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

[Moonchime]

If the kidnapper spent a ransom paid with bitcoin I believe they would likely be caught. Re-sharing this link that I shared earlier:
NBC: Cryptocurrency is not actually perfectly designed for crime. Just ask the crypto cops. Think transactions in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are anonymous? Think again.

Thank you so much for responding and for providing this link.

 

[acutename]

I would take the child with & the dogs stay home! It's ten minutes out of my life for my mom who I had a very deep connection with! Actually I'm surprised Nancy Uber'd over. I would have insisted that we pick her up.
To each his own...

some people have a usual Uber driver who drives them frequently- I imagine NG going to the airport, shopping, med appts, hairdresser? and maybe taking an Uber.

 

[LivvyL]

There has to be a reason she was abducted. If it was not ransom, what do you think it was?

I hate to say it but I think it was to remove her body aka evidence.

 

[Magic8Ball]

Thanks for sharing this. So maybe she wasn't at an in-person church service after all. And we've been told that her regular church, which I'm pretty sure is St. Andrew's Presbyterian, does a livestream in which parishioners can't see who else is on (and maybe the church can't either).

So this definitely raises the question of who or what triggered the initial search. I do wonder -- could the church also have had some sort of online Zoom meeting after the livestream where her absence might've been noted? Something like a Bible study group? But that's just speculation on my part.

JMO

The purported call from a fellow churchgoer to the family is starting to bother me more and more.

LE left it off the timeline completely in their most recent press conference.
I don't recall any reference to it being made at all in the presser, either.
Just "11:56 a.m. - Family checks on Nancy."

I find that weird.

I have a TON of questions about this call:

• Does NG normally attend church in person or virtually?
• Does NG attend the first (9:00) service or the second (10:30) service?
• Does NG attend church faithfully every week?
• If she attends in person, does NG normally drive herself to church or get a ride from a fellow churchgoer/family member?
• Did the person who called family to report her absence from church attempt to reach NG by phone/text before reaching out to the family?
• How often did NG and the caller have contact with each other? How close were they?
• Had the person who contacted family to report NG's absence ever done so before, or was this a one-off?
• Prior to the call, had a family member reached out to the church/someone from the church to inquire about whether NG was there?
• Had NG and the church caller had recent contact in which NG had expressed something like "see you in church tomorrow" or "let's do lunch after church Sunday" or what specifically raised such red flags to the caller that they reached out to family?
• What family member did they speak to, how often did they communicate that morning, and what did they say to the caller during any and all conversations?
• What time was/were the call(s) placed to the family?
• What was the caller's location when they made the phone call?
• How did the caller know the family member's phone number?
• Which family member(s) did the church caller speak to?
  

JMO.

 

[turaj]

This is interesting. I didn't realize the news stations got the ransom note first. It makes sense they would go to LE and not publicize it, and perhaps that frustrated the ransom-note writer. Maybe he wanted attention and/or wanted to know the Guthrie family received the note, so he then sent it to TMZ, correctly assuming TMZ would publicize the story.

Interesting.

jmo

we don't know if there was a note left in the house...actually know nothing of what was in that house.

 

[minazoe]

are all of Nancy's pain meds accounted for?

this is a total Jon Benet type of situation. I am thinking there is no kidnapping, something happened with Nancy and they ( whomever they is) came back in the wee hours to clean it up and stage a kidnapping. mOO

 

[Moonchime]

My guess would be that Apple Watch was on her night stand next to the bed. Crazy question but where does every one keep their watch?

I don't own an Apple Watch, but if I did, I would leave it on my nightstand when I went to bed.

 

[Friday Fan]

I’ve attached a photo of NG’s front door, which shows the flowers bordering the walkway. To my eye, JMO, they look like the same plant that’s lying close to the door. It’s a silly detail, but I don’t think it’s insignificant.

Photo from MSN, cropped by me.

The plant is purple trailing lantana. It's a very common plant and will grow where other plants won't grow. (Like Tucson) No one who grows it picks it. It's ubiquitous, utilitarian and it stinks. Doubt if she would pick it. I grow it next to my sidewalk.

 

[Marie A]

Ok now my brain is stuck on could the ransom email have been sent from NG’s computer as someone mentioned up thread? Can you program an email to be sent at a later time. I’m no techie so I don’t know. If so what a clever way to get around your ransom email not being traced back to you. “You won’t get any further communication” because I won’t have access to this computer again type thing. Remember the FBI gal carrying out something large wrapped in brown paper. I have heard speculation it was a computer. Also this could explain why the house was again cordoned off after it was released back to the family. The ransom email could have triggered that if determined to have come from her computer being it was received after the house was released to family. Just another thought.

This is SO CLEVER.
I hope there aren’t any crooks on here reading this and wanting to copycat- but wouldn’t that be amazing if they did send the note from her computer.
That may explain why they are looking at the SIL who I think is 100% innocent and has been very very unfairly named by Ashley Banfield
Just IMHO

 

[pixiepixel]

Targeted Scottsdale home invasion linked to alleged $66M cryptocurrency plot

Has anyone posted this yet? This happened on Jan 31 in Scottsdale, AZ and was posted 2 days ago. Two teens broke into a home by posing as delivery drivers and held a family hostage, demanding millions in bitcoin. While these two teens were caught, police did not believe they were the "masterminds" behind this plot. From the link above:

Investigators believe the teenagers met recently and were extorted by individuals known only as "Red" and "8."

This seems so similar to Nancy's case and the ransom note, in particular. It happened just the day before.

 

[priyaya]

some people have a usual Uber driver who drives them frequently- I imagine NG going to the airport, shopping, med appts, hairdresser? and maybe taking an Uber.

it was also reported that it was a female uber driver, so I could see that being her request

 

[HoveringWombats]

Ok now my brain is stuck on could the ransom email have been sent from NG’s computer as someone mentioned up thread? Can you program an email to be sent at a later time.

No programming or techiness is required. There's a button right in Gmail and many others to schedule an email to send at a later time.

I personally kind of doubt that the email was sent from her device, but if it was, it wouldn't imply any special skills or knowledge.

 

[thefragile7393]

I don't think they're the most scrupulous, but their info is usually if not always correct. For instance, if they say that a celebrity has died I know that person is dead. If they said I was dead I would probably believe them.

correct! And unfortunately that's also gotten them into trouble in the past, i.e. Kobe Bryant death.

 

[thefragile7393]

I've gotten TMZ push notifications since 2009 - IME they are almost never, if not never, wrong about facts, especially things like arrests and deaths.

Now, how they get that information is ethically questionable at best, but they do get it. Harvey is a lawyer and it seems like part of the reason he's still at the helm is his ability to quickly assess the legal liability, if any, of reporting breaking or fast-moving news.

Their "filler" content is tabloid trash, but I've found their actual reporting to be correct and usually at least a few minutes ahead of other news outlets. My guess would be that once they pass the legal hurdle they're free to report without the additional layers of review and approval that would be required by a more "reputable" news source.

Journalistic integrity is another conversation, but I personally feel comfortable believing stories they break.

MOO

sums up how I feel totally. You just said it more elequently.

 

[maskedwoman]

Also, If she ubered there why not uber home? Except for the dark and safety.

Maybe she didn't Uber from home? Maybe she was somewhere else. Maybe it's her way of maintaining independence or saving them from making 2 trips back and forth. Or maybe they didn't want her to Uber back home in the dark. Respectfully, not everything has to be odd.

 

[TwoBlueJays]

If NG was not related to famous daughter SG; and if LE rules out family...
Then the most probable explanation is that someone local broke into her house, assaulted her, she died unexpectedly and the assailant removed her body from the home in a panic. (The blood droplets on the porch could have fallen earlier in the day as she walked to the mailbox with a surprise bloody nose.)
This person may not know her celebrity connections. They may be attracted to elderly women. They may have seen NG in her front yard gardening or out in public and targeted her.
It seems unlikely that this was a late night random home invasion gone wrong. There are houses in that neighborhood with similar appearances so why choose hers.
And FWIW the ransom note seems like a red herring.
All moo

 

[Sessiebo]

Some of us consider those suggested actions polite!

Not age specific necessarily but we are known for our spoiling of our elders around here.

After a long night go in and help get set up for bed. Make sure her book is handy so she doesn’t have to get up again. Maybe offer a cup of herb tea to settle in.

My elderly mom although in decent health would get tired and I worried about a stumble and fall when she was. What I wouldn’t give to still have her to be able to spoil her still.

Our community is safe in general but my elderly Mom lived by herself in a big home on a wooded property and the affluent neighborhood had break ins despite paid security that drove through periodically.

So I would have definitely gone in, as she would assume I would, when dropping her off after dark especially that far after dark.

I never leave anyone I’ve dropped off after dark without a got in the door ok now I’m locked in wave from the window; at the least.

Just habit and expected behavior for a lot of us.

All imo

I agree 100%

 

[justwannahelp]

Ok, so let's say her source is correct. Then what is her purpose of releasing this information to the public, besides her own personal gain? It is not helping to find NG at all. In full disclosure, I have a deep disdain for "gotcha" reporting and Dateline type programming. It feels predatory to me. The pretending to care deeply about the family, etc. Nah. I ain't buying it. It's all about the $$$.

Oh I’m not speculating on the why. I’m just saying the sheriff’s answers seem to align with her reporting/theory. And LE is often onto someone when they say they aren’t. At least in most of the cases I’ve followed over the last 13 years they were. So them not telling us and his non answer answers aren’t super surprising

 

[missy1974]

Regarding the Media Ransom note... we don't know the time that the news stations received it. It's been said Monday morning. But that doesn't tell us the time. It could be anytime after midnight, and is that just when it was discovered? Depending on the email it was sent to, was that email checked on Sunday? could it have been sent Sunday but not opened until Monday morning? We have no idea.

I've watched some clips with a reporter from one of the news stations, but she gave very little info about specifics, other than verifying what the FBI stated yesterday.

a few clips I have been able to find:

https://twitter.com/x/status/2019534825640849613

https://twitter.com/x/status/2019226269653532773

 

[Izzylizzy]

Live now