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

[shonyakay]

How can he be confident that she will be found alive? No meds, and could very possibly have been deceased from the beginning.

What does he know that makes him say that?

He said there is no evidence that she is deceased. That is a pretty bold statement.
Is he basing that on the ransom note that said she was alive but was scared?
I'm not sure.

 

[thefragile7393]

I haven't been assuming that anything reported was done for the benefit of informing the public. Doesn't LE strategically use the media to help their investigation? Such as saying or not saying something and watching how certain people react? Is it not possible that the Ashleigh Banfield "exclusive" was deliberate? I'm not trying to be a conspiracy theorist. I just don't take LE press conferences or news releases at face value because I think it's sometimes investigative tactics.

why would they use AB for that? Why would they allow a reporter to potentially compromise an investigation and then walk it back?

 

[shadowsc]

Megyn Kelly talking about SG's use of the phrase "Talk to us and you'll see" in the context of the movie Silence of the Lambs. It is a little bit chilling to watch the context in the movie and wonder if/why SG chose that phrase.

 

[thefragile7393]

He said there is no evidence that she is deceased. That is a pretty bold statement.
Is he basing that on the ransom note that said she was alive but was scared?
I'm not sure.

That is a very bold statement to make. I have suspicions that I'll keep to myself to be nice but the focus on the note and this assertation makes me...question a lot of things I guess.

 

[Friday Fan]

Sadly it's quite common along the border for small sums (50k etc.)

Many border towns on the US side (TX, AZ, NM) have US citizens kidnapped for ransom and brought into Mexico. You can google tons of articles that range from young women, to prominent town figures etc. The US Dept of State has an advisory on it.

I can't find anything. I'm reading "at the border", but it happened in Mexico at the border not in the US. Matamoros and Juarez resectively. (2023 and 2025) However, it was in Mexico, not in the US. A border town can be in Mexico.

In one rare case someone was lured into Reynosa, Mexico with the promise of a job, but was kidnapped in Reynosa, not the US.
The DOJ explicity states that the person was kidnapped IN Mexico because authorities wouldn't bother to invest resources into a kidnapping that occurred there,

I don't think NG was lured into Mexico!!!


If I am wrong, please provide a link. I see no evidence of numerous kidnapping cases on the US side of the border.

Reality about this is needed!

 

[Izzylizzy]

16 mins ago
Chris Stewart L&O

 

[Bluewing3102]

I can’t believe nothing wasn’t taken from the house, older people usually have money hidden (as another poster said) plus they may have valuable collections over the years, coins, stamps, art work. The person/persons were in the house long enough to look for these items.
Police may not be reporting items taken but I’m sure there’s a lot they aren’t saying.

I firmly believe it was NOT a burglary gone wrong. I agree that maybe police didn't reveal anything stolen, but absolutely nothing has pointed to it even remotely being a burglary.

Typically burglars case houses in advance to see if things are worth stealing to begin with. And most burglars don't want to interact with people so they wait until they verify the victim has left the house. Given the location of her house it would be easy to wait for her to leave and steal something during the day with minimal fear of being seen by neighbors.

It wouldn't make sense to sneak into a house when they know someone is sleeping and also not know if there was anything valuable to take before hand.

JMO

 

[GussiedCanoodler]

i know distance from phone can be one reason but what happens if the person is deceased?

When someone with a pacemaker dies, they contact the company to turn it off. The machine does not recognize that someone has died (or alert anyone either). Pacemakers are different than internal defibrillators.

 

[Dexxie8]

This case is crazy. I don’t know what to make of it and for some reason I don’t think the ransom is legit. JMO. I don’t understand why the sheriff is leading people on to believe she’s alive either. What am I missing?

 

[ChiaPet]

I think SG was provided much if not all of the language in that letter.

 

[diggndeeperstill]

How can he be confident that she will be found alive? No meds, and could very possibly have been deceased from the beginning.

What does he know that makes him say that?

He didn’t say that. He says…. She’s here, we’re gonna find her. I don’t think that means the same thing.

 

[Charlot123]

Possible re-post, fwiw..
Feb. 5, 2026

Teens charged in $66M crypto home invasion plot in Scottsdale as search for Nancy Guthrie continues in Tucson

Two California teens were arrested in an alleged $66 million crypto-related Arizona home invasion just before Nancy Guthrie vanished. Authorities have not said if the cases are linked.

www.aol.com

''Two California teens were arrested in an Arizona home invasion tied to an alleged $66 million cryptocurrency plot that happened the same day Nancy Guthrie was last seen before disappearing from her Tucson home about two hours away.

Authorities have not said if the two cases are connected in any way, but the cases do share some bizarre similarities.

The teens, who are not being identified by Fox News Digital because they are both under the age of 18, allegedly posed as delivery drivers to gain access to the Scottsdale home on Jan. 31, before forcing their way inside and duct-taping and assaulting two homeowners inside''.

From what I have read, the homeowners were into cryptocurrency business.

So there may be a certain difference- asking information about crypto wallets and abducting a person who is not into crypto business.

However, teens need to know that it is an adult business with adult times.

 

[Sarahlou]

He said there is no evidence that she is deceased. That is a pretty bold statement.
Is he basing that on the ransom note that said she was alive but was scared?
I'm not sure.

Doesn't it just mean they haven't found anything that proves she's dead?

 

[Lalalacasbah]

Possible re-post, fwiw..
Feb. 5, 2026

Teens charged in $66M crypto home invasion plot in Scottsdale as search for Nancy Guthrie continues in Tucson

Two California teens were arrested in an alleged $66 million crypto-related Arizona home invasion just before Nancy Guthrie vanished. Authorities have not said if the cases are linked.

www.aol.com

''Two California teens were arrested in an Arizona home invasion tied to an alleged $66 million cryptocurrency plot that happened the same day Nancy Guthrie was last seen before disappearing from her Tucson home about two hours away.

Authorities have not said if the two cases are connected in any way, but the cases do share some bizarre similarities.

The teens, who are not being identified by Fox News Digital because they are both under the age of 18, allegedly posed as delivery drivers to gain access to the Scottsdale home on Jan. 31, before forcing their way inside and duct-taping and assaulting two homeowners inside''.

Oh wow good find @dotr , so either connected and the same group possibly or someone used this plot and stole the idea to mimic/copy cat this as a red herring!

 

[Absoluterubbish]

I was really hoping I would wake up to some news this morning. If I repeat anything in my posts today that has already been discussed I apologise. This thread increased around 50 pages while I slept overnight

 

[Dexxie8]

I.....have no words. I mean of course it's possible. Stranger things have happened. Exactly though, what is the basis for him saying this though? No one knows.

Exactly my thoughts as well. Why does he think that and why does he have so many interviews?

 

[stmichael]

That's so creepy, do they actually let the people go once ransom is met? Terrifying.

I know it's been brought up in the thread (from parts I've read trying to keep up), I guess I have to remember AZ being close to the border and be open to that (I'm Canadian so seems so nuts to me this happens!!)

Tuscon is about an hour drive from the border. And is know to cartel ties/crime.

(U) Tucson - Arizona High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Drug Market Analysis 2009 (UNCLASSIFIED)

The border crime spillover/kidnapping is often swept under the rug and does not get the media attention it should. Sometimes it includes poor people in the heavily ethnically Mexican demographic among US border towns, some are dual citizens etc. but sometimes it's a local politician etc.

In Mexico there have been 400 cases of US Citizens kidnapped from 21-2025. Border towns are like a gray area with a lot of spillover crime but nonetheless involving US Citizens on US soil.

 

[GailAnne]

I'm fairly new here, still trying to figure things out, and I tend to be a strict rule-follower--on one of my first (of few) posts, I was very gently chastised by a moderator for quoting a non-acceptable source, and was directed to the website rules.
Am I correct in thinking that insulting a Websleuths member--and in this case, a Websleuths Guardian--goes against Rule #1?
Maybe it's just "an opinion" and is therefore acceptable. My mom taught me that "if I do not have anything nice to say, do not say anything at all." My mom was pretty cool.

Non-acceptable sources are not allowed and you were directed to read the rules. That's not and insult, it's showing you how to abide by the rules that apply to all of us. Mose of us have been "called out" and even been in time-out a few times. Forget it and move on : )

 

[Sakura2Sophia4Lucia]

If the kidnapping was real, targeted, carefully planned and all about money, surely among all that careful planning the perp would have known he would be asked to provide proof of life or some sort of evidence about her welfare, condition, location. Something to prove he actually had her. Something to make his chances of getting the money infinitely higher. The fact he clearly didn't consider that and doesn't seem to have anything he can use, is another reason I don't believe this was some random kidnapper and I don't think this was a kidnapping. No way would you go through all that, take that risk and then be all "oh yeah give me cash tomorrow, or next week, whenever you like really" and then just write it off as a bad day at the office if it doesn't work out for you.

It reeks of clumsy afterthought.

Agree. IMHO, I don't believe this was a kidnapping. If it was, the ransom letter seems to be, as Beans said, a "clumsy afterthought".

In addition, this neighborhood--and other wealthy neighborhoods in and around Tucson--have many residents who are single, elderly and much more wealthy than NG or her daughter SG. Many of the houses of these wealthy residents are as easy of a target as NG, but so the residents are known to have significant more wealth. So why NG?

Makes me think this was somebody who knew her. Don't think it was a planned kidnapping but that she was either seriously injured or had died, and they needed to get her body out of the house so their DNA wouldn't be found on NG.

So many details that have been reported don't fit with a kidnapping. And, if the report is true that the indoor security cameras were smashed, what kidnapper would know where all of the security cameras were in the house prior to being in the house.

Seems like the person responsible for what happened with NK had been in the house before and knew where the cameras where.

IMHO

 

[Magic8Ball]

https://twitter.com/x/status/2019866916106465434

Once again, the DM proves its mastery of hyperbolic clickbait headlines remains unrivaled.

Having said that, Sheriff Nanos HAS made a number of blunders in this case, and not just verbal ones.

Scene being cleared prematurely was bad news, unless you're the future defense team, in which case you're thrilled.

The defense table will probably all rise and break out in a spontaneous rendition of the Hallelujah chorus when Nanos is called as a witness.

JMO.