Case file
Key facts
- Name: Amy Hillyard
- Age at disappearance: 52 (the Oakland Police Department bulletin lists 52; some news outlets have reported 53)
- Last seen: Around 2:00 p.m. on March 25, 2026; a later sighting placed her near Dimond Park around 4:30 p.m. that day
- Location: 500 block of Radnor Road, Oakland, California (Cleveland Heights, near Lake Merritt)
- Description: 5’4″, about 120 lbs, blonde hair, hazel eyes. Oakland police said she was last seen wearing a tan-colored top and tan pants; Piedmont Exedra separately reported she was wearing a white short-sleeved shirt, light-colored jeans, and white sneakers with black stripes.
- Status: Still missing — classified by Oakland police as “at risk” due to medical conditions; the family confirmed on October 2, 2026, that the search remains active with no new evidence
- Investigating agency: Oakland Police Department Missing Persons Unit, (510) 238-3641
A walk from which she never returned
March 25, 2026, began as a treatment day. Amy Hillyard’s husband Chris dropped her at a BART station, and she traveled to a therapy appointment in Walnut Creek. She texted him at about 1:40 p.m. to say she was home. Surveillance footage from a neighboring property then showed her taking the couple’s dog out and speaking with a neighbor near their home on Radnor Road in Oakland’s Cleveland Heights neighborhood. She was last seen around 2:00 p.m., according to the Oakland Police Department’s official missing-person bulletin. She did not have her cell phone with her.
When Chris returned home at about 3:15 p.m., the back door was open and Amy’s cell phone, wallet, handbag, and car keys were still inside. She had left everything behind — the phone, the wallet, the keys, the car. Police later reviewed further surveillance footage and placed her near Dimond Park, by Dimond Canyon and its hiking trails, around 4:30 p.m. — about two miles from her home. Nothing after that point has been confirmed.
Police classified her as “at risk” due to medical conditions. Her family later said she was taking mental-health medication. Oakland police have also said there was no evidence at that stage indicating she had been abducted or that a crime had occurred. The next day, at the request of Oakland police, the California Highway Patrol issued an At Risk/Missing Person advisory covering Alameda, San Francisco, and San Mateo counties.
Who Amy was
Amy Hillyard was a mother of two and, with her husband Chris, the co-owner of Farley’s East coffee shop at 33 Grand Avenue in Oakland and the original Farley’s in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill neighborhood. Alongside the coffee shops she ran her own consulting practice, and she was, until recently, the board president of the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir.
The people who knew her describe a woman who held her community together. “She really is a beloved community member,” Eric Tuan, the choir’s artistic director, told the East Bay Times. “At the vigil, it was said, she would be the first person to organize a search like this if someone else in our community had gone missing.” A vigil was held for her at Lake Merritt in the first days after she vanished, and friends and volunteers began searching hiking trails she was known to frequent, with flyers posted in the areas she walked.
Six months of searching
The search for Amy Hillyard has been one of the most sustained missing-person efforts in the Bay Area this year. Alameda County Sheriff’s search-and-rescue teams worked trailing K9s through the early days without locating her. Hundreds of volunteers joined the effort. The family retained a private investigator, Steve Fischer, and a $25,000 reward for information leading to her safe return has stayed in effect for months. Donations through the family’s GoFundMe help fund the investigators, dogs, and drones the search depends on.
On the six-month anniversary of her disappearance — September 25, 2026 — Chris Hillyard posted a video renewing the family’s appeal. “Despite the efforts of police, private investigators and hundreds of volunteers, we still don’t know what happened to Amy when she left our home on the afternoon of March 25th,” he said. He added that the family’s private investigator “called Amy’s disappearance one of the most perplexing cases he has ever worked on.”
The AllTrails clue
A new digital clue emerged at the same time. Fischer’s team spent two days on what he called a “deep forensics dive” into Amy’s devices and browser history, and found that on March 24 — the day before she vanished — she had spent 33 minutes in Chrome looking at eight hiking trails through AllTrails, running from the Reinhardt Redwood Regional Park area toward Berkeley. She had not used AllTrails since January. Three of the eight trails had already been searched extensively. Five had not been searched at all.
The five new trails sit about five miles from her home. Fischer told SFGate they were “quite frankly not on our radar.” Amy had hiked all but one of them before; some run roughly six and a half to seven miles. Entries in her journal showed hiking was one of the ways she managed anxiety, which is part of why the team treated the browsing history as more than a coincidence. Fischer called the discovery the most promising lead — and the biggest break — since he joined the case, while stressing it does not prove she went to any of those trails. Search teams planned to work the routes on foot, with drones scanning roughly 200 feet to either side of each trail.
On October 2, 2026, the family reported the follow-through: more than 50 volunteers had searched the newly identified trails across the Berkeley and Oakland hills, with aerial drone support. The searches turned up no new evidence. Another search was already underway, and the family said plainly: “We are still searching. We are still following information.” In August, around 40 volunteers had searched Reinhardt Redwood Regional Park. The family’s appeal site, bringamyhome.com, remains the central clearinghouse for updates.
Have information?
Contact the Oakland Police Department’s Missing Persons Unit at (510) 238-3641, or the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST). In an emergency, dial 911.
Check your cameras: the family is asking residents of Cleveland Heights, Lake Merritt, the Lakeshore District, and Crocker Highlands to review home security or doorbell footage from Wednesday, March 25, 2026, starting at 2:00 p.m. Upload details are posted at bringamyhome.com — footage that seems to show nothing can still fix a time or a direction of travel.
Timeline
- March 24, 2026 — Amy spends 33 minutes browsing eight hiking trails on AllTrails — her first use of the app since January. The browsing is only discovered six months later, in a forensic review of her devices.
- March 25, 2026, morning — Chris drops Amy at a BART station; she attends a therapy appointment in Walnut Creek and texts him at about 1:40 p.m. that she is home.
- March 25, 2026, ~2:00 p.m. — Amy Hillyard last seen near the 500 block of Radnor Road, Oakland, walking the family dog and speaking with a neighbor on surveillance footage. At about 3:15 p.m. Chris returns to find the back door open and her phone, wallet, handbag, and keys inside. She is later placed near Dimond Park around 4:30 p.m. Her family reports her missing that evening.
- March 26, 2026 — Oakland Police Department issues its official missing-person bulletin, classifying her as at risk due to medical conditions. The CHP issues an At Risk/Missing Person advisory for Alameda, San Francisco, and San Mateo counties.
- Late March 2026 — Alameda County Sheriff’s search-and-rescue deploys trailing K9s; a vigil is held at Lake Merritt. The East Bay Times reports the community search is underway.
- August 2026 — Around 40 volunteers search Reinhardt Redwood Regional Park.
- September 25, 2026 — Six-month anniversary. Chris Hillyard renews the appeal; the AllTrails digital clue (33 minutes browsing 8 trails on March 24) leads to new drone searches of five previously unsearched Oakland/Berkeley hills trails. KION and Piedmont Exedra report she remains missing.
- October 2, 2026 — The family reports that more than 50 volunteers have searched the newly identified Berkeley and Oakland hills trails with drone support. No new evidence was found; another search is underway and the search remains active.
- Today — Still missing. The $25,000 reward remains in effect.
FAQ
Is Amy Hillyard still missing?
Yes. As of October 2026, Amy Hillyard has been missing for nearly seven months. Her husband said on September 25, 2026, that “we still don’t know what happened to Amy,” and the family’s October 2, 2026, update confirms the search is still active with no new evidence and no report of her being found.
Has Amy Hillyard been found?
No. The most recent family update, on October 2, 2026, says recent searches “did not turn up new evidence” and that another search was underway. She remains missing.
What happened on the day Amy Hillyard disappeared?
On March 25, 2026, she went to a therapy appointment in Walnut Creek after her husband dropped her at a BART station, texted him at about 1:40 p.m. that she was home, and was then filmed walking the family dog and speaking with a neighbor. Her husband returned at about 3:15 p.m. to an open back door and her phone, wallet, handbag, and keys left inside. She was placed near Dimond Park at about 4:30 p.m. Nothing after that has been confirmed.
Why is she classified as “at risk”?
The Oakland Police Department classified her as at risk due to medical conditions. Her family later said she was taking mental-health medication when she went missing, and she left behind her phone and wallet — items investigators would expect her to carry.
Is there evidence of foul play?
Oakland police have said there was no evidence at that stage indicating Amy was abducted or that a crime had occurred. The department has investigated reported sightings and reviewed surveillance footage as part of the ongoing investigation. No suspect or person of interest has been named.
What was the AllTrails clue?
Investigators learned in September 2026 that Amy spent 33 minutes on the AllTrails app on March 24 — the day before she vanished — browsing eight hiking trails, her first use of the app since January. Five of those trails had not previously been searched. More than 50 volunteers searched them in late September and early October 2026 with drone support; no new evidence was found.
What is the $25,000 reward?
The Hillyard family is offering $25,000 for information leading to her safe return. It has remained in effect since the early days of the search.
How old is Amy Hillyard?
The Oakland Police Department bulletin lists her as 52. Some news outlets have reported 53; the discrepancy has not been clarified.
How can I help?
Share this case file and her missing-person poster. If you live in Cleveland Heights, Lake Merritt, the Lakeshore District, or Crocker Highlands, review any camera footage from March 25, 2026, from 2:00 p.m. onward. If you have any information, contact the Oakland Police Department Missing Persons Unit at (510) 238-3641. The family posts updates at bringamyhome.com.
Sources
- Official / law enforcement: Oakland Police Department, “Missing Person Amy Hillyard” news release (oaklandca.gov, published March 26, 2026 — official bulletin; lists her as 52, 5’4″, 120 lbs, last seen in tan top and tan pants); California Highway Patrol At Risk/Missing Person advisory (reported by the East Bay Times, March 2026).
- Family: bringamyhome.com — the family’s appeal site, including the October 2, 2026, update (50+ volunteers searched the newly identified Berkeley/Oakland hills trails with drone support; no new evidence; search remains active), the camera-footage appeal for Cleveland Heights, Lake Merritt, Lakeshore, and Crocker Highlands, and the $25,000 reward notice.
- News: KION Central Coast, “Oakland coffee shop owner Amy Hillyard missing for 6 months; family seeks answers” (September 25, 2026 — includes Chris Hillyard’s video appeal and the $25,000 reward); Piedmont Exedra, “Family and friends continue search for Amy Hillyard, 6 months after she disappeared” (September 2026 — includes the missing-person poster photograph and the white-shirt clothing description); East Bay Times, “Oakland mother remains missing” (e-edition, March 2026 — K9 searches, vigil at Lake Merritt, CHP advisory, family and choir quotes); SFGate reporting on private investigator Steve Fischer’s forensic findings, as reported by Pulptastic and TVOverMind (September–October 2026 — two-day device review, AllTrails history via Chrome, trails about five miles from home, journal entries on hiking and anxiety, therapy-day timeline); NBC Bay Area reporting on the AllTrails discovery, as reported in six-month coverage (September 2026).
Found an error? Tell us via the About page and we will fix it promptly and note the change here. Last verified October 20, 2026.