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

[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.

 

[Sadi]

IF

They took an 84 year old ill woman with a pacemaker, in an apparent struggle (left blood drops) and didn't take her life-sustaining meds. They are offering no proof of life as is key in cases like this. They didn't really handle this well.

Do we know for fact the meds were not taken? Other than it being said she needs them to survive, they could have been taken and not confirmed either way.

 

[Lalalacasbah]

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.

Oh great, now I want to know lol... you won't tell your suspicions or can't? Curious!

 

[Bluewing3102]

Presumably the broken floodlights referenced in the TMZ ransom letter. Anyone can see this from outside and media reports. Too vague imo.

 

[Vaderman]

The only time I can think of a kidnap victim being released/escaped was Elizabeth Smart and there was the other young woman can't remember her name (Jaycee??). I know there's other survivors of abduction out there that aren't so high profile but I have a feeling there is no kidnap situation here.

Jaymee Closs was kidnapped by a man who shot and killed her parents. He kept her for ~three months before she managed to escape.

 

[Lalalacasbah]

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.

DBM read other post

 

[Sadi]

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

Exactly

 

[Vegasgrl]

I further cropped the pic you posted to make an observation (which likely has been brought up but there's no way I can keep up with the speed this thread is going).

My observation is this...

1) It's very "splattery" in this further cropped pic. I'm talking about the teeny-tiny splatters that look like speckles, not the larger drops:
View attachment 642146

2) The blood appears to start at that spot. IOW, I believe she was likely punched in the face and perhaps that might be from a nose bleed, and boy can noses bleed. I came to that conclusion because there isn't any visible blood on the step.

So she made it that far, then what happened to make her bleed? Also, those torn plants right there. Was she drug away and she tried to grab on to anything? Even if that's the case, why did those plants end up exactly where they are? It's not like they were inside the house and got drug out through the door. That would make sense of their placement but that's not the case here.

If she was hit in the face or head, and has mobility issues, she likely went down. Brick isn't forgiving. Thankfully there isn't a blood smear on that step cuz that could really cause a bad head injury.

View attachment 642145

Image source: https://www.justjared.com/photo-gallery/5275540/guthrie-home-01/

So, if 'stuff went down' on her porch... why did it start there? Did the person ring her doorbell or knock on her door? Maybe saying something like "Fire department!" to get her to come to the door? I've tried Googling to see if there was a struggle inside the house and as I said... I just can't keep up with y'all!

And do we (i.e. - You all) know if she actually ever made it into the house after being "dropped off"?

I toyed with the idea that a family member was ringing the bell and pounding on the door. She looked at her phone and saw them in distress, then immediately went to open the door. They said we need to get to the hospital -there's an emergency with so-and-so. When she wanted to get her phone, purse, etc, the struggle ensued and she was hit. I can't think of anyone else she would open the door for. I think she would email her daughter if police (imposters) were at the door @1:30am.

 

[SMK777]

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

Why does the YouTube video have such a misleading title?

 

[osu]

Question: Early on, wasn't it reported that homicide was on the scene almost immediately?

Yes.

“Searchers were using drones and search dogs to look for Nancy Guthrie”, Nanos said. Search and rescue teams were supported by volunteers and Border Patrol and the homicide team was also involved, he said. It is not standard for the homicide team to get involved in such cases, Nanos said.

"This one stood out because of what was described to us at the scene and what we located just looking at the scene," Nanos said Sunday. He was not ruling out foul play.

On Monday morning, Nanos said search crews worked hard but have since been pulled back. "We don't see this as a search mission so much as it is a crime scene," the sheriff said. Savannah Guthrie issued a statement on Monday, NBC's "Today" show reported.


'Today' show host Savannah Guthrie's mother is missing, and authorities suspect crime

 

[nycpizzaparty]

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

I'm not sure it compromises an investigation. It could cause a suspect to behave in an incriminating way leading to a breakthrough. I think LE uses media to their advantage sometimes. When a case is unsolved, why wouldn't they use every avenue possible?

 

[UsernameRequired]

That data has been huge in some other cases I've followed. I'm not sure we know the model car (s), but that would be helpful in determining if they had that technology.

Yes, I've been trying to figure out which car models and years they own. If the car they drove Nancy home in has GPS/navigation, it's possible to see the route of the vehicle has taken in the past to a certain timeline - even if the navigation was not used.

The 2020 murder of 23-year-old Kassanndra Cantrell in Tacoma, Washington, was solved after detectives used GPS data from her ex-boyfriend, Colin Patrick Dudley, to locate her remains. Cantrell disappeared in August 2020; Dudley was arrested after his vehicle's GPS and surveillance footage placed him at the scene.

 

[turaj]

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 never really said anything other than "she will be found" he does not say alive or dead. He was just as careful in the presser yesterday.

 

[Skagirl]

Do we know for fact the meds were not taken? Other than it being said she needs them to survive, they could have been taken and not confirmed either way.

I asked a similar question earlier today. No one responded to it so that leads me to believe it has not been confirmed yet. My thinking was that I get one of my prescriptions in 3 month increments and I have more than one bottle at home. If I went missing, my husband definitely wouldn't be able to say if my meds were also missing or not.

 

[GussiedCanoodler]

About the amount of blood outside:

On blood thinners, bleeds easily and was "taken against her will" from her home which implies by force, the force probably causing her to bleed if she does so easily, and the blood is where there is also a newly missing door camera so that blood seems to be part of the crime scene to me.


all imo

What I meant is that if she was seriously injured I’d actually expect MORE blood. I don’t doubt that she was bleeding, but I don’t think that small blood splatter in one spot is indicative of a major injury.

 

[Izzylizzy]

Ok, to be fair. My Mom literally lives down the street from me. Sometimes I call or text her and she doesn't answer, which is ODD. I will call her cell, call her house... maybe give her a few minutes (maybe she is in the shower? maybe in the bathroom and didn't take phone lol ) I will give her some time, but after about 30 minutes or so, yep, I would go over to make sure everything was okay. My timeline would be very similar.

We don't know if something like this has happened before, where she doesn't answer right away but does after 10-15 minutes or so.

There also seems to be some question about someone calling the family. Do we have confirmation of this? It was not in the timeline from LE yesterday.

I haven't seen any confirmation about a call from church to family but very well may have missed it.

I'd like to know where the original timeline of family not calling 911 for an hour came from and what evidence became available that changed it to minutes after family arriving at NG's home they called 911.

 

[Moonchime]

The closer it gets to the Monday deadline the more stressful this must get for SG. She is most likely the only one who could afford the ransom so it puts all the weight on her shoulders. She may need to make the choice whether to send millions in crypto into a black hole essentially (not knowing if she has any chance of getting her mother back) or not sending it and living with the possibility (however slim) her mother was killed because of it. She may send the money even with zero confirmation of life. The kidnappers could be counting on this.

You’re absolutely right. SG likely wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she chose not to pay the ransom. If, however, NG is found deceased and law enforcement determines she died shortly after being taken from her home, SG might eventually be able to release some of the guilt she could be carrying. This situation is truly heartbreaking from every angle.