THE ongoing search for Nancy Guthrie has fueled online theories that the 84-year-old mother was kidnapped and taken to Mexico, a suggestion a former FBI agent has rejected.
The disappearance of Guthrie hit a grim 100-day milestone on Tuesday after the mother of Today co-host Savannah Guthrie was snatched from her affluent home in the Catalina Foothills area of Tucson, Arizona, on February 1.
Investigators with the Pima County Sheriff’s Office have said Guthrie was taken from her bed in the dark of night and removed from her home.
The case has sparked unverified claims online that Guthrie was potentially kidnapped and taken across the south border into Mexico, due to its close proximity to Tucson.
Social media sleuths have also gone as far as to launch unproven theories that Guthrie’s family, primarily her son-in-law Tommaso Cioni, was involved – despite the family being cleared by authorities.
Former senior FBI forensic agent Tom Myers, who is not involved in the case, rejected the claims that Guthrie was trafficked into Mexico, telling The U.S. Sun the case does not fit the scope of an international crime ring.
“That’s what you’re looking at and that’s what investigators look at when they prioritize these leads, but what would be the purpose to doing that?” Myers questioned about the suspect or suspects potentially taking Guthrie to Mexico.
“We’re in an asymmetric kind of, or atypical way of crime just so much because we have the border issues that are happening right now and the electronic things have changed so much.
“That being said, the golden age of kidnapping took place from the 30s out to about maybe 1970. And it really started to slow down.
“J. Paul Getty at the end of it. The Bremerhams in the early days of the 20s, and that time period in between that was it.
“So, you don’t really get a whole lot of those unless it involves drug trade and it’s an outside economic system of those drugs or kilos back and forth like that.”
Myers continued, “And then that has another wrinkle to it. So, that’s why you’ll get these other kidnappings that take place.
“But Nancy Guthrie doesn’t seem to fit any of those profiles or that anomaly of being in the drug trade at all.
“So, this is very much an anomaly. So something else is going on.”
In the months since, officials with the Pima County Sheriff’s Office and federal investigators have focused on retrieving DNA evidence from a sample recovered from Guthrie’s home.
The DNA sample, which investigators have not publicly disclosed details about, was recovered from inside Guthrie’s home.
Pima County Sheriff officials previously described the DNA as a sample that came from more than one person and therefore needed to be untangled.
Sheriff Chris Nanos and FBI Director Kash Patel recently engaged in a war of words over what Patel claimed was a lack of transparency and cooperation by local officials.
Patel slammed Sheriff Nanos for botching the investigation and claimed he turned down help from the FBI.
“The first 48 hours of anyone’s disappearance are the most critical,” Patel said in an interview with Sean Hannity.
“Here’s how these cases work: it is a state matter, it’s a state and local law enforcement matter. What we, the FBI do is say, ‘Hey, we’re here to help. What do you need? What can we do?’”
Patel said the FBI was kept out of the investigation for four days.
The FBI director went further and said that once the federal agency got involved, they were able to obtain the Nest security camera footage from Guthrie’s front door.
The chilling footage captured a masked man ruffling Guthrie’s plants in an attempt to distort the camera before ultimately removing the device from its mount.
Timeline of Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance
Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of Today show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, disappeared from her home on February 1, 2026.
Timeline:
- January 31: Nancy is last seen by her family
- 5:32pm: Nancy travels to her daughter’s home for dinner, about 11 minutes from her own house.
- 9:48pm: Family members drop off Nancy Guthrie at her home in Tucson. Her garage door closes two minutes later.
- February 1: Nancy is reported missing and a search begins
- 1:47am: Nancy’s doorbell camera disconnects
- 2:12am: Camera software detects a person moving in range of the camera. There is no video, and Nancy does not have a storage description.
- 2:28am: Nancy’s pacemaker app disconnects from her phone, which is later found still at her house.
- Around 11am: A parishioner at Nancy’s church calls the mom’s children and says she failed to show up for service.
- 11:56am: Family members arrive at Nancy’s house to check on her.
- 12:03pm: The family calls 911 to report Nancy missing.
- 8:55pm: The Pima County Sheriff’s Office gives its first press conference and reveals some clues found at Nancy’s home caused “grave concern.” Sheriff Chris Nanos says helicopters, drones, and infrared cameras are all being utilized in the search.
- February 2: Search crews pull back. Nancy’s home is considered a crime scene. Savannah releases a statement thanking supporters for their prayers, which her co-hosts read on Today.
- February 3: A trail of blood is pictured outside Nancy’s home, where there were reportedly signs of forced entry. Nanos admits they have no suspects, no leads, and no videos that could lead to Nancy’s recovery. He and the FBI beg for more tips and accounts.
- February 4, 8pm: Savannah and her siblings release a heartbreaking video directed at their mother’s abductors asking for proof she is alive and saying they’re willing to work with them to get her back.
- February 5: FBI offers $50,000 reward for information on the case.
- 5pm: First ransom demand deadline for millions in Bitcoin passes. Guthrie family releases demand to speak “directly” to the kidnappers, saying, “We want to talk to you and we are waiting for contact.”
- Blood is confirmed to be Nancy’s.
- February 7: Savannah and her siblings share a video stating they received a message from kidnappers and are willing to pay.
- February 9, 5pm: Second ransom demand deadline, reportedly with “much more serious” conditions.
- Savannah posts a video asking the public to report anything strange to law enforcement.
- February 10: The FBI release surveillance footage of the armed masked suspect outside Guthrie’s house on the night she disappeared.
- February 11: A man is detained in Rio Rico, about 19 miles south of Tucson. The individual was released after being questioned by authorities.
- February 12: Suspect described as 5’9″-5’10” carrying a black Ozark Trail backpack (Walmart exclusive).
- February 13: A second man is detained by police after being pulled over by Pima County officers near a Culver’s in Tucson. The man, identified as Luke Daley, was questioned and has since been released.
- February 15: DNA is collected from a discarded glove found 2 miles away that matches surveillance.
- February 16: Sheriff Nanos clears the Guthrie family and their spouses of any involvement.
- February 24: The Guthrie family increased the family’s reward for information to $1million.
- March 4: DNA on the glove is traced to a restaurant worker, and the person is cleared of any involvement.
- March 16: ABC News reports that more images have been obtained from motion-activated cameras.
- March 26: Savannah’s first on-camera interview since her mother’s disappearance airs.
“That’s why you have that image, because the FBI worked with Google to put that image out,” Patel said.
Patel added that it was the sheriff’s decision to send the DNA sample to a private lab in Florida instead of using the FBI’s lab in Quantico, Virginia, which he called “the best in the country.”
“We were saying, ‘We’ll process it.’ I launched hundreds of agents and intel staff to Phoenix and Tucson just for this case, just to be on standby, just to do the canvassing and we said we’ll take the DNA,” said Patel.
“Again, it’s a state and local matter so it’s their call on where to send the DNA.
“What we can do is continue to offer support. We would have analyzed it in within days and maybe gotten better information or more information.
“Our lab’s just better than any other private lab out there. And we didn’t get a chance to do that. I understand everybody’s frustration.”
Sheriff Nanos clapped back at the FBI director denying the claims by Patel that his office froze federal agents out of the case.
Nanos’ office said a member of the FBI Task Force was notified and present at the scene alongside detectives with the Pima County Sheriff’s Office, while Patel was not.
“The FBI was promptly notified by both our department and the Guthrie family,” the sheriff’s office said.
“While the FBI Director was not on scene, coordination with the Bureau began without delay.”
On Tuesday, Nanos told CBS affiliate KOLD-TV that the department is working hard to get the case resolved.
“I think every day they get closer,” Nanos said.
