Ryan Hillegas

Ryan Hillegas helped organize the volunteer search for Teresa Halbach after learning she was missing. In Avery's trial, he described contacting people she knew, accessing her online phone records, distributing posters, and coordinating a mapped road search. He said he gave Pamela Sturm a map before she searched Avery Salvage Yard; he later clarified that his own permitted access was to surrounding properties, not the salvage property. Cross-examination examined his former relationship with Halbach, his access to her files and records, his uncertain recollection of their last contact, and what investigators had asked him. In Dassey's trial, Karen Halbach described Hillegas organizing searchers near Teresa's last appointments and speaking with Pamela and Nikole Sturm about the salvage yard.