The next public milestone is likely to be a new confirmed sighting, another organized search, or a police update that fills in the missing hours.
Author note: Last updated April 2, 2026.