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

[Love Never Fails]

This gave me the chills, because I think this is spot on.

We have a neighbor who is in his mid 60's. Lived here all his life and lives with his elderly mom (she is mid 80's) in the house he grew up in. He's a bit rough around the edges, to put it mildly, but pretty much harmless (I think). He's one of these "self employed handymen" who do jobs here and there for locals. He often tells us (unsolicited) about plumbing jobs he had to go back to because the sink he installed "leaked little bit and now she's all upset." You get the picture.

He's one of those people who talk loud and offer a consistent stream of unsolicited advice and love an audience more than anything else. We have all likely met the type.

Here's the tie in to what you wrote. Every now and then he is asked to help out as part of a larger work crew as a laborer for a local legitimate contractor on a high end job. Every time this happens he (again, unsolicited) tells everyone who will listen about every minute detail of the house. Whose it was. What he saw inside. How fancy the place was. All of it.

I will hear the same (long) story 5-6 times between him showing up in our yard to tell us about it, him on the phone walking around his yard yelling into the speakerphone to tell whoever he's talking to all about it, and then him telling the story to a bunch of buddies while they all get hammered in the garage (again, he has one volume: full). I can only assume he tells it other times too.

Here's a guy who just wants to feel important and wants to share that he got to meet and work on ______'s home. In his mind, he's trying to impress you. He means no harm (probably). But he associates with some people who give me the creeps just meeting them for 2 minutes. What wheels start to spin in their heads? Who knows.

OR they tell people they know, to impress them that their buddy worked on ________'s house.

I can absolutely see this type of scenario unfolding here.

Me too.

 

[Love Never Fails]

I’m hoping FBI got a good tip due to the reward. Or maybe the perp giving them info so he can get a ransom.

 

[Love Never Fails]

Sometimes where 'hostage' situations occur, the individual takes the 'hostage' to a motel / hotel. I wonder if law enforcement has 'canvassed' local motels / hotels.

Maybe they got a tip and Nancy is being held at one. That would be an awesome dream come true if she is ok!

 

[moonglow123]

Yeah, let’s pray the million dollar reward finally got someone to talk.

 

[MassGuy]

https://twitter.com/x/status/2026716941919072748

 

[K9Enzo]

I wonder if these are prosecutors getting a look at the scene in preparation for charges.

Hi @PrairieWind nice to see you here. It would be interesting to look at state / county prosecutor professional website photos to see if any are recognized. IMO

 

[SMK777]

Sure… but it’s been three weeks. It would be unmistakable, at this point, that something was dead in there.

Unless it was one of those burying inside basement cement walls type of thing, in which case the body can go undiscovered for years---but there wasn't time or the means for that, presumably.

 

[Sakura2Sophia4Lucia]

I've called in tips before and wouldn't hesitate to do it again but It's the "up to one million dollars" that may give pause to one with credible info and wants the reward. JMO

Is SG's offer of 1 million dollars to bring her mother home completely separate from an arrest and conviction of suspect? Her mother is returned, they are eligible for the reward money? MOO

 

[Hans Olo]

Unless it was one of those burying inside basement cement walls type of thing, in which case the body can go undiscovered for years---but there wasn't time or the means for that, presumably.

I wasn’t implying it was impossible, in general… just not in this case, at this point.

 

[fridaybaker]

I wasn’t implying it was impossible, in general… just not in this case, at this point.

Yes. Hard to reconcile that with the blood on the porch. However, perhaps there is a new idea about possible DNA evidence underneath flooring or something?

 

[aamillaa]

Is SG's offer of 1 million dollars to bring her mother home completely separate from an arrest and conviction of suspect? Her mother is returned, they are eligible for the reward money? MOO

SG’s videos have always seemed very purposefully timed to me, like they seem to come right before or after significant news.

I’m curious if LE was almost there and hoped her video would get them the last puzzle piece. MOO

 

[Cassie P]

It almost seems like they are doing a full walk through of the scene rather than investigating one particular thing

I wonder if a new team has arrived? Usually they want to see everything first hand.

 

[naomiuk]

To be fair, there have been cases where a person was deceased inside their home and not found during initial searches. Dennis Day comes to mind, for one example. MOO

Tia Sharp for another

 

[Napoli]

She is not in the house. Do you seriously think no one has checked?

Just FYI In the Annie Le case in Connecticut, they had a lot of info, who swiped in and out with badges etc. They brought in the dogs..zilch for several days. FINALLY she was found behind a wall or in a closet, I forget.) the dogs were useless for days and no one found her for days. Now, after 4 weeks for NG, the stench would be overwhelming and she would have been found long ago UNLESS, no one has been inside for awhile. 6 FBI cars or whatever arriving there today is not about securing the house. The house as a crime scene was released long ago. They may have gotten a tip. Look under the red vase for a clue.. for example. jmo

 

[flakesofsnow]

dbm

A neighbor of Nancy Guthrie's says she saw a man who "didn't fit" in the community walking near the missing woman's home in January, a few weeks before Guthrie's suspected abduction.

"He didn’t have your typical walking gear on, and he had his hat pulled really far over his eyes," said the neighbor, who told Fox News Digital she’s lived in the Catalina Foothills for nearly 30 years.

Another longtime resident of the Catalina Foothills area said investigators came to her house a total of five times. In particular, they asked for home security video from Jan. 11. @palombomedia

https://twitter.com/x/status/2026650670967959989

How far will someone walk on multiple occasions to do this crime. Perhaps he has an electric scooter that he hides in the bushes and then walks. I thought simone mentioned strange tracks on the driveway.

 

[Katrinepa]

Me too.

Sounds to me, having worked with Special Education students, that he may have some 'issues', but at least he sounds productive. Probably why he still lives with mom, as she may be their main financial support. The world is full of all kinds of people.

 

[Sakura2Sophia4Lucia]

SG’s videos have always seemed very purposefully timed to me, like they seem to come right before or after significant news.

I’m curious if LE was almost there and hoped her video would get them the last puzzle piece. MOO

Sure hope that's the case.

 

[SMK777]

I wasn’t implying it was impossible, in general… just not in this case, at this point.

Understood.

 

[Old Jim]

The use of the Lantana does make me wonder if in an attempt to not be seen on the Nest camera he didn’t plan on using the front door at all as he carried out the abduction. I wonder this because as shown by the photo taken at some point prior to the crime, he was aware of the camera’s existence and location. However, instead of coming prepared beforehand with a piece of cloth, rag or even paper to cover it as he takes it off he has to rely on the lantana. Considering the crime that is taking place that seems like a huge risk or misstep not to be ready and well-prepared for, especially since the lantana didn’t even seem to work or having to hold just added to the struggle of removing it from the mount. Is it possible that the perhaps the perp planned to use the side or back doors and driveway that night instead to avoid the Nest camera but NG got hurt and was no longer able to walk that distance anymore? Did something go wrong or something occurred that was urgent enough that perhaps instead of walking to the getaway car they needed the car to pull up to the house as they were now forced to exit the front and had to get rid of the Nest camera?

It also noticed that towards the end of the video some type of flashlight or portable lamps or something suddenly appears over the perp’s left shoulder while he still trying to remove the camera? It seems to be coming from the direction of the door and moves up and down once or twice before the video stops. Since the perp is not the one manipulating the object is this, IMO, could further indicate or imply that more than one perpetrator was both involved and at NG’s home that night. If the object or tool is coming from the direction of the door, could this also indicate they are holding it through the screen door and that the perps had already entered NG’s home by the time they are seen on camera?

Just my own thoughts or speculation

Your observations add to my comment number 36185 on page 1810, shown below with some additions shown in italics.

The odd behavior of the front porch intruder can be explained by assuming that a change had to be made to the kidnapper’s original plan to exit the house by the same path used to enter the house; namely, by the back door. The following paragraphs explain this further.

The first figure shows the first frame of video from the front door camera that shows the intruder approaching the front porch. Notice that the intruder is stepping onto the front walk from a position to the left, and not from the right or from straight ahead. Therefore, it is unlikely that he came up the front walk steps where the hand rail is located. So, where could he be coming from? The answer can be found by looking at the second figure, which shows an aerial view of the front of the house. This view shows the intruder’s position with a red rectangle. It is immediately in front of a white circular stepping stone that can be seen in both the door camera video and the aerial view of the house. Now, this position is approached most easily by a clear path to the corner of the house as shown by the red dots in the aerial view. It is unlikely that the intruder entered this path from any point short of the corner of the house because he would have had to climb over a two-foot high pile of rocks to reach the path as shown in the third figure – something not impossible, but a hassle that one would have preferred to avoid especially at night. Therefore, it appears that the intruder came to the front door from a point beyond the corner of the house. This point was most likely the point of entry into the house, which we are told by authorities was the door to the back porch because they found this door wide open when they arrived after the kidnapping. If this is the case, then most likely the intruder came from inside the house before he approached the front door.

Now, let’s assume that that the original plan was to for the kidnapper(s) to exit the house by walking out the back door with their victim walking beside them to their vehicle located somewhere down the street. This would have been their safest option to avoid other cameras. And parking the vehicle on the street would have made it easier for a fast getaway than parking in the driveway, where they could have been blocked in. Unfortunately, while they were inside the house it became apparent to them that it was impossible for Nancy to walk to the vehicle where it was, either because Nancy told them she couldn’t walk that far or because they could see for themselves that she couldn’t walk that far (they could have spotted the walker she used inside the house). Therefore, they were forced to make a change in their exit plan and to bring the vehicle closer to the house so Nancy wouldn’t have to walk as far. The front door was decided to be the best option for doing this.

Therefore, while one of the kidnappers remained with Nancy to ensure that she didn’t call the police, the other kidnapper exited out the back door to get the vehicle. While on his way to get the vehicle, he remembered that there was a front door camera that could see the vehicle approach the front of the house, watch them enter the vehicle, and make their getaway. He knew this camera existed because of his reconnaissance of the house a few weeks earlier, when he was spotted unknowingly by the front door camera. Therefore, he had to either cover up the camera or remove it entirely before bringing the vehicle to the house. So, he went directly from the back porch to the front porch to disable the camera.

One can see on the camera video that he knew the camera existed because he held his head down while approaching the camera from the side. When he was unable to remove camera easily, he decided to temporarily cover it up with something so that it could not see the vehicle, assuming he could find a tool later in the vehicle or in the house that would help him remove the camera while they were exiting through the front door. So, he decided to use some nearby vegetation to disable the camera. While covering it with vegetation appears to most people to be a sign of gross incompetence, it actually served his purpose quite well because the camera was unable to see him later bring the vehicle to the front steps, get out, and approach the camera once more to remove it, either by approaching it from outside the house or from the inside. Then, after the camera was removed, no one could see them take Nancy down the front walk, put her in the vehicle, and then leave in the vehicle. And we know that they exited this way because of the blood on the front porch that wasn’t there when the intruder approached the camera the first time.

This sequence of actions also explains the camera alert posted at 2:12 AM, which was definitely from one of the cameras on the guest house because the sheriff said the alert may have been caused by an animal. This means the camera was an outside camera and not an inside camera. One of these cameras looks at the driveway and the garage door while the other looks at the rear yard and patio with its door. This is the rear door that was found to be wide open by the police when they first came to the house after the kidnapping. I believe the alert was caused not by an animal, but by the "porch perp" either going from the inside of the house to get the vehicle after blinding the front camera on the way, or from the vehicle in front of the house after he brought it there to the inside of the house via the rear door (probably the latter, because it is closer to when they exited the front door with Nancy). The front camera would have been removed while taking Nancy out the front door.

So this change of exit plan explains the following:

1) The front door video occurs while leaving the house and not while entering the house.
a. The intruder at the front door was inside the house prior to going to the front door and was likely the driver of the vehicle.
b. This explains the full backpack used by the intruder at the front door. It contains objects taken from inside or outside the house like possibly cameras, and other objects of value, and not just tools for entering the house.
c. It explains why covering the camera with vegetation was an effective action and not a sign of gross incompetence.

2) The intruder on the video at the front door likely had an accomplice.
a. Someone had to guarantee that Nancy would not call the police while the intruder was at the front door.
b. Someone had to guarantee that Nancy would not call the police while someone else disabled cameras and flood lights before exiting the house, which could have caused sounds that Nancy might have heard. (Nancy was hard of hearing and used hearing aids, but the kidnappers likely did not know this ahead of time).
c. The intruder appears to not have full use of his right hand, right elbow, and right leg, making it difficult for him to climb to the roof to remove cameras.
d. If the intruder did not have an accomplice, then he had to ensure that Nancy could not call the police while he was absent by tying her up with tape or cord. But it still would have been risky to leave her alone.

3) It explains the camera alert at 2:12 AM as being caused by the “porch perp” either going from the inside of the house to get the vehicle after blinding the front camera on the way, or from the vehicle in front of the house after he brought it there to the inside of the house via the rear door (probably the latter).

4) Change of exit plan does not depend upon how Nancy entered her house prior to her kidnapping.

5) Change of exit plan does not depend upon how the kidnappers entered the house.
a. Either Nancy left the back door unlocked, or
b. Someone else had left the back door unlocked, or
c. The kidnappers picked the lock on the back door. (There was no forced entry).
d. The kidnappers could have entered the house via a sliding door to the bedroom. In this case they would have still planned to exit via the back door because exiting via the sliding door would have required the victim to climb over a low brick wall. The rear porch did not have a sliding door.

6) The camera removed by the FBI from the roof of the guest house would have seen all entry and exit movements by any intruders via the back door. This camera was overlooked by the kidnappers because it was not on the roof of the main house. At this time only the FBI knows how much of this video data was stored within this camera, stored onsite in the house, or transmitted to the cloud. Perhaps some data was stored. Perhaps none was stored.

It is not known if the kidnappers took anything from the house. They did not take Nancy’s wallet, Apple watch or iPhone. The latter two items can read Nancy’s pacemaker using Bluetooth communications. One source said that they smashed all the security cameras inside the house, which suggests they knew ahead of time where they were or else forced Nancy to tell them where they were. They also removed all the security cameras outside the house except for the two wired security cameras on the guest house they may have overlooked (which required at least a screwdriver). These cameras were probably carried in the backpack seen on the intruder at the front door. No ladder was found outside the house, so access to the roof had to be gained some other way.. They also smashed two flood lights, one at the side of the rear garage people door and one at the corner of the patio away from the door to the house. (Interestingly, no one mentioned seeing any glass on the ground under the smashed flood lights). There was no sign of forced entry anywhere. So how did they know that the back door would be unlocked, or what was their alternative method of entry if the back door was locked? It had to be very quiet in case Nancy heard them and called the police.

 

[LadyL]

That's assuming NG was targeted for ransom and not some other reason

yes that is what I believe