The Bay Area mobilizes to search for missing Farley’s owner

Over the weekend, law enforcement, family, friends, and community members canvassed and passed out flyers amid a dayslong search for Amy Hillyard. The 52-year-old Oakland resident, who owns the Farley’s mini-chain of coffee shops with her husband, has been missing since Wednesday afternoon. 

“We were honored to be joined by a professional investigator, trained search and rescue volunteers, drone teams, a search dog, and hundreds of dedicated community volunteers,” wrote Jennifer Bushman, a friend who is helping the search efforts, wrote in a post on Instagram. Over the weekend, hundreds of flyers with a photo of Hillyard were posted on poles and in the windows of shops across Oakland. An electric billboard on Interstate 880 also shows Hillyard. 

The mother of two was last seen at the 500 block of Radnor Road in Oakland around 2 p.m. on Wednesday. She is considered at-risk due to an undisclosed medical condition. She has blonde hair with hazel eyes, and stands at 5’4” tall and about 120 pounds. 

Hillyard and her husband Chris own Farley’s Coffee, with locations on Grand Avenue in Oakland and on 18th Street in the Potrero Hill neighborhood of San Francisco. (Disclosure: This writer was a former employee at the San Francisco Farley’s location.) 

A hundred friends and family members gathered for a candlelight vigil on Sunday evening at Lakeside Park in solidarity with the Hillyard family. 

“Amy has been a light in this community for so many years — through the care and intention she brought to Farley’s Coffee and through the countless people and causes she supported. She has given so much to Oakland and to all of us who love her,” Bushman wrote in a post announcing the vigil. (A spokesperson for the family did not respond by time of publication.) 

Organizers/community members called for those with Ring or other surveillance cameras outside their homes to review the footage in hopes of spotting Hillyard. During the vigil, phones buzzed with an alert from the California Highway Patrol, on behalf of the Oakland Police Department, seeking help in locating Hillyard. 

A team will be meeting again on Monday to canvass the area. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Oakland Police Department's Missing Person's Unit at 510-238-3641.