"I realized there was a door. It is not a door that had a key or anything it was just latched at the top," Prillaman told WTVR-TV.
Prillaman said the door led to a section of attic she hadn't visited before.
"I am an 80s baby, so I watched Goonies. So as I'm rummaging through the attic I'm thinking there could be treasure back here, could be a map, there could be gold coins," she said.
The homeowner said the hidden treasure turned out to be two boxes of love letters written by a man named Vance and addressed to a woman named Betty Sue McGhee.
Vance, who was serving in the Navy in the 1950s, wrote of his love for McGhee.
"When we're not together I know just the right words that I would use in telling you everything. But when we're together all I can think of is 'I love you,'" Vance wrote.
Prillaman posted about the letters on Facebook.
"Even if the two writing one another are no longer with us, I'd love to find the family to pass them on. I know I'd cherish these if these were my grandparents corresponding," Prillaman wrote.
She said web sleuths got to work on the case, and soon she was connected with Portland, Ore., man Dalton Long, 30, who confirmed Vance and Betty were his grandparents.
Long said he grew up with his grandparents in the house where Prillaman now lives, but he never knew about the stash of letters.
"To add words to that time in their life is going to be incredible," Long said.
He said he is grateful to Prillaman for seeing the value in the letters.
"She was able to find something and find the other end of it," he said. "And I think not only is it exciting for me but I hope it's exciting for her to be able to unite me with a little piece of my past."
