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COFFEE SHOP OWNER MISSING FOR A MONTH: WHERE IS AMY HILLYARD? · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:00
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, a candlelight vigil for a
0:07
Speaker 1: gorgeous young coffee shop owner. I Nancy Grace, this is
0:11
Speaker 1: Crime Stories. I want to thank you for being with us.
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Speaker 2: But loved Oakland coffee shop owner vanishes without warning, leaving
0:17
Speaker 2: her daughters desperate for their mother's safe return.
0:21
Speaker 1: Where is Amy? A very high profile in her neighborhood.
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Speaker 1: Everybody loves her, coffee shop, extremely popular. Never a bad
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Speaker 1: word about Amy Hillier. But tonight the community banning together
0:38
Speaker 1: to have a vigil. She's disappeared days ago. Last scene,
0:44
Speaker 1: to my understanding, in a public park. Where is she? Nobody?
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Speaker 1: Nobody just vanishes off the face of the earth. It's
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Speaker 1: not like we're in Harry Potter and you can operate
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Speaker 1: somewhere else that doesn't happen. Somebody knows where is Amy?
1:02
Speaker 1: Joining us an all star panel, But first I want
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Speaker 1: to go straight out to Brian Fitzgibbons, Director Operations USPA
1:09
Speaker 1: nation Wide Security. He leads a team of investigators that
1:16
Speaker 1: go around the world searching for missing people and performing
1:20
Speaker 1: extractions of missing people. Former marine Iraqi Warvett. I hate it, hate, hate,
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Speaker 1: hate when someone says they just disappeared like it's a
1:31
Speaker 1: vanishing act. That's not what happened. And don't even start
1:36
Speaker 1: with the typical down the road of she's a woman,
1:39
Speaker 1: she's probably with her boyfriend. Do not even let the
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Speaker 1: words boyfriend or new boyfriend or alone time or me
1:47
Speaker 1: time or girls trip come out of your mouth, Fitzgibbons,
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Speaker 1: I won't.
1:52
Speaker 3: And what I'll say that this case is particularly alarming
1:58
Speaker 3: because of the time of day that Amy Hilliard went missing.
2:03
Speaker 3: She was last seen at her home around two PM
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Speaker 3: and then, according to reports, was seen on surveillance footage
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Speaker 3: around four four thirty in Diamond Park in Oakland. Now
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Speaker 3: what's concerning here is she left behind her phone at
2:22
Speaker 3: her house. So this is not this is very atypical
2:26
Speaker 3: behavior for a missing person's case, very creepy.
2:30
Speaker 4: I'm very scary, and it's you know, like I think
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Speaker 4: it happens in every neighborhood. But it's also like frightening
2:36
Speaker 4: to think that someone just disappeared from here. And I
2:40
Speaker 4: really like, hope she's okay.
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Speaker 1: I hope her family is okay.
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Speaker 5: Her husband Chris, shared that one of the things that
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Speaker 5: defines Amy, one of her.
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Speaker 6: Favorite words is the word hope.
2:51
Speaker 5: And so tonight we're expressing our hope that we find her.
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Speaker 7: Please review your video cameras for evidence of her walking
3:00
Speaker 7: house your home.
3:01
Speaker 1: She loved hiking, she loved walking. It's very possible that
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Speaker 1: she could be on that video.
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Speaker 5: She'd be the one jumping in volunteering, leading volunteers, talking
3:12
Speaker 5: to other people in the community, spreading the word, using
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Speaker 5: her talent to help like bring community closer together. It
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Speaker 5: seems crazy that she's not here tonight with.
3:22
Speaker 1: Us from our friends A KGO and k r N.
3:26
Speaker 1: Dave Mack with us Crime Stories investigative reporter. Have you
3:30
Speaker 1: seen Diamond Park. It's gorgeous. It's not like some field
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Speaker 1: of weeds off by the industrial park. This is a
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Speaker 1: very well manicured, well lit park. It's it's popular, a
3:45
Speaker 1: lot of people go there. It's really hard for me
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Speaker 1: to believe she's last seen there at four thirty in
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Speaker 1: the afternoon daylight hours, right, not four thirty am, four
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Speaker 1: thirty pm.
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Speaker 6: Right, that's correct, Nancy, what's fascinating.
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Speaker 1: Have you seen the pictures of this park?
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Speaker 8: Yes, it's incredible, familiar place to everyone in the area.
4:02
Speaker 8: But Nancy, here's the part that really comes into play.
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Speaker 8: We know that Amy was at her home neighborhood around
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Speaker 8: two pm she was seen by neighbors outside with her dog.
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Speaker 8: Then we have four thirty pm where she has seen
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Speaker 8: on surveillance video in Diamond Park. There's a two and
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Speaker 8: a half hour window where we don't know where she
4:23
Speaker 8: was or what she was doing, but it would take
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Speaker 8: it's a couple of miles from her home to Diamond Park. Okay,
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Speaker 8: it's like three to four miles. It's not a straight shot.
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Speaker 8: Driving time ten to fifteen minutes, walking time much longer.
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Speaker 8: It could take an hour to hour and a half
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Speaker 8: and not something that would normally be walked. So we've
4:43
Speaker 8: got an issue here of time and trying to build
4:46
Speaker 8: that timeline. But four thirty pm Diamond Park she has
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Speaker 8: seen on surveillance video confirmed.
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Speaker 1: Day Mac, you're saying Diamond Park, right, not like the
4:56
Speaker 1: Jewel but d im nd correct.
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Speaker 6: That is correct.
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Speaker 1: Have you seen it. It's gorgeous And one thing that
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Speaker 1: really jumps out at me is I'm looking at a
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Speaker 1: lot of photos of the park and there are a
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Speaker 1: lot of kid spots for children to play, like playground equipment.
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Speaker 1: There's redwoods, there's walking trails. It's very densely forested, which
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Speaker 1: is a whole nother can of worms for Brian Fitzgibbons
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Speaker 1: to figure out there's a creek bed. I don't know
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Speaker 1: if there's water involved, but if there is, I doubt
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Speaker 1: pretty seriously it's whitewater. They're manicured grounds with walkways. What
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Speaker 1: I'm saying is it looks like an upscale park, a
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Speaker 1: walking park.
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Speaker 8: As I mentioned, you know, there are surveillance cameras, so
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Speaker 8: it makes an individual feel safe when they go there.
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Speaker 8: That's how we have the video. We don't have it,
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Speaker 8: but they have confirmed the sighting by video of Amy
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Speaker 8: in the Market four thirty. So give you an idea
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Speaker 8: of what kind of park we're really talking about.
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Speaker 1: Brian Fitzgibbons. I understand your concern. This is in broad daylight,
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Speaker 1: and if you look at this photo, very well manicured.
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Speaker 1: And the reason I keep saying that is because it
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Speaker 1: leads me to believe that there are surveillance cameras there
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Speaker 1: now on a remote trail like where Rachel Morin. Remember
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Speaker 1: she was on mon Paw Trail and it's not extremely remote.
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Speaker 1: She could drive to it, had a good trail head
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Speaker 1: with a parking area, but it was more remote than this.
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Speaker 1: If you'll recall Rachel Morin, a young mom of five
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Speaker 1: goes missing on a mon Paw trail and it's a
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Speaker 1: very active trail, very active. And the reason I say
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Speaker 1: this is I felt at the time that someone should
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Speaker 1: have seen the purp and have seen her go on
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Speaker 1: the trail. Now, she hadn't been killed for long before
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Speaker 1: other hikers come along and find her body. What I'm
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Speaker 1: saying about this case, which is eerily similar, it seems
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Speaker 1: like there are a lot of people there fits And
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Speaker 1: if you look at the well manicured nature of Diamond Park,
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Speaker 1: there's got to be surveillance. There has to be rangers.
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Speaker 1: I mean, look at that. It's not like a remote
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Speaker 1: National Park hiking trail where there's nobody. I mean, if
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Speaker 1: you think about Ariel Koenig out a very remote and treacherous,
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Speaker 1: treacherous hiking trail where her husband trying to push her
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Speaker 1: over the edge of a cliff, it was a miracle.
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Speaker 1: Two hikers came along and saw what was happening before
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Speaker 1: Ariel had her head totally bashed in by your husband.
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Speaker 1: That said, not the same thing here. That's my point.
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Speaker 1: Why did anybody see what happened?
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Speaker 3: Yeah, so there are really two components to Diamond Park
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Speaker 3: and the one that you just accurately described. You know,
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Speaker 3: we have to believe that there's surveillance footage there. It's
8:00
Speaker 3: a densely populated area all around the park. However, extending
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Speaker 3: about a mile to the north towards Shepherd Canyon, there
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Speaker 3: are trailheads that continue into a much more secluded, densely
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Speaker 3: wooded part of the same park that might be referred
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Speaker 3: to as Diamond Park as well.
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Speaker 6: So the question is.
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Speaker 3: Was Amy Hilliard walking in that recreation area side of
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Speaker 3: the park or was she on these more remote trailheads
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Speaker 3: extending to the north towards Shepherd Canyon, which would cause
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Speaker 3: a much more difficult search.
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Speaker 1: Dave Matt Crime Story's investigative reporter. Of course she was
8:39
Speaker 1: spotted on surveillance video, but I don't know that video.
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Speaker 1: Is her going at the entrance, going in, or somewhere
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Speaker 1: within the park. Do we know what we can see
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Speaker 1: in the background of that surveillance video? Have they released it?
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Speaker 6: Not yet.
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Speaker 8: The video has not been released, and we haven't been
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Speaker 8: given a lot of information about where she was in
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Speaker 8: the park, what she was doing in the park. We
9:02
Speaker 8: don't know if she was out for a walk on
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Speaker 8: a trail, or if she was sitting under a tree
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Speaker 8: reading a book. We don't have a clue right now.
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Speaker 1: We know that it's characterized by natural hiking paths, trails, redwoods,
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Speaker 1: sometimes very dense. Back to you, Brian Fitzgibbons, USPA Nationwide Security,
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Speaker 1: tell me again about the other area of the park,
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Speaker 1: not the nicely manicured area, but where it goes off
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Speaker 1: into more remote hiking trails.
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Speaker 3: From that nicely manicured area that we could refer to
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Speaker 3: as the recreation area of the park, you have access
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Speaker 3: to a number of trailheads that extend to the north.
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Speaker 3: They they cross over underneath highways and extend north to
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Speaker 3: Shepherd Canyon.
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Speaker 6: Now that part of the park is.
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Speaker 3: Much more remote, much more secluded, The terrain is more difficult,
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Speaker 3: and you know it much easier to hide somebody in
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Speaker 3: there or get lost in there.
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Speaker 1: Since Amy disappeared, over two hundred volunteers have gone all
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Speaker 1: around the neighborhood near the park asking for camera footage,
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Speaker 1: door camps, anything that they can find. Straight out to
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Speaker 1: a special guest joining us. Doctor Rachel Toles, doctor Toles,
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Speaker 1: clinical forensic psychologist, author of a brand new book coming
10:34
Speaker 1: out inventing the psychopath. Okay, I'm reading that how a
10:39
Speaker 1: convenient myth makes the world more dangerous. You can find
10:43
Speaker 1: her at doctor Rachel tools dot com. T O L. E. S.
10:47
Speaker 1: Doctor Toles, Thank you for being with us, Doctor Rachel Tols.
10:50
Speaker 1: Why is it when here you've got a beautiful and
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Speaker 1: very successful coffee shop owner, everybody seemingly loves her. When
10:59
Speaker 1: she she goes missing, everyone acts like she ran off
11:04
Speaker 1: with a man. Why why is that When a guy
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Speaker 1: goes missing, nobody says, oh, he's a big hoe, But
11:12
Speaker 1: when a woman goes missing, it's all together different.
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Speaker 9: It is very strange, and it is a double standard.
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Speaker 1: You could argue.
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Speaker 9: That maybe some people have this idea on their minds
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Speaker 9: because of the recent Michelle Hunley Smith case in North
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Speaker 9: Carolina where she disappeared in two thousand and one and
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Speaker 9: was found alive and well this year. She left when
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Speaker 9: her daughter was fourteen. But these types of cases with
11:38
Speaker 9: women kind of just wandering off or leaving with the
11:41
Speaker 9: lover usually have a different behavioral structure. And from what's
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Speaker 9: public here, we haven't heard any of these kind of
11:47
Speaker 9: precipitating crisis things, or that there was issues in the marriage.
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Speaker 9: We haven't heard that yet, but yes, it's a double
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Speaker 9: standard and it's really unfortunate.
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Speaker 1: You mentioned a mom. I believe she was a mom
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Speaker 1: of three who goes missing for about fourteen years and
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Speaker 1: she's found basically in the next town over. You know
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Speaker 1: why we know about that case because it's avant. It's unusual.
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Speaker 1: It's highly unusual for a mom of three to go
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Speaker 1: missing and lose all contact with her children. They think
12:22
Speaker 1: she's dead for over a decade. It rarely happens. That's
12:28
Speaker 1: why it made a headline. And it feeds into women
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Speaker 1: disappear because they want to They want me time, they
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Speaker 1: want to go on a walk about a girl's trip.
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Speaker 1: That is so rare. To Joanna Nievas joining US, high
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Speaker 1: profile criminal defense attorney, founder of the Nievas Law Firm, Joanna,
12:49
Speaker 1: thank you for being with us. Why is this this
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Speaker 1: stereotype alive and well, very alive and well. Even amongst
13:01
Speaker 1: law enforcement, when a woman goes missing, we just assume
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Speaker 1: she's slung up at the Motel six.
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Speaker 6: Yeah.
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Speaker 10: I think it's because people are always looking for a
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Speaker 10: reason to place on something rather than you know, going
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Speaker 10: to the route of, hey, somebody took this person and
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Speaker 10: against their will. You know, she's a mother of two,
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Speaker 10: she's a prominent business owner in the community. They're going
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Speaker 10: to lean towards hey, was there trouble at home? Was
13:26
Speaker 10: she escaping from reality? Was there mounting debt and a
13:29
Speaker 10: sinking business? Rather than Hey, she's on, you know, on
13:33
Speaker 10: a daily routine maybe of walking a dog or walking
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Speaker 10: about a park, and somebody abducted her because it's less,
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Speaker 10: you know, it's it's easier to digest that somebody voluntarily
13:46
Speaker 10: left their phone behind so that they can leave their
13:49
Speaker 10: family and their their businesses to get away, rather than hey,
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Speaker 10: this person was placed at risk when she was mining
13:59
Speaker 10: her own business.
14:06
Speaker 1: Crime stories with Nancy Grace, The popular owner of a
14:12
Speaker 1: local coffee shop, disappears. Beautiful Amy Hilliard missing from Oakland's
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Speaker 1: Diamond Park. Volunteers out searching. The search has continued up
14:23
Speaker 1: until we go to air. She's the co owner of
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Speaker 1: Farley's Coffee, last seen around four four point thirty in
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Speaker 1: the afternoon at Diamond Park. Before that, she was seen
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Speaker 1: around two PM leaving her home in Oakland's Cleveland Heights neighborhood.
14:44
Speaker 1: People from the Alameda County Sheriff's Office are part of
14:49
Speaker 1: the search along with volunteers. A statement has been issued.
14:53
Speaker 1: There's no recent video footage other than what we have
14:58
Speaker 1: learned about. There was initial incorrect information. We believe she
15:04
Speaker 1: was last seeing wearing a white top and Jane's and
15:08
Speaker 1: significantly that she was alone. To Brian Fitzgibbons, why is
15:14
Speaker 1: it important that she was alone when she was last
15:19
Speaker 1: spotted by the way, that's our friends at ABC seven,
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Speaker 1: Go ahead, Brian, Yeah.
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Speaker 3: It's important to note that there was no one else
15:27
Speaker 3: with her on that surveillance footage, that she was spotted alone,
15:32
Speaker 3: meaning that she hadn't gone there to meet up with someone,
15:36
Speaker 3: at least as far as we can tell from the
15:37
Speaker 3: video evidence. So there is no additional person of interest
15:43
Speaker 3: that investigators can be looking for.
15:45
Speaker 6: At this time.
15:46
Speaker 3: That's why this is so important that this canvas extends
15:50
Speaker 3: to the surrounding residences to find any footage that could
15:56
Speaker 3: potentially have Amy walking by at that time. We can
16:00
Speaker 3: see who else may have been following her, may have
16:03
Speaker 3: been with her earlier prior to this captured footage.
16:06
Speaker 1: In the park. Got a question for you, Outside the park,
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Speaker 1: wouldn't that be an issue? For instance, what businesses are there?
16:16
Speaker 1: If any can we get video surveillance from there. I
16:20
Speaker 1: would be curious about what interstates are near there, because
16:24
Speaker 1: if somebody has her right now tonight and they're on
16:27
Speaker 1: the interstate, they're going sixty miles an hour. Okay, let's
16:31
Speaker 1: just go with that. Every hour, she's sixty miles further away.
16:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a couple major roads. To the north is
16:42
Speaker 3: Route thirteen and to the south five to eighty, which
16:46
Speaker 3: is not far from Diamond Park. So you know, you're
16:50
Speaker 3: spot on to say that the egress from that area
16:54
Speaker 3: is quite simple and would be fast. So we have
16:58
Speaker 3: to immediately extend this canvas to that to the surrounding cameras,
17:04
Speaker 3: be they residential or commercial, around in and around Diamond
17:10
Speaker 3: Park around the time she went was last seen.
17:13
Speaker 1: Okay, Dave mac tell me about the area outside the park.
17:18
Speaker 1: Of course, the park area and those hiking trails that
17:21
Speaker 1: are densely forested are going to be the first place
17:25
Speaker 1: police look. But outside that, just let's say she was
17:30
Speaker 1: taken outside the park. Let's pretend a vehicle that is
17:35
Speaker 1: an alternative. Police have to explore what's around the park.
17:39
Speaker 8: You've got, Nancy, there's a lot of access by major
17:42
Speaker 8: by roads running in and around the area. We are
17:45
Speaker 8: dealing with neighborhoods, you know, family homes. But as you
17:48
Speaker 8: see on the map there there is one road that
17:51
Speaker 8: runs along this path that canvases and connects most of
17:57
Speaker 8: these areas. As you look, you'll notice that the park
18:03
Speaker 8: that we started with at Lake Merritt and going to
18:06
Speaker 8: dim Se there is that one main road. But look
18:10
Speaker 8: aside all around its residential area. You've got those huge
18:14
Speaker 8: trees running. As you look there, you've got redwoods all
18:18
Speaker 8: over this area and easy access out of the park
18:22
Speaker 8: on the road and you're into town. You're heading into
18:25
Speaker 8: Oakland and San Francisco. You're in the Bay Area in
18:28
Speaker 8: a matter of minutes.
18:29
Speaker 6: Nancy.
18:30
Speaker 8: It's not a far off journey from the park into
18:34
Speaker 8: areas of a lot high population.
18:37
Speaker 1: You know, I'm very curious when you say it's not
18:40
Speaker 1: far from Oakland, which has a sky rocketing crime rate.
18:45
Speaker 1: How far from Oakland is it.
18:47
Speaker 8: We're talking eight to ten miles. The search has extended
18:53
Speaker 8: into Oakland neighborhoods and major parks beyond Diamond Park. Nancy,
18:57
Speaker 8: that's something that has just been added to this. Remember,
19:01
Speaker 8: we lost three or four of the first the search
19:04
Speaker 8: time where the search was focused on Amy Hilliard's neighborhood
19:10
Speaker 8: and Lake Merritt, which was a couple of minutes walk
19:12
Speaker 8: away from her home.
19:13
Speaker 6: Three or four days spent in that area.
19:15
Speaker 8: It was only after they expanded the search and found
19:18
Speaker 8: the video at Diamond Park that the search expanded beyond that.
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Speaker 8: So we lost several days of looking for Amy early on.
19:27
Speaker 1: Okay, back to you, Brian Fitzgibbons. That is brutal. Did
19:31
Speaker 1: you hear what Dave Matt from Crime Stories just said?
19:34
Speaker 1: Days were lost, days were lost searching the wrong area.
19:41
Speaker 3: Yeah, a no missing person's case is perfect. So information
19:45
Speaker 3: comes to light, you know, sometimes hours, sometimes many days
19:51
Speaker 3: after the initial report that a person's gone missing. And
19:54
Speaker 3: in this case, it sounds like that surveillance video came
19:58
Speaker 3: in late after the fact and investigators had to refocus
20:03
Speaker 3: their efforts. Now, what I will say is from an
20:06
Speaker 3: immediate sense, investigators would be, you know, doing the victimology
20:12
Speaker 3: on Amy. What were her normal patterns? Was this out
20:16
Speaker 3: of the ordinary for her to walk in Diamond Park?
20:19
Speaker 3: Was it ordinary for her to leave her cell phone
20:21
Speaker 3: behind when hiking and going for a walk. Those are
20:24
Speaker 3: things that would have happened regardless of where those searches
20:27
Speaker 3: were taking place, but no doubt crucial time was lost.
20:31
Speaker 3: Amy hilliart and she is owner and.
20:35
Speaker 1: Co.
20:36
Speaker 3: Which has been greatly expanded to my viewers about the searching.
20:40
Speaker 11: We took over Subway, which is always good for local
20:43
Speaker 11: independent business, to take over Shane and they moved out
20:48
Speaker 11: in the end of September, and we thought this is
20:50
Speaker 11: the opportunity we've been looking for for years and years,
20:54
Speaker 11: so we expanded into the news space. We have a
20:57
Speaker 11: proper hitchen, we're to ignore food, and we have more
21:01
Speaker 11: space for community, which is what we're really excited about.
21:04
Speaker 1: From Zenny sixty two YouTube.
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Speaker 2: Oakland mom Amy Hilliard disappears after leaving home without her
21:10
Speaker 2: cell phone. She was last seen near Lake Merritt, Her
21:13
Speaker 2: family and authorities urgently seeking information.
21:17
Speaker 1: The search goes on tonight for a missing coffee shop
21:19
Speaker 1: owner Amy Hilliard, the mom of beautiful daughters now begging
21:26
Speaker 1: for their mom's return. Where is Amy joining us an
21:31
Speaker 1: all star panel? You know, it's very disturbing Joe Indieva's
21:35
Speaker 1: high profile criminal defense attorney joining us out of this jurisdiction.
21:39
Speaker 1: I don't know if you're familiar with Diamond Park, or
21:42
Speaker 1: how it's just minutes away from Oakland, not far at all,
21:46
Speaker 1: which has one of the highest crime rates in the country. Oakland,
21:51
Speaker 1: California horrific crime rates. Do we think that this park
21:57
Speaker 1: is in a vacuum. It's literally a few minutes away
22:01
Speaker 1: from downtown Oakland, So crime doesn't know jurisdictional boundaries. Crime
22:09
Speaker 1: can go from inner city out to the suburbs, or
22:12
Speaker 1: everybody thinks they're safe to this park. Just like with
22:15
Speaker 1: Rachel Morin minding her own business, a mom of five,
22:20
Speaker 1: she's dead off of a hiking trail. So what can
22:24
Speaker 1: you tell me? Joanna Nievis, you practice law all over
22:28
Speaker 1: the state of California, you're based in Oakland. What can
22:31
Speaker 1: you tell me about the area?
22:34
Speaker 10: Yeah, I think one thing to consider is it's one
22:37
Speaker 10: of those places where you're going to find more seclusion
22:40
Speaker 10: and sometimes the opportunity is more ripe when there's less
22:43
Speaker 10: hustle and bustle, less people around and moving. You know,
22:46
Speaker 10: when we're talking about a property crime and there's a
22:48
Speaker 10: lot going on easy in and out in downtown Oakland, right,
22:52
Speaker 10: that's a go to crime. You can't get away from it.
22:55
Speaker 10: But if we're thinking about somebody who may potentially have
22:59
Speaker 10: been abducted or harmed in some way. Sometimes when you
23:02
Speaker 10: get them in a more remote, remote area, like we're
23:05
Speaker 10: talking about a part that, yes, it's accessible to the community,
23:09
Speaker 10: but there is these portions of it where you have
23:13
Speaker 10: that privacy and seclusion that may be more opportune for
23:17
Speaker 10: somebody that is looking to cause harm.
23:21
Speaker 1: Diamond Park in Oakland is located near Fruitfulle and also
23:25
Speaker 1: the Laurel District. It's part of a city with a
23:30
Speaker 1: horrible crime rate. You've got a one and eleven chance
23:36
Speaker 1: of becoming a crime victim in Oakland. Now, the Diamond
23:41
Speaker 1: District is situated in essentral Oakland, and that's considered more
23:47
Speaker 1: moderate in safety compared to other high risk corridors in
23:51
Speaker 1: West and deep East Oakland, but still still very high
23:58
Speaker 1: crime rate. And you know, go to doctor Rachel Tols
24:01
Speaker 1: joining us. I believe when people, for instance, go on vacation,
24:07
Speaker 1: they're on a cruise ship, they're in one of those
24:09
Speaker 1: all inclusive resorts, they think they're safe because you choose
24:13
Speaker 1: to believe you're in this safety bubble everything's going to
24:17
Speaker 1: be okay. Much the same thing when people go to
24:20
Speaker 1: these beautiful but heavily wooded forests, parks, they see the
24:27
Speaker 1: children's playground and that automatically signals safe. They see lighting,
24:34
Speaker 1: they see surveillance cams, and that signals safety. I'm safe,
24:40
Speaker 1: and they let their guard down. And really, doctor, doctor Rachel,
24:46
Speaker 1: why not. You cannot live in a constant state of
24:50
Speaker 1: fear and agitation. But this feeling, this false sense of security,
24:55
Speaker 1: is misplaced.
24:57
Speaker 9: I completely agree, and I think that that is exactly
25:01
Speaker 9: what happens in cases like these. We often see people thinking, well,
25:04
Speaker 9: I just want to walk in nature, so maybe I
25:06
Speaker 9: will leave my cell phone at home because I want
25:08
Speaker 9: to unplug, so I'll just go into the kind of
25:11
Speaker 9: a denser area. But of course that's not wise because
25:14
Speaker 9: it puts you at risk. And then of course we
25:17
Speaker 9: hear that she has this undisclosed medical condition. So if
25:21
Speaker 9: she's then vulnerable for that reason or any other reason,
25:23
Speaker 9: that's of course increasing the risk.
25:26
Speaker 1: You know, that's curious, Dave mac. We hear she has
25:29
Speaker 1: some sort of a medical condition, and it's making the
25:33
Speaker 1: family even more concerned. Is it diabetes? Have you heard?
25:39
Speaker 1: Do you know what the condition is?
25:42
Speaker 8: No, we have only been told that she has a
25:45
Speaker 8: medical condition, but there has been no definition of what
25:49
Speaker 8: that is.
25:50
Speaker 6: There's no descriptions of what it could possibly be.
25:54
Speaker 8: Just that it is a condition that requires attention.
25:58
Speaker 6: That's it, and that's why they elevated dessert.
26:07
Speaker 1: Crime stories with Nancy Grace. Could you explain to me,
26:12
Speaker 1: doctor Rachel told why people suspend concerns for self safety
26:21
Speaker 1: when they go on hikes, when they're jogging, or when
26:24
Speaker 1: they're in for instance, a we call it part like this,
26:28
Speaker 1: what everybody does it? I do it, and I certainly
26:31
Speaker 1: know better.
26:32
Speaker 9: I think you actually nailed it when you said that
26:35
Speaker 9: people can't live in a constant state of fear and
26:37
Speaker 9: looking over their shoulder. And of course, us women, we
26:40
Speaker 9: are doing it all the time. From the time that
26:42
Speaker 9: we basically come out of the womb. We're constantly scanning
26:44
Speaker 9: our environments, and that hypervigilance is not healthy. I mean,
26:48
Speaker 9: we know that stress is the number one killer. We
26:51
Speaker 9: just shouldn't be in that state. And the idea of
26:54
Speaker 9: being able to go in nature and take a breath
26:57
Speaker 9: and believe the fantasy that we're all just safe once
27:01
Speaker 9: we enter the woods, I mean, it's a nice theory,
27:06
Speaker 9: but it does put us at risk, and especially if
27:08
Speaker 9: we've decided to not take our cell phones.
27:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm just wondering if she had her cell phone,
27:15
Speaker 1: Dave Mack, do we know?
27:17
Speaker 6: Yeah, we know that she did not have her cell phone.
27:19
Speaker 1: Nancy, Okay, I get it. I get it, Doctor Rachel Toles.
27:28
Speaker 1: We're told all the time to unplug. I was just
27:33
Speaker 1: complaining last night that I'm constantly being text and called,
27:38
Speaker 1: I mean twenty four to seven, and it never fails.
27:42
Speaker 1: And when I see it pop up, I think almost stars.
27:45
Speaker 1: Is that about a crime victim? Is that about a
27:47
Speaker 1: case that we're investigating. I have to pick it up.
27:49
Speaker 1: But it's constant. So we're told all the time, unplugged,
27:53
Speaker 1: unwind or you'll have a stroke. But going into a park,
27:57
Speaker 1: I would think that you would have your phone with you.
28:01
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's one of her regular practices
28:03
Speaker 1: to go without a phone, but I'm very disheartened because
28:07
Speaker 1: that's really cutting the odds of finding her quickly by
28:12
Speaker 1: more than half.
28:14
Speaker 9: Yeah, and I think that the fact that, from what
28:17
Speaker 9: I understand, the park is quite close to her home.
28:20
Speaker 9: I have a feeling. Of course, we don't know yet,
28:22
Speaker 9: but it was maybe a routine, and you get into
28:25
Speaker 9: a routine with your daily practice, and maybe you do.
28:28
Speaker 9: You just think, oh, I've done this a million times,
28:30
Speaker 9: I'm just gonna leave the phone, I'm going to go,
28:32
Speaker 9: and you just kind of get into that and then
28:34
Speaker 9: all of a sudden you're in a real bad situation.
28:38
Speaker 9: So I really highly recommend that people take their phones
28:41
Speaker 9: and if they, you know, just just put them in
28:44
Speaker 9: your pocket or in your purse or whatever. But just
28:45
Speaker 9: have it with you because otherwise you can go missing
28:49
Speaker 9: and it'll be very hard to find you.
28:53
Speaker 1: Brian Fitzgibbons, there is a hiking trail through Diamond Canyon
28:58
Speaker 1: within Diamond Park that opens up a whole another can
29:03
Speaker 1: of worms for searchers. Explain it's rugged terrain.
29:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is very densely forested, rugged terrain, you know,
29:15
Speaker 3: which adds some complexity of this because in that type
29:19
Speaker 3: of terrain, the likelihood of someone hearing or seeing something,
29:25
Speaker 3: you know, another hiker on the trail reduces greatly, right,
29:31
Speaker 3: because of the dense vegetation, because of the canyons, the
29:35
Speaker 3: terrain features. And then naturally a lot of hikers and
29:40
Speaker 3: runners are wearing headphones in twenty twenty six, you know,
29:44
Speaker 3: they're listening to a podcast, listening to music as they run.
29:47
Speaker 3: So the further away from that recreation area that Amy walked,
29:53
Speaker 3: if she potentially did head to the north, the more
29:55
Speaker 3: difficult this search will be.
29:59
Speaker 1: What can you tell me about the recreation area, Dave
30:02
Speaker 1: mac because that involves parking, that involves people driving in
30:08
Speaker 1: and out. If she was taken out in a vehicle,
30:11
Speaker 1: nobody would think a thing of it. What's the recreation facility?
30:15
Speaker 8: Well, you know you mentioned the area for children to play.
30:19
Speaker 8: That's what they're talking about with the recreational From there
30:21
Speaker 8: you go pictures like that of you see in a
30:23
Speaker 8: park that actually, to be honest with you, Nancy, when
30:26
Speaker 8: you see things like this for children to play on
30:28
Speaker 8: in basketball goals and tennis courts and swimming pool, all
30:32
Speaker 8: you think are family related activities and a very safe place.
30:35
Speaker 8: It's also mean you see the woods well creates a
30:38
Speaker 8: lot of hiding spots. Now you mentioned parking. This is
30:41
Speaker 8: right off MacArthur Boulevard, which is a major thoroughfare heading
30:45
Speaker 8: straight into downtown Oakland, and you can get on MacArthur
30:49
Speaker 8: and be gone in a matter of minutes.
30:52
Speaker 1: Nancy.
30:52
Speaker 8: So yes, this is a park that has a lot
30:56
Speaker 8: of things for children, families, to do activities sports like that,
31:01
Speaker 8: and it is easy access from MacArthur Boulevard, which gives
31:05
Speaker 8: you a lot of things to consider when looking for
31:07
Speaker 8: someone like Amy Hilliard.
31:09
Speaker 7: Maybe someone will see her, or has seen her, or
31:12
Speaker 7: has a ring camera video that has recorded her in
31:17
Speaker 7: the last couple of days and doesn't know it. But
31:19
Speaker 7: if they just take a look at that recording, they
31:22
Speaker 7: might see that she was on that camera walking on Wednesday,
31:26
Speaker 7: March twenty fifth when she went missing, and they might
31:29
Speaker 7: be able to give us the lead that will help
31:30
Speaker 7: us find her.
31:31
Speaker 2: From kpix, Amy Hilliard classified as an at risk missing person,
31:37
Speaker 2: as customers and employees say, her sudden disappearance is completely
31:40
Speaker 2: out of character and deeply concerning.
31:44
Speaker 1: Evidence of routine, routine evidence. And I don't mean standard stereotypical,
31:52
Speaker 1: run of the mill evidence roots routine. I mean evidence
31:55
Speaker 1: of her routine. She has never not shown own up
32:00
Speaker 1: to work, highly uncharacteristic. She co owned a very popular
32:08
Speaker 1: coffee shop in Oakland, Farley's. They're at a loss. She's
32:13
Speaker 1: never done this before. What does that mean to you,
32:16
Speaker 1: doctor Rachel?
32:19
Speaker 9: I mean, well, I'm sure you probably know this, but
32:22
Speaker 9: the coffee shop itself was named after I believe Chris,
32:26
Speaker 9: the husband's great grandfather who went missing. That's a fact
32:30
Speaker 9: that is just also eerie.
32:33
Speaker 1: I know that. I know that it didn't bring it
32:35
Speaker 1: up because I don't find it relevant to her search,
32:38
Speaker 1: But it is an odd coincidence. In fact, Dave and
32:42
Speaker 1: I were talking about that right before we went to
32:44
Speaker 1: air tonight, So Dave go ahead and explain that. Do
32:48
Speaker 1: I think it's relevant here? No, I do not, but
32:50
Speaker 1: it is odd.
32:52
Speaker 8: This is one of those stories that's handed down by
32:55
Speaker 8: the family Nancy. Again, not a lot of documentation back
32:58
Speaker 8: in nineteen twenty as to what to place, but the
33:01
Speaker 8: story of the grandfather going missing, just vanishing into thin
33:05
Speaker 8: air and nobody hearing from him again sparked enough interest
33:09
Speaker 8: in this family, passing the story down to the point
33:12
Speaker 8: where this entire company, Farley's Coffee is named after a
33:17
Speaker 8: man who went missing.
33:18
Speaker 12: She's the lynchpin in a lot of our relationships. She's
33:21
Speaker 12: the lynchpin at her coffee shop. She has fed hundreds,
33:26
Speaker 12: if not thousands, of people through her coffee shop.
33:28
Speaker 1: So this is shocking.
33:30
Speaker 10: I don't know what's happening.
33:31
Speaker 1: We want her home.
33:32
Speaker 9: She loves her family, especially her two girls.
33:35
Speaker 10: She loves her business, her employees. She is very passionate
33:39
Speaker 10: in everything she does.
33:41
Speaker 1: From our friends at k TVU and kg oh, okay, Fitzgibbons,
33:47
Speaker 1: what are authorities doing right now? For one thing, I'm
33:51
Speaker 1: sure they're speaking to everybody in the family, including the husband.
33:55
Speaker 1: Let me just say up front, Faith Gibbons, do not
33:58
Speaker 1: show up on his front with a torch and a pitchfork. No,
34:04
Speaker 1: there is no reason to suspect him. However, that's where
34:11
Speaker 1: police will start. But also we know she left her
34:14
Speaker 1: home alone, so I'm sure the first thing they did
34:18
Speaker 1: was make sure his phone wasn't also at Diamond Park
34:22
Speaker 1: and get his alibi. Sop. That does not make him
34:26
Speaker 1: a person of interest or a.
34:27
Speaker 3: Suspect, correct, And you know it's natural for investigators to
34:33
Speaker 3: begin with family and close friends business partners for the
34:37
Speaker 3: simple fact that Amy spent the majority of her time
34:41
Speaker 3: and had the majority of her communications with them, so
34:44
Speaker 3: they can learn the most about Amy and her routines.
34:49
Speaker 3: Any problems she was facing. Were there financial issues with
34:52
Speaker 3: the business, Was there some kind of threat perceived or
34:57
Speaker 3: real that she was under at the time. And it's
35:01
Speaker 3: important to note that investigators are on the same side
35:03
Speaker 3: of the table as the family. In these opening weeks,
35:08
Speaker 3: everybody's all in to find Amy here and identifying these
35:13
Speaker 3: routines and patterns, getting deep on that cell phone and
35:16
Speaker 3: the communications that's happening now, and then as the days
35:22
Speaker 3: go on, they're going to expand that canvas into the neighborhood,
35:26
Speaker 3: knocking on doors, old school investigative work to get information
35:31
Speaker 3: and potentially video.
35:35
Speaker 1: Speaking of habit and routine, I'm wondering was it her
35:40
Speaker 1: routine to go to Diamond Park to go for walks.
35:45
Speaker 1: I'm wondering because when you step out of Farley's, from
35:47
Speaker 1: what I can see, you're right on a busy street
35:50
Speaker 1: with a lot of red lights, so you don't get
35:53
Speaker 1: very much exercise in. I'm wondering if that was part
35:56
Speaker 1: of her routine, Which changes things because it seems that
36:01
Speaker 1: people are questioning why did she go to the park,
36:04
Speaker 1: Why was she there alone? Why did she not have
36:06
Speaker 1: her phone? As if somehow it's her fault. For all
36:09
Speaker 1: I know, this may be her regular workout schedule. Do
36:14
Speaker 1: we know anything at all, Dave Mack about her regular
36:17
Speaker 1: workout routine?
36:18
Speaker 8: We do Nancy Lake Merritt is very close to Nancy's home.
36:23
Speaker 8: We're talking half mile, and that was the location where
36:26
Speaker 8: Nancy would regularly walk, oftentimes with her dog. So Lake
36:31
Speaker 8: Merritt was where the search was focused, as it is
36:33
Speaker 8: right there in the neighborhood. Now when it comes to
36:35
Speaker 8: Diamond Park, not so much, she didn't. It was a
36:39
Speaker 8: little bit further away from the house, about four miles,
36:42
Speaker 8: not an easy walk to get to and so not convenient,
36:46
Speaker 8: not something she regularly did. She did regularly walk in
36:50
Speaker 8: Merritt in Lake Merritt, not at Diamond Park.
36:54
Speaker 13: The whole thing is heartbreaking and shocking.
36:57
Speaker 12: Night.
36:58
Speaker 13: Didn't get very much sleep left night. Our least is
37:01
Speaker 13: really a very important part of our community. They've really
37:05
Speaker 13: networked into the community in a wonderful way that she's
37:09
Speaker 13: returned healthy and safe and sound.
37:12
Speaker 12: We've been friends for the least in the last twenty
37:14
Speaker 12: five years. She's important in my life. She's an aunt
37:18
Speaker 12: to my children. Her husband and my husband are best friends.
37:21
Speaker 12: They went to college together. She's one of the most
37:23
Speaker 12: important people we have in our lives. When you have
37:26
Speaker 12: a problem, she's generally the first person that you reach
37:28
Speaker 12: out to, which is why tonight it's so important for
37:31
Speaker 12: us to all come together and help her and help
37:34
Speaker 12: her family in a similar way that they've always helped.
37:36
Speaker 1: Us from KTVU and kp i X. You know, I
37:40
Speaker 1: join a niavius. A lot of people do not have
37:46
Speaker 1: dozens of searchers of volunteers out looking for them. Every
37:52
Speaker 1: one of these close friends need to speak to police
37:56
Speaker 1: and undergo forensic interviews.
37:58
Speaker 10: Why because who she was speaking to, the nature of
38:01
Speaker 10: the relationship she had, the background about her dynamics in
38:07
Speaker 10: the community is so critical to giving the law enforcement
38:11
Speaker 10: clues about what may or may not may have occurred
38:14
Speaker 10: in this situation. You know, she left the cell phone
38:17
Speaker 10: at home, but who was the last person she talked to?
38:21
Speaker 10: She was gone for two and a half hours on
38:24
Speaker 10: a Wednesday, in the middle of the day when most
38:26
Speaker 10: people might be picking their kids up from school. So
38:28
Speaker 10: who did she have in her life that would help
38:30
Speaker 10: with those type of things? Did she often take time
38:33
Speaker 10: away from the coffee shop to go on these long excursions?
38:38
Speaker 10: And all of her community members who really know her
38:41
Speaker 10: are going to help paint that picture so that the
38:43
Speaker 10: police don't get tunnel vision just going down one avenue,
38:47
Speaker 10: but they're able to take that aggregated and make a
38:50
Speaker 10: conscious decision about where to target that investigation.
38:53
Speaker 11: We have a great window see where we have a
38:56
Speaker 11: knitting group on Tuesdays and looking forward for all of
39:01
Speaker 11: the community enjoy it more hours of the day and
39:04
Speaker 11: on weekend long.
39:05
Speaker 9: It's not expression.
39:06
Speaker 1: It's just that I'm eating one of the great sandwiches.
39:08
Speaker 1: So you have a pull of books.
39:13
Speaker 6: So thirty three Grand Air three, Yeah, Grand Avenue and
39:18
Speaker 6: Oakland come and visits.
39:20
Speaker 13: Yeah, you're welcome here.
39:22
Speaker 1: That's from Zenny sixty two, a vlogger, Zenny Abraham. Wait
39:29
Speaker 1: a minute, you know everything about victimology is not fitting
39:33
Speaker 1: in Brian Fitzgibbons. She hosts a knitting group on Tuesdays
39:39
Speaker 1: at her coffee shop. This is not high risk activity.
39:45
Speaker 1: This is not like she's looking for thrills in downtown
39:49
Speaker 1: Oakland after midnight. She's not a drug user, she's not
39:54
Speaker 1: an addict, she doesn't have a drinking problem. She's not
39:58
Speaker 1: prone to high risk activity. This is very, very aberrant,
40:04
Speaker 1: very odd fitz Gibbons.
40:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, and this is also somebody, as you said, you know,
40:10
Speaker 3: runs a knitting circle on Tuesday nights, owns a business
40:14
Speaker 3: with employees, It's deeply connected to the community, participates in
40:19
Speaker 3: a number of community based nonprofits. This is not someone
40:26
Speaker 3: who typically would leave on their own volition, which makes
40:30
Speaker 3: this all the more concerning. Her disappearance in broad daylight.
40:38
Speaker 3: You know now on a week a week has gone by.
40:42
Speaker 3: This is very, very concerning victimology.
40:46
Speaker 1: If you know or think you know anything about Amy
40:50
Speaker 1: Hilliard's startling disappearance, please dial Oakland PD five one zero
40:58
Speaker 1: two three eight three four one repeat five one zero, two,
41:03
Speaker 1: three eight three six four one. We remember an American
41:10
Speaker 1: hero Trooper, Chad Walker, Texas Department Public Safety, shot dead
41:16
Speaker 1: in the line of duty, leaving behind a wife turned
41:20
Speaker 1: widow and four children sentenced to life without dad. American
41:26
Speaker 1: hero Trooper Chad Walker. Nancy Grace signing off goodbye, f