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

[BigCityAccountant]

There is no way a family member say in passenger seat helped this frail 84 year old woman who requires a cane to walk in just 120 seconds to unbuckle seat belt, grab her belongings in the car, help walk to garage door leading into home, say good bye to love one, then bolt back to car in order to shut garage door 120 seconds after opening. Does not add up

Unless the SIL had something very important to do. Let's say maybe a mistress on the side he wanted to call? Could be possibly SIL and mistress? IDK--just throwing out theories.

 

[Ladyotm]

Just adding this screengrab from my TV for whatever it’s worth. This shows how close neighbors were, and a general overview of the immediate area around NG’s house and property. I’ve seen many comments elsewhere (not Websleuths) that assume the home is secluded and out in the desert. Local Websleuths have commented that it’s actually quite close to “civilization”. The house seems to enjoy some privacy, but it’s not in the middle of nowhere!

Thanks for this. Very helpful to see a realistic view of the area surrounding her home. I'm hopeful answers come soon.

 

[dotr]

Has anyone got a link to that Today segment?

For now.. rbbm. snippets.

FBI profiler gives insight into man who 'abducted' Nancy Guthrie from own home

More than 72 hours after the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, a former FBI special agent, has revealed what she believes is the profile of the 84-year-old's potential abductor

www.irishstar.com

''Speaking to the Daily Mail, Dr Bryanna Fox, a former FBI special agent in the agency's Behavioral Science Unit and criminology professor at the University of South Florida, stated that Guthrie most likely doesn't know her kidnapper.

"If it were a family member or somebody who knows the house, they wouldn't have forced entry," Dr Fox explained. "If she knew them, they would have been likely to have carried out a ruse to get her to go with them and get into the vehicle."

"This was not just a random selection of the victim. This was probably a person or a group of people that selected her, probably cased her pattern of life, what time she goes to sleep, knew that she didn't have security, knew that she lived alone and would be sleeping alone," Dr Fox claimed.''

<Modsnip: Chris McDonough is not an approved source at Websleuths>

''Profiling the abductor, Dr Fox believes this is not their first attempt, and thinks they are "a male between the ages of 30 and 45, who has a criminal record, is sophisticated enough to know what law enforcement is going to be looking for, and has committed a series of escalating types of crimes."

 

[thefragile7393]

I've always had mixed feelings about AB, but would hopefully think she wouldn't say anything that could expose her legally

one would think she wouldn't say anything that could expose an investigation or throw someone potentially not guilty under the bus yet that's possibly IMO where we are

 

[turaj]

i have heard nothing about other family in the area. I assume Nancy might have siblings that might still be alive ...other extended family?

 

[swanniee11]

FYI- appears to be unrelated Search efforts ongoing for missing Marana man
James Kelly hiker 61yr went missing recently, although I don't see any connection I just wanted to bring awareness to this since Pima county police are assisting in this as well that we don't confuse info/pictures etc. IMO

 

[birdbox]

Do we know of any cases where someone was returned alive after a ransom was paid? Im struggling to think of any.

I cannot think of any. The last time I recall a high-profile case thst even mentioned the word ransom was JonBennet. The last time I recall hearing of a kidnapper and a purported "white van" in the area was Laci Peterson. And we know how those turned out. Not many of these "weird" cases have happy endings.

 

[Cassie P]

I am 25, and it’s one of my favorite movies. I watch it every Halloween. But I’m also weird so… lol

Thank you, this is important information. So a young person might be well aware of this movie. And it might be a cult classic, watched over and over again.

So that leaves us with a wide range of possible ages.

 

[SaraSmile]

Well I missed so much overnight there is no way I can catch up on posts. The towing of NG’s car is interesting. Could someone have snuck into the garage when it was opened and tried to steal it but couldn’t and then entered the house for the keys and things went terribly wrong? Or could someone have just waited in the garage after sneaking in and LE now knows or suspects this so they are processing the garage and car more closely for evidence? Did the ransom email contain information about the garage or car showing they had been inside the garage? Did NG have service recently done on the car and the perps had access to her keys including the house? Just some thoughts.

Yes, Nancy’s car is interesting, and they may have just found out about front end damage on Nancy’s car, maybe when preps took her to desert to kill, bury her( sorry), driving, no lights on, full moon, hit rocks. They returned car, not sure how they got into garage without an alert, maybe opened door manually?

 

[missy1974]

You know SG personally? I'm just reading here but interested in your perspective. You could get yourself verified as an WS verified insider perhaps. Especially if knowing about a white van being ( what ...collected by LE?) is related to that. It is fact and approved source based on WS, so wondering what your source is for that info.

Verified already.

 

[SaraSmile]

You know SG personally? I'm just reading here but interested in your perspective. You could get yourself verified as an WS verified insider perhaps. Especially if knowing about a white van being ( what ...collected by LE?) is related to that. It is fact and approved source based on WS, so wondering what your source is for that info.

Did they find the white van, tow it? I hadn’t heard, could be behind. I know they towed Nancy’s car yesterday.

 

[bestill]

It seems things are headed ion another direction so the ransom may just be a distraction not even related

But, let's assume there really are no suspects and all they have is this ransom note. If I were a position financially to pay the 7m without affecting my kids education etc - I believe that - Yes I would pay it.

I dont know SG's financial situation but 7m imo is like a house in the Hamptons. So if paying the 7m gives me peace of mind that I did everything possible - I'd do it.
JMO

Waldo, how do we know it's 7m? I haven't heard an exact number just several million. Thanks!

 

[birdbox]

Who is "FM"?

Family member

 

[turaj]

Unless the SIL had something very important to do. Let's say maybe a mistress on the side he wanted to call? Could be possibly SIL and mistress? IDK--just throwing out theories.

okay this is a wild theory.

 

[vereb]

I assume the poster meant that a mention of the white van was 'collected' by the case as spotting such a vehicle tends to turn up in so many crime stories. Not that the police collected the specific white van spotted by the neighbour.

 

[priyaya]

"If it were a family member or somebody who knows the house, they wouldn't have forced entry," Dr Fox explained. "If she knew them, they e."

we dont know if it was forced entry. this was initially reported but they've stopped commenting on in and now arent confirming it.

 

[SaraSmile]

Hope your plane took off and you are not stranded!

Yes it is odd.

Why go to a 35 year old movie to make a point about humanizing NG?
When in fact it didn't actually humanize her at all. A reference to a fictional character in an old movie is distancing NG's humanity in my opinion. Why not talk about NG's role as a grandmother, mother, widow, church goer, volunteer or other info about her life.

But of course the best way to humanize someone is to talk to them directly. A kidnap victim is just an object, a money making tool. Turn them into a real person by talking to them directly. So the advice to the kidnapper to go talk to NG is good. And assumes NG can make the case herself.

But still begs the question why use an old movie to do this? Why not just tell the kidnapper to talk to NG, get to know her, etc.

Why introduce the idea of a serial killer to a kidnapper holding your mother? This goes against psychological crisis management. If you have an aggressive person threatening to harm others, you don't start talking about other killers who are famous and made a name for themselves by killing people.

Yes perhaps the kidnapper instructed SG to say this as a coded message. Perhaps it verifies that SG read the ransom note they sent. Or indicates that SG is agreeing to certain terms without publicly disclosing the specifics.

Or perhaps there was something about the crime scene and note that made the FBI profilers think it was a good idea to go in this direction. A criminal leaves their personality fingerprint on the crime scene. The crime is not a personality aberration but a reflection of their daily personality. It is a picture of who they are.

So perhaps there was something in the RN and crime scene that caught the profiler's eye.

IDK. Again just speculating of course.

I assume the poster meant that a mention of the white van was 'collected' by the case as spotting such a vehicle tends to turn up in so many crime stories. Not that the police collected the specific white van spotted by the neighbour.

Thanks

 

[thefragile7393]

You know SG personally? I'm just reading here but interested in your perspective. You could get yourself verified as an WS verified insider perhaps. Especially if knowing about a white van being ( what ...collected by LE?) is related to that. It is fact and approved source based on WS, so wondering what your source is for that info.

She is verified if you look at her picture. She's also a well known crime reporter with her own show True Crime with Aphrodite Jones

 

[thefragile7393]

<modsnip: Quoted post was removed>

the thing is, Aphrodite may not be able to reveal her sources if you know who she is. Verified does not necessarily mean that we don't provide sources but certain things can be taken with a little more gospel because of the verification.

 

[Sadi]

we dont know if it was forced entry. this was initially reported but they've stopped commenting on in and now arent confirming it.

True and it could be staged for appearances only.