Nancy Guthrie, 84, (mother of TODAY Show host Savannah Guthrie) missing - last seen in the Catalina foothills area on Jan 31, 2026

[wyome]

MOO.

I think the "family member" who drove NG home that evening entered the home quick enough to unlock one of the doors for quiet access later.

 

[Trino]

I actually wondered if they could provide the requested crypto but lock it....

Bitcoin just crashed. Now what? Did the abductors pick a bad economic time to demand a bitcoin ransom?

The bitcoin price has plummeted under the closely-watched $80,000 per bitcoin level, sparking fears that a full-blown bitcoin and crypto crash could be looming.

 

[cady]

What does an elderly woman have in her home that a thief would want? Cash?
How much cash do people keep at home these days?

LOL. OK let's all publish how much cash we have at home......

 

[LivvyL]

It looks to me like fine purple flowers and greenery used as filler in a vase flower arrangement. I've been wondering if such an arrangement might have been on a table near the front door and was knocked or stuck to a sleeve or in hair, as someone brushed past it, taking it outside.

Maybe a spare key was in the vase and it was emptied for that reason. There is an empty vase upright in the corner of the doorstep.

 

[Deleted member 117884]

know how to "roll and scroll."

snipped

I need constant remedial lessons, lol. Truth!

jmo

 

[Jade]

those clippings by the door have been bothering me this week as well.

How so?

It sort of looks like my Mom would do “working around the yard” doing what she can reach and since she uses a cane she can’t really use broom and dust pan too well, drops some if she collected it at all but doesn’t worry about it the lawn guys will blow anyway. Maybe NG’s housekeeper sweeps the porch and walk so leave it for her it’s just a bit.

As a WSer I suppose I should be examining the front landscape for that greenery it should stand out in the landscape...

Maybe its from a seasonal decoration from a nursery or florist in that pot that NG tidied up and some dropped.

all imo

 

[merrymary]

MOO.

I think the "family member" who drove NG home that evening entered the home quick enough to unlock one of the doors for quiet access later.

hmm....didn't think of that angle

 

[Trino]

just wonder if they considered that they might get nothing and be murderers, but if NG is dead, they have no leverage...they assumed responsibility for her well being when they took her- or they didn't

It's even dumber now that Bitcoin is down in value.

 

[CuriousCricket]

The fact that this happened on a Saturday night and not Sunday when the moon was actually full, might - in my own thinking - indicate someone who had to work on Monday. I'm wondering if the homes of other elderly people in the area have been broken into on bright nights?

Was NG's hearing better than the average older person? Did a noise awaken her and she went to investigate?

The thing is, though, people who have lived in their homes a long time have things stashed away they don't see on a daily basis. A burglar could break in, take something, and it not be discovered for weeks, months, or never.

However, that would indicate the burglar would have knowledge of those items.

I would think the electric company who did the last work at the home is being scrutinized very closely and any elderly clients being contacted. But, if they never woke up and haven't noticed anything missing, they won't be much help.

 

[SaraSmile]

Could have been a bruise from a blood draw or IV during surgery (I saw the picture, too, but can't remember the placement of the bandage).

Bandage was a “medium size commercial bandaid”(1.5”x2” approx), under right forearm(thin bone area), near elbow( not on elbow), my memory only. Probably a scrape because it’s not where an infusion or blood draw would go.

 

[Lamima]

It looks to me like fine purple flowers and greenery used as filler in a vase flower arrangement. I've been wondering if such an arrangement might have been on a table near the front door and was knocked or stuck to a sleeve or in hair, as someone brushed past it, taking it outside.

There is a big empty pot/jug outside the front door that I assumed the dried flowers were in. But maybe inside the front door.

 

[wyome]

hmm....didn't think of that angle

Just thinking of my own situation - I had keys to my parents' home when they owned one, but I always used their garage code because it was just easier. If that was the situation here, the perp would be an idiot to go through the garage.

 

[acutename]

I had the same thought, so I looked into it. Although it is possible to send an email that is very difficult to trace, by attaching a photo or video, you are sharing data that may very well lead to your capture. Not the photo itself, but the technical data inside of it - super complicated stuff that I could never understand.

well the photo - and you could try to "wipe it" I guess, has meta data about where when how it was taken.

 

[LAhiker]

I’m curious about the scene at the front door. It appears there are dried/dead flowers on the ground by the door and a large empty vase in the corner. I wonder if there was a spare key in that vase and it was emptied of the flowers to get the key.

Interesting idea. That said, LE initially said there was forced entry and now won't say. Another possibility is that the abductor took NG out the front door and knocked the flowers out of the vase in the process (in which case you'd expect the vase to have tipped over) or when he/she pulled the doorbell out of its bracket.

It sounds like NG may have usually gone in through the garage and others have suggested that the front door stoop may have been dusty. In that case, I would hope there were footprints. But those might've been obscured by family or investigators during the initial search.

JMO

 

[shadowsc]

I am thinking that the Apple Watch would likely have to have been left in a slightly unique place for the ransom note to cite its location correctly and have it be meaningful. Something like, "the Apple Watch was charging on the nightstand next to the bed" isn't exactly going to point to information that "only the person who took her would know."

A few other thoughts:

I've been thinking the same, and mentioned it a few pages back. Spending 41 minutes in the house, trying to get what he wanted from Nancy, financial info, passwords, safe contents whatever, threatening her....he didn't succeed, in anger he may have killed her then, took her away with a new ransom plot in mind.

I just tend to think that Nancy wouldn't be someone likely to have all these insane financial accounts or safes full of expensive jewelry. The house is nice and everything, but it's not some multi million dollar estate and Nancy doesn't come off like the type who has vaults of family jewels. Her biggest connection to actual wealth and assets would likely be Savannah. To me that seems like more of a motive from the start than robbing an old lady and then kidnapping her if it went sideways. An opportunist who decides to rob an elderly lady living alone for cash seems like a very different criminal profile than someone also setting up an elaborate ransom with a national news figure, celebrity media channels, anonymous bitcoin accounts, emails, and messing around with the FBI. Has the police said if anything was actually taken? Like jewelry, atm cards, cash. My personal feeling is that Nancy was the prime target, not a robbery. But who knows.

I think that's just his way of communicating. The "we believe so and so is alive," is pretty standard. I've actually seen it in cases where you can tell without a doubt law enforcement is looking for a body.

A much better way of handling this would have been to say "we believe a crime occurred in that home," and leave it at that, as opposed to saying she was "abducted in her sleep."

There is no way they could know she actually left that house alive, but that's the picture he's painted. I believe it's entirely possible that this resulted in some opportunist taking advantage of the situation with the ransom notes.

I think this too regarding the sheriff. He said yes they believe she is alive, but I think that's only because they haven't found a body or definitive conclusion of otherwise, so that's what they're going with even if they don't believe so. The reward also said for the "recovery" of Nancy, not the safe return of Nancy alive which I think is pretty telling.

Struck me as odd too but brushed it off for two reasons.

If their mother is alive, the kidnappers would surely show her this video. This may be the last time Nancy hears anything from her children and they wanted to speak directly to her and show her how much they love her.

This is a cry for help, they are asking their mother directly to communicate to these kidnappers "we will do whatever you want us to do to get our mother home." They know how smart their mother is.

Mom if you can, help us here.

99

I thought AG's message on the video to the abductors was so odd. Not suspicious, just odd. It felt to me like she was speaking at a service. But, since she's apparently a poet, that may just be how she speaks and was her heartfelt way of speaking out to her mom as authentically her, especially if they hoped Nancy would see it. It just felt less like a plea or a normal way to speak (although I guess is there even a normal way to speak to your mother's possible abductor?). I couldn't tell if there was any coded message in her words. They just felt a little stilted and an off way of speaking, but again, that may just be her and how she writes and speaks.

Exactly! I saw Megyn Kelly speculate that, because the family was getting so much grief online for waiting an hour to call 911, they changed their story. With no working cameras, LE cannot easily determine when the family arrived.

I suspect that this may have come about because of how it was first reported that someone from church called the family to say that Nancy wasn't there. And then an hour later, the family called 911. When in reality, however the family became concerned, they were there at Nancy's house by noon and called police within 7 minutes. I think that is likely accurate. How and when there was first reason for concern that Nancy wasn't reachable is unclear. But I don't know that it would raise immediate flags. It maybe wouldn't be that big of a stretch to think, she's in the shower, her ringer is off, she's taking a nap, etc. Once they got to the house, they appeared to call 911 fast. I think cell phones and car gps and smart watches would likely easily show when they arrived.

 

[Cassie P]

LOL. OK let's all publish how much cash we have at home......

Yikes. My point being people don't keep much cash at home these days? Everything is credit card, Venmo, Apple Pay, etc. ????

 

[ly502]

I think it's really important to notice that the call from the church friend appears nowhere on the official timeline. That doesn't mean it didn't happen, but I don't think that we can just interleave events from the official timeline and from other sources and assume we have an accurate picture.

100%

 

[SlimPickens]

That's an excellent point, Slim. Maybe she had a substantial life insurance policy?

Uh, strike that. The family would have to produce a death certificate. Lol

To counter my own post, there is the "if incapacitated" clause generally in living wills, so I suppose whomever is POA would have tentative rights to execute financial transactions on her behalf. That would likely be SG though, or her brother, if she was advised to make the most rational choice. In any case, I imagine if it is anyone related to AB's claim that there would be no way they could execute any transaction within their self-interest without it being heavily scrutinized by all concerned.

So still thinking that even with this caveat that it is almost certainly not a family financial motive here.

JMO.

 

[tbgo]

Brian Entin made me laugh when he said that the sister and son-in-law don’t have real jobs. They’re poets and he could find very little on the son-in-law being a teacher. He did note that he had been in a band. I’m sure law enforcement are looking at who would stand to benefit the most financially.

You never know though, the perp could someone completely off the radar. Some random weirdo.

 

[Greenestdays]

Bitcoin just crashed. Now what? Did the abductors pick a bad economic time to demand a bitcoin ransom?

The bitcoin price has plummeted under the closely-watched $80,000 per bitcoin level, sparking fears that a full-blown bitcoin and crypto crash could be looming.

Yes, this is a very interesting twist in the tale. If (and that’s a big if, imo) the ransom note is real, I wonder what the perp is thinking right now. Odds are the value will bounce back. What caused the dip anyway? Off to google…