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

[Sakura2Sophia4Lucia]

It could have been purchased by a woman, which may make it difficult to tie to a male suspect. If it was bought by a woman a couple of years ago, maybe in Phoenix or somewhere else, that could make it really tough to associate with this case.

Curious how they eliminated the purchasers of the backpacks at Walmart.

Seems the perp could be easily missed if the purchaser were a teenager, a woman or even a well-dressed person who doesn't fit the height, weight and their other profile information.

And, agree, it could have been bought years ago. Or bought with cash on FB Marketplace or at a local Goodwill or other thrift store.

JMO

 

[factseeking]

Best case, they are trying to be helpful. But, to me, it feels like a huge boundary violation and quite disrespectful.

Imagine people with shovels and metal detectors on the easements that abut our private property. Yes, it is an easement and possibly they are just trying to be helpful, but it feels inappropriate to me. JMO

Totally agree

 

[Sakura2Sophia4Lucia]

Sheriff Nanos was specifically talking about the image without the backpack not having a date or timestamp.

"A spokesperson with FBI headquarters declined to comment Monday on possible dates tied to the image or whether the person is the same person seen in the other security video released by the agency.

The Pima County Sheriff's Department said in a statement Monday that there is no date or timestamp associated with the image and that any suggestion that it was taken on a different day is "purely speculative."

"That’s all it is is speculation," Sheriff Chris Nanos told NBC News. "We understand the thinking behind it, but again, I remind everybody, we follow the rules of evidence. And right now we have no evidence to suggest that it occurred that day or days before.”

One photo of man on Nancy Guthrie's porch may be from an earlier date, before her disappearance

The Pima County, Arizona, sheriff said the implication that one of the photos was taken on a date before Guthrie's disappearance is "speculative."

www.nbcnews.com

Wonder why LE initially was asking neighbors about video from January 11th. JMO

 

[moonglow123]

I am surprised the Walmart angle didn't lead anywhere. They're always patenting new surveillance technologies, and seemingly have crystal clear footage and records of customers from the parking lot to the store. Guess Lantana guy could've made his mom or a girlfriend or someone else buy the items for them, and that'd be harder to pin down. But it's surely still worth looking into, can't be that hard to pull receipts with those items on them.

Really think LE should do some Walmart reconnaissance here if they haven't already. Nanos made it seem like they haven't done much but I have no idea when he's obfuscating or telling the truth.

 

[SieSie]

I was being sanguine.
Agree with you that solving the case would be wonderful. No argument there at all.

Well, Rick, now I have to go look up the word "sanguine", LOL!! But, thanks - I think I get it now. I was so confused for a sec - my bad!

 

[fridaybaker]

Curious how they eliminated the purchasers of the backpacks at Walmart.

Seems the perp could be easily missed if the purchaser were a teenager, a woman or even a well-dressed person who doesn't fit the height, weight and their other profile information.

And, agree, it could have been bought years ago. Or bought with cash on FB Marketplace or at a local Goodwill or other thrift store.

JMO

My interpretation is that the backpack was a “new” release from Walmart, but I may be mistaken. (Meaning that version hadn’t been out long.)

 

[shonyakay]

As to your response..The camera was disconnected from the wifi at 147. Where is that in your calculation? jmo

Snipped by me: Here is a previous post where I discussed this.

"Since we don't know how Nancy's doorbell nest camera was disconnected at 1:47 a.m. we can only speculate.

When the Nest camera is disconnected from a power source it will still stay connected to WiFi provided it's internal battery is charged. It will maintain it's Internet connection to stream and record until the battery is depleted.

While the camera stays connected to WiFi it will only record event-based video when running on battery.

If the Wifi router loses power but the camera still has battery the camera will appear "offline" in the app but can locally store up to one hour of recorded events to its internal memory. It will then upload these clips to the cloud once the WiFi connection is restored. From my understanding the physical camera is not needed to achieve this as this can be utilized through the app."

 

[Love Never Fails]

DBM

 

[shonyakay]

Wonder why LE initially was asking neighbors about video from January 11th. JMO

It may have to do with the forced burglary reported Sunday January 11, 2026 at 10:14 a.m. in the 4900 block of N Calle La Vela just 5 minutes South of Nancy's home.

 

[annpats]

It could have been purchased by a woman, which may make it difficult to tie to a male suspect. If it was bought by a woman a couple of years ago, maybe in Phoenix or somewhere else, that could make it really tough to associate with this case.

I wonder if the manufacturer only produced it for a couple of years, or a particular season.
I hope LE do some work on this, the net needs to close tighter......

Edited to add: @fridaybaker has replied to say LE said the backpack was new, and only released a short while ago.

 

[annpats]

My interpretation is that the backpack was a “new” release from Walmart, but I may be mistaken. (Meaning that version hadn’t been out long.)

Well, that makes the job a lot easier then!

 

[factseeking]

Well, that makes the job a lot easier then!

The thing is, what if it wasn't purchased at a Walmart in Tuscon or even Arizona? Did they have Walmart check more than just locally? And as ChillFries said above it could have been bought by a woman. Or as Nanos said, on ebay. If Friday baker is correct and it's new that would certainly help! My personal thought when we didn't hear anything is maybe it was purchased a while ago, not recently and not for this purpose alone. Anyway JMO, I feel like we're driving around in the dark here but I think that's fine! LE needs to protect the integrity of the case.

 

[danablue1]

I think it's possible that all of the nest cameras were disconnected at 1:47 a.m. when the door bell nest camera was. Since the door nest camera was battery operated it still maintained it's functions even though it was disconnected - unlike the wired ones. If the nest cameras were smashed throughout the house after being disconnected the perp might have went out of the back of the house in the process and then walked to the front porch to destroy the door nest camera. This would explain him raising his fist to strike it from the side but then realized that the camera was active. He then tried to block the view of him with his fist. At this time he might have realized that this door camera was different from the other ones. He looks like he tries to attempt to remove it and then looks for something to help him - the lantana.

Yes if you watch him come into view of the front door camera it appears he came in from the left.

 

[MollyHarps]

I always say in these cases having to live with the ‘unknown’ is worse than finding your relative deceased.

Whilst I am sure after 4 weeks the family know the chances of finding Nancy alive are minuscule I guess you still cling with that hope until the end - it doesn’t allow you to grieve properly or attempt to rebuild and move on.

I do have fears of this case starting to become cold especially as the media coverage dies down - fingers crossed I am wrong.

 

[vereb]

Agreed. We're not talking a Louis Vuitton limited edition that would bring big money on the resale market. It's a cheapo mass-produced backpack sold at a big box store. Who would waste their time listing something like that?

Behold:
Ozark Trail Backpack for sale | eBay

 

[No it's not]

I'm not understanding. Couldn't Santa Cruz or Graham used another county's chopper for the search?

They do not have their own heli fleet or pilots. They depend on regional collaboration/partners for aerial support.

-Nin

 

[submarine7]

The thing is, what if it wasn't purchased at a Walmart in Tuscon or even Arizona? Did they have Walmart check more than just locally? And as ChillFries said above it could have been bought by a woman. Or as Nanos said, on ebay. If Friday baker is correct and it's new that would certainly help! My personal thought when we didn't hear anything is maybe it was purchased a while ago, not recently and not for this purpose alone. Anyway JMO, I feel like we're driving around in the dark here but I think that's fine! LE needs to protect the integrity of the case.

The thing that makes me think maybe he bought it especially for the crime is the fact that he's dressed exactly the same on both nights he's captured on camera. It seems to be a costume he constructed just for this event.
JMO

 

[factseeking]

The thing that makes me think maybe he bought it especially for the crime is the fact that he's dressed exactly the same on both nights he's captured on camera. It seems to be a costume he constructed just for this event.
JMO

I would agree with that but has LE said for sure it was 2 different nights? Sometimes I can't keep up with the overlapping media says/sheriff says/FBI says/Kash Patel says of the first picture!

 

[Jenesaisquoi]

Ok, just looking at the backpack on the Walmart website. Earliest customer review seems to be Feb 2023.

However, a review on Dec 25 2025 indicates that this used to be called Outdoor Products Traverse 25L Backpack.

Looks like the same to my brief glance except the logo is different.

Earliest review of the previous version is Sep 2016.

 

[No it's not]

Okay. I'm still not understanding. The OP seemed to narrow down the possible choppers being used for the sniffer to only those counties who had their own choppers. Couldn't a county who didn't have their own borrow another county's chopper to use with the sniffer?

Please excuse me and just move on if I'm being slow! Sometimes, it's been a long day, even when it's early in the day...

When a county does not have their own fleet, they also have no certified pilots to operate just any helicopter. They usually partner up for example with the Arizona Department of Public Safety. Depending on what a helicopter is equipped with, the pilot and/or someone operating the technology needs to be certified to do so. In this case I understand Pima possibly attached the sniffer (sonde?) to another agency’s heli while using PCPD’s laptops and program to operate it. That’s my guess.

-Nin