New Lead Found In Unsolved Disappearance of Oakland Coffeeshop Owner

The search for Amy Hillyard, the 52-year-old Oakland woman who went missing after leaving her house alone six months ago, continues this week after a private investigator found a new lead.

Amy Hillyard, the co-owner with her husband of Farley's coffeeshops in Oakland and San Francisco, has been missing since March 25. And as the investigation hit the six-month mark over the weekend, a private investigator revealed a fresh lead in the case.

As SFGate reports, investigator Steve Fischer, who was hired by the Hillyard family, did a "deep forensics dive" of Hillyard's devices, and uncovered lead that will give search teams new areas to search in the coming days.

Fischer reportedly found that Hillyard had spent 30 minutes the day before she disappeared looking up eight different hiking routes in the massive Reinhardt Redwood Regional Park in the Oakland hills. The densely wooded and hilly park has links to Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve and Joaquin Miller Park to the north, and to Anthony Chabot Regional Park to the south, and the route options around and through the area are many.

To the east, the back side of the park even reaches the border of Moraga.

Search teams had previously only known about three of the possible routes, which now leaves five routes that can be searched this week.

As NBC Bay Area reports, a search team already mobilized to search one of the routes on Sunday.

"This is the biggest break in the case since I’ve been on board," Fischer tells NBC Bay Area. "I told the family there’s no guarantees here, but we are going on something that feels like we’re not searching blindly. We actually have a reason for being in these areas."

Fischer told SFGate that the five other routes, all but one of which were familiar to Hillyward, had not previously been on their radar. "Some of them are long trails. Some of these go up to like six and a half to seven miles," Fischer added.

According to her husband, Hillyard was recovering from a bout of depression and anxiety at the time of her disappearance, and hiking was a way she said she had of relieving her symptoms. Hillyard has not been seen on any surveillance footage anywhere since March 25, when she left her home leaving behind her wallet and phone.

Volunteer searchers have now covered over two hundred miles of trails, and 39 different routes have been searched, according to the website Bring Amy Home.

Fischer acknowledged that while there was still a glimmer a hope of finding Hillyard alive, the likelihood was very slim. "I really hope that it’s a case where she decided to walk away from her life and start some new one," he tells SFGate. "But at six [months], it’s so hard for somebody not to leave a digital footprint, whether they want to or not."

Previously: Police Search for Missing Oakland Woman, Coffee Shop Owner With Medical Condition