The 24th day of the search for Nancy Guthrie reveals a sobering reality behind the fading hope

FILE – Jeff Robb, a Seattle resident wintering in Tucson, signs a banner supporting Nancy Guthrie in Tucson Ariz., on Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)

2Comment

Share

(TNND) — Savannah Guthrie said her family is holding onto hope that her mother, Nancy, will be found alive. But the “Today” show host acknowledged in a new video that her mother “may already be gone.”

Savannah Guthrie urged the public to keep praying, saying the family still believes a miracle is possible, while announcing a reward increase to $1 million for information leading to the recovery of her mother.

“Hope against hope. As my sister says, we are blowing on the embers of hope,” Savannah Guthrie said in an Instagram video Tuesday.

She took a deep breath before continuing with some difficult words.

“We also know that she may be lost. She may already be gone,” Savannah Guthrie said. “She may have already gone home to the Lord that she loves and is dancing in heaven with her mom, and her dad, and with her beloved brother, Pierce, and with our daddy. If this is what is to be, then we will accept it. But we need to know where she is. We need her to come home.”

Nancy Guthrie, 84, has now been missing for over three weeks. Authorities believe she was kidnapped from her Arizona home.

Doorbell camera images of a masked man have been released, but evidence has been limited.

The Pima County Sheriff’s Department has reportedly received more than 20,000 tips. Hundreds of people are working on the investigation, with the FBI assisting local officials.

C. Jordan Howell, a criminologist who teaches at the University of South Florida, said most elderly missing persons found alive are located within the first few days.

Risks related to exposure and underlying health conditions rise significantly as time passes.

Nancy Guthrie has been missing for 24 days and needs vital daily medicine.

“That does not make a positive outcome impossible, but it does mean the situation becomes more serious the longer it continues,” Howell said via email.

A hand-painted pot is part of a growing memorial outside the home of Nancy Guthrie, the missing mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, in Tucson, Ariz. (AP Photo/Felicia Fonseca)
A hand-painted pot is part of a growing memorial outside the home of Nancy Guthrie, the missing mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, in Tucson, Ariz. (AP Photo/Felicia Fonseca)

Justin Smith, the executive director of the National Sheriffs’ Association and a career law enforcement officer, previously told The National News Desk that apparent abductions of this nature are extremely rare in the U.S.

He said most kidnappings involve children and have a connection to a parent or to trafficking.

Smith said the local-federal partnership is critical, as the sheriff’s department in Arizona knows the local community, but the FBI has the bandwidth, expertise and national reach needed in a case this complex.

ABC News and CNN reported that the masked suspect is believed to have visited Nancy Guthrie’s home on different nights, not just on the day she was taken.

Both outlets cited unnamed sources familiar with the investigation.

The suspect was seen with a backpack and what appeared to be a holstered pistol in most of the released photos and videos. But he’s not seen with either the backpack or gun in one image, which might indicate he was surveilling the home at an earlier time.

This combo from images provided by the FBI shows surveillance footage at the home of Nancy Guthrie the night she went missing in Tucson, Ariz. (FBI via AP)

But the sheriff’s office said Monday night that there aren’t date or time stamps on doorbell images from Nancy Guthrie’s home and that any suggestion that images were taken on different days is just speculation.

Howell said metadata is the central issue with the doorbell images. That’s the background information attached to digital files, which includes date and time data, device information, and system logs.

If verified timestamps aren’t available, it limits how confidently investigators can place someone at a specific location on a specific day, Howell said.

For that reason, investigators will likely examine all available metadata, including cloud storage records, account activity logs, and related digital traces, to help reconstruct the sequence of events, Howell said.

“In many cases, timelines are built from multiple digital data points rather than a single visible timestamp,” he said. “The limitation is that consumer-grade systems may compress footage or fail to retain complete data, which can restrict certainty.”

At this stage of the investigation, authorities typically broaden their approach, Howell said.

That can include reviewing additional surveillance sources in the area, analyzing phone and financial records, interviewing potential witnesses again, and reexamining earlier evidence for details that may have been overlooked.

“In prolonged cases, breakthroughs often come from reassessing existing information with fresh analysis,” he said.