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

[DS2021]

Dbm

 

[txsleuth70]

Do you think he was the brawn? I think if he was physically present in AZ and involved in this, we'd have seen more evidence of it, even if LE didn't want to release that information yet. And I'm not sure what role "remote brawn" would play, but of course anything is possible. MOO....

Points taken. Guess wasn't meant so literal. Just meant definitely not the mastermind.

 

[InkyEvie]

I've hit delirium perhaps, but this is making me chuckle and I know it shouldn't. I am not sure my eyes will ever recover from the amount of words on a screen I have read the past few days.

ANYWAY - 'Homicide' & 'murder' are not interchangeable words, which is not really common knowledge I guess because I don't think most people commonly ponder these things. A 'homicide' can take place and it not be a murder. Homicide means a person killed a person. But that can range from something like "involuntary manslaughter" to capital murder. Murder involves intent - whether express or implied (absolutely on purpose or acting in a way that one could reasonably deduce someone would die). The one other "that's murder" situation is a homicide that occurs in the middle of committing some other dangerous felony, like perhaps a kidnapping or SA or armed robbery, etc.

But no, you can't just "whoopsie" murder someone.

I'm sorry, but "whoopsie murder" just sent me choking.
...IMO..

 

[ZZZZZZZZZZ]

The blood spatters in the front have bothered me a lot. There is no "movement" to them. They don't seem to come from the door or entryway, or proceed down the path. They seem static. I cannot envision a scenario of a bleeding human that would create such a pattern.

Possibly the blood was placed there after the fact to make it look like NG had been attacked and then abducted from the house.

 

[emigrate]

ARRESTED FAKE RANSOM GUY WAS NOT IN A BAND WITH THE SIL.

THANK YOU SO MUCH, the similar name confused me, so was the person a few pages back correct that he was in a different band known to SIL?

 

[CandyKiss]

DBM

 

[Sakura2Sophia4Lucia]

It could be a close church friend of NG’s that noticed. A lot of folks that age pay close attention to who’s missing from regular, weekly commitments. I remember years ago my grandmother would always mention when so and so missed church or Sunday school. And would usually call to check on them. They also had a system of checking in on homebound members. Obviously now you have zoom or live stream technology, but they may still have ways to keep members connected to the church aside from this. Not sure if that’s the case here, but could be.

Since LE took this notification from a church member off their timeline, I believe LE determined this didn't happen. MO

 

[mikeshanty]

We have to be so careful on here. What might be a simple misunderstanding can really escalate into wild, unfounded accusations against innocent people!

 

[LetsSolvIt]

It's a video. Haven't watched it yet myself.
Here it is:

Thank you so much for posting this!

 

[DS2021]

Derrick Callella has absolutely no established ties to anyone in the family.

 

[Vegasgrl]

This thread was closed earlier after warnings to attach source and use initials when referring to people. If you just popped in I'm just letting you know what happened earlier

 

[SRWCF]

Well, I don’t know if she went in-person or not, but I imagine if she regularly did participate in the live-streaming chat thing, she would log in and say hello to her friends there. Especially if she was a long-time member, which I thought she was.
Just my opinion

If an 84 year old woman wants to interact with church friends, she will go to the service in person and talk to them. She is not 14 years old where the norm would be to "meet up" with your buddies online.

 

[stmichael]

It may be unrelated - but there are enough data points that they might be connected in some way. (e.g. texting both AG and TC but not SG and the verbiage of the text was not a ransom - the exact verbiage is in the court records. This individual is also in a band in the same genre of TC) So now the detectives are trying to put the pieces together - and the "fake ransom hoax" part is just a way of detectives not trying to show their cards - but it's part of the puzzle they are putting together. Again - all speculation at this point.

I have to admit that once I saw the exact quote of what he supposedly texted I was a bit surprised.

The phrase really reads as if he was asking and complicit rather than some wannabe hoaxer "testing the waters" An interesting facet to this, that potentially piles onto the AG/TC angle.

 

[truecrimel]

I don’t find the church caller odd if it’s true IMO. NG has lived in the area for decades and has likely attended the same church for many years. She would have friends who attend who may also have become family friends over the years (how they’d be able to call AG). Also, it was JUST Nancy’s birthday days prior to her going missing, this would’ve been the first church service since her birthday. Maybe a couple people brought gifts or were looking forward to wishing her a happy birthday, but then were surprised when she didn’t show up and wasn’t reachable.

 

[txsleuth70]

Here's your clarification:

"Callella is not linked to the Bitcoin ransom demand, according to the complaint."

SoCal man accused of sending hoax ransom letter to Guthrie family appears in court

The Hawthorne man is charged with transmitting a demand for ransom, among other charges. The judge ordered him released on a $20,000 bond.

abc7.com

And that's dated 2/7, right? Right

 

[ZZZZZZZZZZ]

Newsweek analysis of public records and reports linked Callella, 42, of Torrance, California, to a recent case in Los Angeles County involving 13 county employees, who were accused of stealing over $430,000 in unemployment benefits.

Callella allegedly stole $9,984 in unemployment benefits between May 6, 2020, and January 20, 2022, the Los Angeles County District Attorney said in a press release on October 15, 2025.Who is Derrick Callella? Suspect allegedly threatened Nancy Guthrie family

 

[sdmike1974]

If NG’s pacemaker app data shows it disconnected from her phone (found in her residence) at 2:28 a.m., presumably LE has checked for video camera footage of vehicles in a 5 mile radius at that odd hour of the night?

Anyone know?

 

[yurintroubl]

Interestingly enough, they aren't putting billboards up in Phoenix. Tucson news has covered NG extensively so people know her face in Tucson and perhaps that's the case in Phoenix, too.

Those billboards are digital and are probably too bright to use in Tucson.

 

[HoveringWombats]

e.g. texting both AG and TC but not SG

IMO, this is not suspicious. SG is a public figure whose cell phone number is likely harder to get than ordinary citizens AG and TC. I have not personally tried to track down any of their numbers, but it's usually not hard to find a normal person's phone number in various online databases. High profile people often do a better job of keeping their info out of those things (though not always).

 

[missy1974]

Since LE took this notification from a church member off their timeline, I believe LE determined this didn't happen. MO

The criminal complaint filed against fake ransom hoaxer was filed the same day as the press conference. I have highlighted it above. I REALLY REALLY REALLY hope this puts the whole church thing to rest for now. It happened and it said 'had not attended church that morning'. Seems pretty clear to me.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-az/media/1426976/dl?inline