Investigators spent six months trying to piece together what happened after Hillyard left home that day without a trace. The private investigator dug into her devices and turned up browsing history showing she had viewed the eight separate trail routes just before she went missing.
Searchers are now combing those specific trails for any sign of what happened to her. The discovery gives investigators their first real lead in months, a possible map of where Hillyard may have gone before she vanished.
For Hillyard's family, the find offers something they haven't had in half a year, a concrete place to look instead of an open question. Her husband has kept searching the entire time she's been gone, and this is the first clue that points somewhere specific rather than nowhere at all.
Eight trails, one missing mother, and six months of silence before anyone found a single digital breadcrumb.