Friends and relatives of a 25-year-old Internal Revenue Service agent missing for a week from her Mill Valley home refused to give up hope Sunday and organized volunteers to scour the steep Mount Tamalpais trails where the woman may have ventured after a difficult breakup with her live-in boyfriend.More than 80 volunteers fanned out on trails in the sprawling, densely forested state park, looking for signs of Veronica "Nikki" Ruiz. They shouted her name and picked up objects in hopes that they were connected to her - a shredded shoe, a soccer ball, a collection of meditation rocks.
Back at the Holiday Inn Express hotel in Mill Valley, residents and businesses dropped off food and refreshments for the volunteers, who used a donated conference room where they pored over maps to mark where they had already looked.
Ruiz's exhausted sister, Maricris Ruiz, sat on a couch and said there is still reason to be hopeful. The missing woman took her government-issued handgun with her, and the weapon has not been found.
Read More
