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

[maskedwoman]

It was connected to her Wi-Fi network. That’s what it disconnected from. It also was connected to Nest servers through the internet, evidently! That’s how they got the footage.

Can you please clarify the items you think A disconnected from X, etc? I'm having trouble following. The data would get to the cloud through the Wi-Fi, right? I think I'm just overthinking what you said. Thanks!

 

[SaraSmile]

This seems one of the few possibilities given the evidence we know, but I think the ransom notes were legitimate. I believe LE does too or they would have outed all of the hoaxers. It could be for cruelty? The ransom notes and SG lead me to think it was kidnapping for ransom that failed. However, I see both these ideas here because I don't think anybody had plans or the ability to exchange NG for the Bitcoin received. In essence, she was killed because as a woman she's an easy target. I think it was total indifference and not a thrill.

JMO

Ok, that idea makes some sense. Sort of like the people who say afterwards, they “ just wanted to see what it was like to kill someone”. Totally, the worst character. Like you said, it’s could be thrill, or indifference, just so bored with life
BK Idaho was a lot like that, no value for human life, his crime was just a thrill to see if he could get away with it, with all his knowledge of forensics.
JMO

 

[FaviousM]

No, car was parked in neighborhood until one perp walkie-talkie instructed car person to bring car. One of the perps brought the car near the front at 2:20 or so. All loaded into car, 2:28 they drive off, NGs pacemaker connection ends. Car seen (maybe if it’s the White kia) 2:36 on camera on Camino real, heading toward River Rd.
JMO

I was looking at it purely form the single perp angle as we don't know for certain there was more than one

 

[SlimPickens]

I look at it a little differently.. Do you think anyone taking NG would not realize how old and frail she is, and would not assume she was on at least some kind of medication like so many frail and elderly are? (Not all, granted, but more than not). Is it logical to assume someone takes an elderly person thinking "They'll be just fine", but then panics when he finds out that at 84, she needs medication and has a pacemaker? I'm not saying it's outside the realm of possibility, but that takes "smart" out of the equation, imo.

I do think that the disclosure that she needed medication and had a pacemaker was partially a bid for proof of life. As in "Look, you took a person who may die soon without medication. Since your deadline is days after she would likely die, how do we know you have a live person?" And almost "Do you even WANT to keep her alive?" It was an attempt to speed things up, imo.

I wanted to also address the "frail and elderly" aspects of a potential kidnap/ransom as well. I think under normal conditions a typical kidnapper isn't going to choose this kind of victim. Else we'd be seeing many rich elderly folks being taken. And that's because while they would be easy to overtake/control they would be very difficult to remove, almost impossible to accommodate in captivity, and a desired outcome would be far too difficult to predict. Say what we will about criminals and criminal minds, but they are pretty good at probabilities and statistics.

I think if she was kidnapped for ransom by a clever one-off opportunist, then she was chosen because of who she is. And most importantly in that scenario - what he could get by having her in his possession.

I'm just not sure that she was kidnapped solely for financial purposes, however. But I do think the ransom demand came from the same suspect(s).

JMO.

 

[joe jones]

Okay, fair enough. Could be.
But didn't LE say she was targeted?

I'm not sure if LE did say that, I think they went from kidnapped to abducted when they saw no kidnapper with proof of life coming forward to get a ransom, I am just going on my theory of it being a random creeper as to me that is logical, I can't wrap my head around the idea that you choose to kidnap a news anchors mother, that is just such a random person to choose if you are going to all the trouble to kidnap somebody,

 

[SUNchips]

I think it's safe to say the community here is on alert.

Definitely. I live nearby and I’m gonna be honest, we did not lock our doors or worry about our safety before this. It was a good wake up call. My friends and neighbors have said similar. We also added a bunch of security measures to our house since Nancy was taken, as I’m sure many others in town have.

 

[warp3dwing]

Can you please clarify the teams you think A disconnected from X, etc? I'm having trouble following. The data would get to the cloud through the Wi-Fi, right? I think I'm just overthinking what you said. Thanks!

The Nest doorbell connects via 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz WiFi to Nancy's router. Also connected to the router is Nancy's phone. The doorbell communicates through the router to the phone, and the Nest App receives the data packets (video, audio, alerts) and displays the info.

While the Nest doorbell info online says the A/V feed goes directly from the doorbell to the phone, it clearly also goes from the doorbell to the router and through the internet to Google's servers. And that's true with or without a subscription, at least to some extent.

When LE mentioned the Nest doorbell disconnecting at 01:47 and a person appearing at 02:12, they hadn't yet recovered any video footage. So, when they said the doorbell disconnected, they probably meant it was unable to communicate with the phone for some reason, likely because of WiFi connection failure or jamming. I don't think they meant that's when the suspect removed the doorbell from the porch because at that time, LE had no way of knowing for sure what time that happened.

LE might've known the disconnect/human seen times even before having the phone forensically examined because the alerts would've been showing on Nancy's screen. When they learned more later (e.g., when the doorbell reconnected), they decided to hold back that info. IMO

 

[Trino]

Definitely. I live nearby and I’m gonna be honest, we did not lock our doors or worry about our safety before this. It was a good wake up call. My friends and neighbors have said similar. We also added a bunch of security measures to our house since Nancy was taken, as I’m sure many others in town have.

Stay safe with hopes the culprit will be found. I'm in this for the long run. Just see this as a cold case, but, at least, bring NG home.

 

[warp3dwing]

Snipped & bolded by me. @warp3dwing Thx for your post.

Reasons? Has Son of Sam joined the convo?





For those who may be unfamiliar w NYC serial killer of six in the mid-1970's, David Berkowitz :
".... indicted for eight shootings. He confessed to all of them, and initially claimed to have been obeying the orders of a demon manifested in the form of a black dog "Sam" which belonged to his neighbor..,.."

David Berkowitz - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

You caught it.

 

[SaraSmile]

Okay, fair enough. Could be.
But didn't LE say she was targeted?

I think she was targeted, seems most likely.
I’m Ok looking at other theories.
Nanos, even lately, still said it was a targeted kidnapping for ransom, his opinion.

JMO

 

[SaraSmile]

I was looking at it purely form the single perp angle as we don't know for certain there was more than one

Ok, I think the car is parked 2-3 houses away, single perp. He goes in, zip ties NG, ready to go, goes to get car, pull to front, gone.
JMO

 

[SMK777]

Ok, I think the car is parked 2-3 houses away, single perp. He goes in, zip ties NG, ready to go, goes to get car, pull to front, gone.
JMO

Wouldn't he be aware of ring cams catching his car? I still can't grasp why the vehicle wasn't captured by a neighbor's RingCam.

I'm thinking of how murderer Kaitlyn Armstrong was captured by one right from day one. It was the biggest piece of evidence against her.

 

[SMK777]

Ok, I think the car is parked 2-3 houses away, single perp. He goes in, zip ties NG, ready to go, goes to get car, pull to front, gone.
JMO

So motive was kidnapping for ransom in your scenario.

 

[FaviousM]

Wouldn't he be aware of ring cams catching his car? I still can't grasp why the vehicle wasn't captured by a neighbor's RingCam.

I'm thinking of how murderer Kaitlyn Armstrong was captured by one right from day one. It was the biggest piece of evidence against her.

The idea being that he parked elsewhere, disabled the camera, entered and subdued NG and then went and got the car once he knew the camera wouldn't see it and he didn't have to worry about NG escaping or calling the cops

 

[SMK777]

The idea being that he parked elsewhere, disabled the camera, entered and subdued NG and then went and got the car once he knew the camera wouldn't see it and he didn't have to worry about NG escaping or calling the cops

Good.
But I meant the next day police would ask neighbors if their ring cams recorded any unfamiliar vehicles that night. Wouldn't he think of that? That his car parked a few doors down would be captured and he, too, and timestamped leaving?

 

[annpats]

The way the reward is set up leaves room for the perp to tell where Nancy can be found. The reward is solely for recovery of NG.

Oh? I thought it was for information that leads to the conviction of the perp(s).

 

[FaviousM]

Good.
But I meant the next day police would ask neighbors if their ring cams recorded any unfamiliar vehicles that night. Wouldn't he think of that?

To be fair, regardless of theory, the perp or perps would have to contend with that.

We know the perp was there on a previous night, so maybe he cased the neighbours too and spotted that they didn't have cameras so didn't feel they needed to worry about it

 

[submarine7]

Oh? I thought it was for information that leads to the conviction of the perp(s).

The most recent message from SG offered it for her recovery:

"But now, after acknowledging that her mother may be “dancing in heaven,” Savannah said her family is offering up to a million dollars for “any information that leads to her recovery.”

https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/25/us/nancy-guthrie-reward-strategy

 

[thefragile7393]

I think it's safe to say the community here is on alert.

Depends on where you live IMO. Different sides of town will have different perspectives. I live on the South side....safe to say it isn't a big topic here.

 

[maskedwoman]

The Nest doorbell connects via 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz WiFi to Nancy's router. Also connected to the router is Nancy's phone. The doorbell communicates through the router to the phone, and the Nest App receives the data packets (video, audio, alerts) and displays the info.

While the Nest doorbell info online says the A/V feed goes directly from the doorbell to the phone, it clearly also goes from the doorbell to the router and through the internet to Google's servers. And that's true with or without a subscription, at least to some extent.

When LE mentioned the Nest doorbell disconnecting at 01:47 and a person appearing at 02:12, they hadn't yet recovered any video footage. So, when they said the doorbell disconnected, they probably meant it was unable to communicate with the phone for some reason, likely because of WiFi connection failure or jamming. I don't think they meant that's when the suspect removed the doorbell from the porch because at that time, LE had no way of knowing for sure what time that happened.

LE might've known the disconnect/human seen times even before having the phone forensically examined because the alerts would've been showing on Nancy's screen. When they learned more later (e.g., when the doorbell reconnected), they decided to hold back that info. IMO

Okay, but if it can't communicate with the phone due to a wifi failure or jamming, how would it communicate with the cloud over the internet with wifi failure or jamming? What am I missing? Thanks!