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

[KellySleuth]

The thing is, if you have something to gain from her passing, then you have nothing to gain from the lack of a body. If she is officially registered as a missing person then you'd need a legal process to get her declared as having passed. I agree that it could be number 1 if the motive is revenge/rage as a result of a financial disagreement.

That is a very good point.

 

[slowpoke]

Wait. First people were saying the 2 minutes between garage door opening and closing was too long to just get Nancy in the house, and now it wasn’t long enough? I give up.

Has anyone seen any recent video of NG walking, so we would know her degree of low mobility? Maybe that can help us decide if 2-ish minutes is reasonable.

 

[ttjo]

DBm confirming the convenience store. L/e was at or if only the circle K was reported.

 

[SMK777]

Why Elizabeth Smart’s Father Believes Savannah Guthrie’s Family Spoke Directly to Kidnappers

https://people.com/elizabeth-smart-father-on-nancy-guthrie-11901258

 

[katydid23]

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."

They could have staged the scene and faked a forced entry at some point, to throw people off. Not doing so would make it obvious it was a friend or family member, imo.

 

[Starkville]

You know, now that I think about it, this bothers me. What if it was days before she was reported missing? What if the one Eagle eyed church goer would jot have reported her missing. Its not uncommon to go several days of not talking to elderly parents and grandparents. Why not release the ransom note immediately. Or maybe they did and we aren't aware??? Is that possible?

Just a side note, but the “eagle eyed churchgoer” and their timely phone call have been left out of the official timeline.

JMO but I think it’s significant that such a significant event is not included.

 

[CSIDreamer]

I’m interested in what time the email was sent. Was it before or after the news of NG missing and her daughter was a well known newscaster, hit the headlines? The timing may well indicate whether the ransom demand is genuine or not.

I think the ransom note was after. This thread was started around 12:30 a.m. Monday. The first ransom note was Monday late afternoon. JMO

 

[HoveringWombats]

Please could you explain to me how the person who sent the ransom note could be hiding their source from FBI?

I keep hearing VPN but I myself have a VPN. Surely it can't be as simple as that?

I'm not the person you're asking, but I do think it's important to understand that there's a whole range of ways to hide your origin on the internet. Even under the umbrella of "VPN" there are a lot of pretty different things that the term encompasses. Long before there was ExpressVPN and all these consumer "privacy" VPNs, VPN was used to securely connect networks together. And today, yeah, if sign up through a reputable VPN service based in a Western country, and use that to commit crimes, it's probably not going to go well for you. Another step down the line is a VPN service based in, say, Russia or India. Maybe not impossible to trace, but it's going to be a bit harder. Now, do multiple hops through multiple sketchy providers. A bit harder still. Next, maybe set up your own VPN, hopping through cloud providers (maybe in compromised accounts). Or route your traffic through compromised PCs on residential networks, or a series of rogue proxy servers.

Imagine this scenario. I park somewhere in the parking lot of a mall. I use a high-gain antenna to connect to an open wifi network that some store or restaurant in the mall is running. I proxy through Russia, India, back to a different Russian proxy, and finally exit through a compromised windows computer in some innocent person's house in Michigan. The only thing I do through that proxy is open news station tips forms (NO access to an email account or anything else), and submit a plain text tip through the form. Yeah, this takes some work to do, but you don't have to be a genius. There's a lot of information out there on these things and it's not that buried. This would be quite difficult and time-consuming to track down. And honestly you probably don't need to make it this convoluted to hide effectively.

While it's 1000% true that many people get caught while doing things that they think are untraceable, it's also true that it isn't that hard to make it pretty difficult or potentially impossible for investigators. I know it's comforting to believe that the feds can trace anyone, it's not true. They can trace a lot more than most people think, and most criminals make enough mistakes to get caught, but it's not rocket science to hide.

MOO - I know I am not verified as an expert and I don't really know exactly what the boundaries of the rules are on this, so let's just say this is my opinion and leave it at that.

 

[tbgo]

The flood lights being destroyed is interesting. I’m guessing they’re asking if anyone close to Nancy knew about that. If it was damaged before she went missing - the person close to her may have also known about that (in the family) beforehand or they caught it via the media although the media, I don’t think, ever picked up on it and reported about it. Would someone actually damage them before they went in and kidnapped her. I doubt anyone went up on the roof at 2am and smashed them. Let’s say the SIL was involved, maybe someone did all this when she was away for a few hours that day. I guess flood lights would help a camera see them. It doesn’t sound like the doorbell detected that someone was at the residence before 2am. Then again, you never know.

They could end up arresting someone and never get to the bottom of who was sending the ransom letters. We may end up with suspicions that the person who did it was also behind them but we never get any hard evidence. I swear if the SIL and daughter are behind this, oh, boy… The media will have a field day looking into these two.

 

[cady]

Wait. First people were saying the 2 minutes between garage door opening and closing was too long to just get Nancy in the house, and now it wasn’t long enough? I give up.

Plenty of time, the door to house from inside the garage was probably only 10 steps max from the passenger door. In safely, car backs out and NG closes garage door. JMO

 

[No_Stone_Unturned]

I wouldn't think LE would have said family brought her home, though, if NG actually drove her car home. Unless someone is not being truthful. Perhaps she drove home herself and the family followed her, making she made it in the garage?

Why would NG enter her home via the garage and not the front door? This has been bothering me. The entire garage situation is bothering g me.

 

[zecats]

I asked the same thing earlier, about ubering there and getting a ride home. Someone else commented that is not 'odd'. I wasn't implying it was, but in this particular situation, you have a woman who was taken from her home while bleeding that same night, it begs for an answer.

Me myself, due to mobility/pain issues, sometimes drives, sometimes takes uber or gets a ride, possibly was the case with NG as well, and perfectly understandable. Maybe if she was going to drink, she wanted to take car out of the equation, or maybe understandably doesn't like to drive in the dark. Or, in the worse case scenario, planned to take an uber, but was instead offered a ride home for nefarious reasons.

IMO it sounds like a matter of convenience for all. Uber picks her up at her door and drops her at daughter’s house. Family member (SIL) drives her home after dark and due to lateness of hour. Maybe a regular occurrence.
My son-in-law often schedules Uber for me when I train travel to North Jersey to visit them. It involves a change of trains and if wait time is too long between trains, he gets me a ride . Plus I am often towing heavy luggage. I have never ordered one myself but have ridden Uber frequently.

 

[Sadi]

door numero uno for me, Monty

Me too, haven’t swayed at all.

 

[waldojabba]

When discussing imminent updates, a reporter asked Trump whether there would be nationwide searches. Trump responded "I'm not talking about a search, I'm talking about a solution". Is this a clue that this may be a genuine ransom situation?

I think his wording was awkward.
He usually just shoots from the hip and says whatever comes to mind or catches his eye.
I think he wanted to let the “cat out of the bag” but was able to exert impulse control.

So I think he meant resolution not solution. Resolution as in an arrest.

JMO but who knows

 

[Donswife48]

Spitballing:

It's tax season.
Financial institutions including banks, brokerage firms, charitable organizations, etc., are sending out end-of-year statements detailing interest income, capital gains, etc.

Many people, seniors included, get help with managing their finances, and some even turn the keys over to trusted individuals...even when people don't volitionally give people access to their financials, sometimes people gain access to credit card numbers, SSNs, etc., and see/withdraw or otherwise steal money without the account owner's knowledge or consent.

Financial exploitation of the elderly is a real thing. The consequences of financial crimes are also real.
I hope LE is doing their due diligence to look at NG's finances and ticking off the boxes to ensure she hasn't been victimized there as well.

JMO.

I worked for a CPA firm for 51 years. We would never give thought to exploiting our clients. People with modest incomes as well as high incomes especially those that have lived in the area for 50 yrs have long established professionals they work with all the time. JMO

 

[Fromeaster]

If she had been kidnapped, there would have been clear instructions and an ultimatum from the kidnapper within 24 hours. I don't believe anyone kidnapped her.

 

[deadlyaloeplant]

Y'all... I think NG is dead. It's true that there's people that have been released from captivity after some time but I have also read that most kidnapping victims are dead within that first 48 hours.
I really don't believe these ransom notes are anything but a smokescreen.
I'm going for the best but thinking the worst.

 

[missy1974]

We either have to take the case at face value, that the kidnapper took her for ransom as they have indicated or the taking her for ransom is a manufactured story to stall, throw off to conceal another related crime. At this point we really have to work it as its being portrayed and go from there. LE will slowly rule in or out each detail. Im holding on to faith that shes ok and a break soon!!

Let's say they did the ransom letter to stall, or delay the search.

They send the 1st one on Monday with clear deadlines and say they will not communicate again. They have not been found as of yesterday. So why send the 2nd one? The 1st is already creating the delay, has deadlines, the 2nd one, we don't know what is in it, but the reporter from the local news said it had no new deadlines in it. I don't know why they would bother with the 2nd one if the 1st one was already accomplishing the distraction.

JMO

 

[Sadi]

Why would NG enter her home via the garage and not the front door? This has been bothering me. The entire garage situation is bothering g me.

Easier due to no steps or if any, maybe one? Overhead garage light would help to see better than outside since it’s so dark. MOO

 

[mikeshanty]

I think his wording was awkward.
He usually just shoots from the hip and says whatever comes to mind or catches his eye.
I think he wanted to let the “cat out of the bag” but was able to exert impulse control.

So I think he meant resolution not solution. Resolution as in an arrest.

JMO but who knows

Ah understood! I'm not in the USA so you have a better sense as to how he speaks.