Group of Mexican Mothers Known for Looking for Missing People Join Search for Nancy Guthrie

The Madres Buscadoras de Sonora have offered to help the search in anyway they can

Madres Buscadoras de Sonora.Credit : Joe Raedle/Getty; Nathan Congleton/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal/Getty

A group of Mexican mothers known for their efforts to find missing individuals have joined the search for Nancy Guthrie.

Guthrie, the mother of Today host Savannah Guthrie, was last seen Jan. 31 and is believed to have been kidnapped by a masked, armed person seen in surveillance footage appearing to tamper with Nancy’s doorbell camera outside her home in Tucson, Ariz.

The Madres Buscadoras de Sonora — the Searching Mothers of Sonora — are a volunteer group comprised of moms and others started in Mexico by Cecilia Flores, whose two sons went missing in 2015 and 2019, according to AZPM.

The non-profit organization’s goal is to find missing people and recover bodies of disappeared relatives. CNN reported that the group has found more than 5,000 people across Mexico both dead and alive.

Madres Buscadoras de Sonora.Joe Raedle/Getty

On the group’s Facebook page, which has over one million followers, the Madres posted information about Guthrie and asked anyone with information to come forward.

CNN reported that since then, members of the group have come to the United States to help search for Guthrie, while others have searched the Mexican border town of Nogales. AZPM reported that Mexican authorities said that there has been no indication she had been taken to the country.

“We are here to assist in any way we can,” Flores told CNN. “We will do everything in our power to help this family. Nancy is a mother who deserves to be reunited with her family.”

The Madres applied for a permit to conduct a field search in Arizona, but CNN reported that the request was denied by the Pima County Sheriff’s Department.

The department told CNN that it appreciated “their concern” but that the “work is best left to professionals.”

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In a video posted on Feb. 24, Savannah Guthrie spoke about her family’s continued hope that their mother would be found, even as the search has stretched to four weeks.

“We also know that she may be lost, she may already be gone,” Savannah said. “She may already have gone home to the Lord that she loves and is dancing in Heaven… and 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.”

The Guthrie family is offering a reward of up to $1 million for any information that could lead to Nancy’s recovery. The FBI is offering a reward of $100,000.