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

  • #6,761
I'm popping in and out of this thread as it's moving insanely fast and impossible to keep up for slow pokes like me! :)

I'm veering on the side of a long stewing grudge possibly personal or acquaintance/someone known to her. I can't see it being anything else after I review it all.

I don't believe there is an actual ransom note was there? It's dragged on too long for that in my opinion.

I don't think it's familial/insurance/inheritance related as there's 50 million other ways (well not literally but YKWIM) to have someone 'pass away' to get insurance.

Taking a possible living, fighting, immobile senior is not the way to get rid of someone for insurance motives MOO.. So that leaves a grudge of some sorts for me. Or did she stumble on some info? Fraud or embezzling of funds from somewhere?

Any important dates coming up? I always find timelines interesting - why did this crime HAVE to happen on that day and time? Was it random or connected?
She could also have been killed in the home..if she were strangled,DNA might not have been left behind.
 
  • #6,762
The ransom letter mentioned something that makes it seem as though they are located in Tucson, local points of reference? Something near her home? Personal information about her that isn’t known widely? He mentions a neighbor reported, allegedly, AG and her family had left her home and it’s quiet there. Would it be due to security concerns? Investigators needing access?
According to TMZ who has the letter, they said they would return her within a certain time frame (a few hours by car) so they extrapolated a "radius zone", It can all be BS though.
 

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  • #6,763
Also to add, the person would have to be a fairly strong person if only one person. Even if they knocked her out let's say or even if half alert, dead weight is heavy to carry.
When my 65 lb greyhound passed out, I could not pick her up. Dead, floppy weight is very hard to move.
 
  • #6,764
Abby Hernandez is another. 284 days later she was released.

But like you, I don't think that's what this case is.
Those were captive situations, no ransom, or any exchange info. No letter from kidnappers. Went on for a long time.
Jaycee was kept for 17 years, had two children, Phillip ( raped her)and Nancy Garrido ( nurse, delivered babies) were captors, finally arrested. Jaycee was given a different name. lived in a shed in backyard, her daughters were called sisters to Jaycee, Jaycee had some Stockholm syndrome, but finally spoke up to some Berkeley cops, said she was Jaycee, ugh!
Elizebeth Smart, again a couple kidnapped her, man raped her, captive for a few years, finally got free.
Other ones I don’t know as well.
 
  • #6,765
Most seniors are on like meds. Blood thinner (aspirin, etc.), beta blocker (metaprolol) as primary with a few extras. Without them It doesn't mean the person will immediately drop over, but as time passes, meds become more important. She's been off meds for a week. If she's still alive, she has undoubtedly told her captors. Whoever took her probably didn't know about her meds or did not care.
Yes, but in this case they repeatedly pointed out without her daily meds it can be "life-threatening". She's dependent on them. You're talking about a woman 6 years from 90 with a pacemaker and high blood pressure that according to her family "can't walk 50 yard" in the most stressful situation of her life. Which again why 6 days in is dire and proof of life is required.
 
  • #6,766
The ransom letter mentioned something that makes it seem as though they are located in Tucson, local points of reference? Something near her home? Personal information about her that isn’t known widely? He mentions a neighbor reported, allegedly, AG and her family had left her home and it’s quiet there. Would it be due to security concerns? Investigators needing access?
Hazarding a guess, maybe they're trying to escape the media?
 
  • #6,767
  • #6,768
I don’t see a way that this is a hostage situation at this point. The threat actor would be working harder to facilitate a ransom payment. He would have nothing to gain waiting this many days to show proof of life.
 
  • #6,769
  • #6,770
Except I don't think she grabbed the lantana. I woulld never consider lantana to be a lifeline of sorts. It wouldn't have occured to her since it's basically a groundcover. I can see her grabbing it if she was pushed into it.
I agree, IF she took a moment to think "What could I grab onto that will keep me from getting carried off?". No way did she do that. I think she reacted, plain and simple, and that's what she grabbed on to only because it's what was in reach. People don't usually take a moment to stop and ponder what's the best thing to do in a situation like that. They just react. Sometimes it works out for them, sometimes it doesn't.
 
  • #6,771
There is passive blood drops on the front porch where she appears to have been bleeding while standing. The spatter just to the right of the mat looks like impact spatter - like a force came in contact with a person already bleeding. It appears that she may have already been bleeding i.e. the passive drops and then was hit again i.e. the impact spatter. Jmo.
My impression of the spatter is that maybe someone had her over their shoulder for a few minutes while they wiped prints, removed the doorbell cam, etc. She bled in that one spot the whole time.
 
  • #6,772
According to TMZ who has the letter, they said they would return her within a certain time frame (a few hours by car) so they extrapolated a "radius zone", It can all be BS though.
True, but the state is crawling with LE everywhere, would you a high risk and I don’t believe that would happen. Savanna and her family have no way to provide any pressure here, they have LE/FBI to help, but nothing else.
 
  • #6,773
I don’t see a way that this is a hostage situation at this point. The threat actor would be working harder to facilitate a ransom payment. He would have nothing to gain waiting this many days to show proof of life.
Exactly
 
  • #6,774
When my 65 lb greyhound passed out, I could not pick her up. Dead, floppy weight is very hard to move.
Hate to use the phrase "dead weight" but that's exactly what you are correctly referring to. Anything that can't move itself is not an easy task.
 
  • #6,775
There's been absolutely no news today, but it's an unusual case in that a few major developments could happen at any time:

1. An arrest in her abduction/murder.
2. She is recovered.
3. An arrest is made in the ransom aspect (assuming it's a different person).
 
  • #6,776
AOL says family considering taking action against Banfield
I believe this is the source of the rumor.
Shuter does celebrity journalism.

 
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  • #6,777
When my 65 lb greyhound passed out, I could not pick her up. Dead, floppy weight is very hard to move.
Yep and I do bicep curls with 65 lbs and throw around my fit 150 kid like a potato sack. It can be a lot of things, we just don't know. Can't assume either way though. Could have been a few wee lil guys or one normal fit man, or a couple young women, or one old guy with a mechanized dolly for that matter.
 
  • #6,778
While I think it's likely the ransom email is from the actual perpetrators of this crime I don't believe it originated as a kidnapping for ransom. I believe this started out as a different crime - robbery, sexual assault, extortion, domestic argument - and the killing (yes, I believe Ms Guthrie is deceased, unfortunately) and the "kidnapping" is an after the fact red herring.

I believe professional kidnappers would have left a ransom letter on the property. Common paper, common ink, no fingerprints, no DNA, untraceable, rather than electronic communication that WILL be traced sooner or later.

Life isn't a James Bond movie and the odds are overwhelmingly that this crime started in a garden variety way done by garden variety people who committed a rash act and a panicked series of events followed afterwards.

I would look close to home.

This is all my personal opinion.
But if you've already gotten away with murder (hypothetically), why give LE another avenue to track you by looking for ransom?
 
  • #6,779
RE: the man who reported the trespasser on his property:

And he is not the only one to report suspicious activity in the weeks and months leading up to Nancy Guthrie going missing.

Brett McInti has lived in the neighborhood for five years and says it is a quiet area which does not often see trouble.

” I just tend to think it’s a pretty quiet, safe neighborhood,” he said.

He said he reported a similar incident to police because it was out of the norm for how quiet the area normally is.

“I’ve been here five years and we’ve had no actual big problems here,” he added.

“I did report one time to the police a few months ago, I noticed a car creeping down my driveway when I was coming to park.
“They backed out slowly. I looked at them. You couldn’t see the licenceplate because they were backing out.

“But that’s the only time in five years, someone’s been on my property where it’s like they seem like they’re up to no good.

“They were a young couple in their 20s, in my opinion. I just remember it was a sedan, a little two or four door sedan, not real big, not an expensive car, not an SUV, just kind of a sedan, and again, they looked rather on the younger side, like in their 20s.


Probably nothing, maybe tourists who just wanted to look at the house.....or not.
 
  • #6,780
Some really good observations. One more. Could the drops of blood been planted as a diversion? Really careless on abductors part to hit her and leave it untouched IMO.

I could believe that that could be a possibility if it were just the passive drops. There is impact spatter on the porch too though so that makes that less likely imo.
 

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