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

[HerNameWasBuffy]

My maybe silly idea (I posted this before) was that a bug like a black widow spider was there, so he needed something to brush it away.

I think that's very plausible.

 

[Der Detektiv]

If the backpack is truly from Walmart, that would be something. How many times have we seen footage of criminals buying their gear at Walmart?

It’s clever though that, as it’s cheap, hundreds of thousands in the US must buy that backpack every week. It’s going to be difficult to trace down one buyer.

 

[GussiedCanoodler]

It’s clever though that, as it’s cheap, hundreds of thousands in the US must buy that backpack every week. It’s going to be difficult to trace down one buyer.

Definitely agree with this. Let’s hope that the buyer bought it from the nearby Walmart and it was purchased recently as well. Otherwise I don’t see how they’d be able to track it down.

 

[KH05]

I hope they’ve investigated the man that has seemingly showed up to the scene twice (correct me if I’m mistake ). He said he lives 15 minutes or miles away. Really wanted to direct blame to the SIL. I think he was in both the sisters neighborhood and Mrs. Guthrie’s neighborhood.

 

[whatzthebuzz]

Family history question:

~snip~

Were either of them married before or does either of them have now adult children from a previous marriage/relationship?

I'm curious about this, regarding all of the siblings, but I would hope LE is looking into All the various extended family / former relationship possibilities.

 

[easternbayou]

I am beginning to think this was never a kidnapping. The person on camera was hired to clean up the crime scene and perhaps dispose of the body, and Nancy was murdered before his arrival. I won’t speculate on the murderer, though. I think we all have our thoughts, and that is enough. Still doesn’t explain the Apple Watch sync, if it happened earlier in the night, though. The kidnapping theory has just gotten weird and is going in too many insane directions.

 

[Lebowski]

That's how it looks to me, too. I am baffled by his approach to the camera. The plant, the lack of having some duct tape, but mostly when he covered it he used the side of his hand.

I've tried it myself, as if I was going to cover the camera and it's a very unnatural movement. You naturally want to use the palm of your hand. The way he did that was so awkward. I'm sure it means nothing but it's just bugging me as I can't even come up with a theory why he wouldn't cover palm first.

me too. all this 100%

the least bad theory I can come up with is that he was worried the camera would somehow see his fingerprints through the gloves.

 

[Der Detektiv]

The person on camera was hired to clean up the crime scene

Well he didn’t do a good job did he!

 

[SaraSmile]

They don't send a SWAT team or get a warrant to search a house because of a tip of the person apprehended last night looking similar to this person. IMO LE had to have had other convincing concerns and information about this person (e.g. their movements, their vehicles, their cell phone activity, pings by NG's house while delivering packages, relative saying they were acting suspicious, etc) for a judge to okay the warrant and for the SWAT team to be deployed. JMHO

I thought he actually did work as a delivery person in Tucson. He had delivered to NG, or her neighbor before. Perhaps his phone, vehicle, lined up as clues, so they surveilled him.
After the video came out, they thought he looked similar. Judge gave a warrant.

I think the amount of coverage has LE, media, even judges jumping on anything that could help to solve the crime.
JMO

 

[KH05]

Also, where is the footage of Nancy arriving to her home from earlier in the evening???

 

[lincolnlogs415]

This is why I'm also skeptical of the ransom angle... $6m in crypto from one wallet is going to be difficult to launder around without attracting attention to it. There's next to no chance you get that liquid without setting off all sorts of flags quickly. It's almost like an afterthought that seems superficially plausible, but is fraught with issues when you dive into how this would actually be accomplished.

JMO

Well, if I may put on my bad guy hat for a second. I'd still rather have $6m sitting in a crypto wallet than not. Laundering it slowly over the course of your life is doable and won't raise any flags if you are okay with doing it in small chunks. You won't be living in a mansion or driving a lambo next week, but you won't ever need to work again.

 

[HerNameWasBuffy]

I thought he actually did work as a delivery person in Tucson. He had delivered to NG, or her neighbor before. Perhaps his phone, vehicle, lined up as clues, so they surveilled him.
After the video came out, they thought he looked similar. Judge gave a warrant.

I think the amount of coverage has LE, media, even judges jumping on anything that could help to solve the crime.
JMO

His MIL said he worked for a Fed-Ex type place and someone upthread someone mentioned the actual company.

 

[vlbay]

Also, where is the footage of Nancy arriving to her home from earlier in the evening???

even if it exists, they are only releasing footage that they think will be useful in finding the person(s) who did this. No one needs to see the victim.

 

[HerNameWasBuffy]

Also, where is the footage of Nancy arriving to her home from earlier in the evening???

LE said the original timeline is she went in through the garage when her SIL dropped her off. They have not mentioned footage of that area so many pundits speculate it's not in the line of the camera.

 

[tricia]

Lauren Matthais from Hidden True Crime is my guest tonight.
We go live at 10:30 PM Eastern

 

[Friday Fan]

If the backpack is truly from Walmart, that would be something. How many times have we seen footage of criminals buying their gear at Walmart?

I buy their stuff. I recently bought a cross body water bottle holder for about the same price.

The backpack looks good enough for casual use, which is quite a few people. (Beach goers, hikers etc) Probably not durable enough for serious backwoods campers.

He may have purchased the backpack just for this specific purpose.

 

[janell44]

Also, where is the footage of Nancy arriving to her home from earlier in the evening???

I’ve been wondering that same thing for a while.

 

[HoveringWombats]

Well, if I may put on my bad guy hat for a second. I'd still rather have $6m sitting in a crypto wallet than not. Laundering it slowly over the course of your life is doable and won't raise any flags if you are okay with doing it in small chunks. You won't be living in a mansion or driving a lambo next week, but you won't ever need to work again.

Also, IMO, even if the perp doesn't have a good plan for cashing it out, I don't think this definitively means it's not real. I am sure there have been criminals who have used bitcoin without a complete understanding of how to launder it. Being bad at cryptocurrency does not immediately imply hoax to me, IMHO.

 

[m00c0w]

That's how it looks to me, too. I am baffled by his approach to the camera. The plant, the lack of having some duct tape, but mostly when he covered it he used the side of his hand.

I've tried it myself, as if I was going to cover the camera and it's a very unnatural movement. You naturally want to use the palm of your hand. The way he did that was so awkward. I'm sure it means nothing but it's just bugging me as I can't even come up with a theory why he wouldn't cover palm first.

Bear with me on this…

I am in a habit now of not using the actual “pads” of my fingers to touch communal buttons because of germs and behaviors learned during COVID times. Instead, I’ll use a knuckle to hit an elevator button or whatever it is.

The way this looks to me is like the person is absentmindedly going to hit the doorbell with the side of their hand like they maybe are accustomed to doing and then the lightbulb clicked that the doorbell is also a camera recording what he’s doing… and he basically short-circuited for a minute while trying to walk through the next steps. And lantana is what they came up with…

JMO

 

[KH05]

LE said the original timeline is she went in through the garage when her SIL dropped her off. The garage entry is out of the camera line.

Seems very convenient.