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Nancy Guthrie: FBI closing in on suspect? Expert shares insight; ex-SWAT gives chilling update on neighbors
Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of TODAY show host Savannah Guthrie, was reported missing on February 1 and the focus might be back on her neighbors.
Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of TODAY show host Savannah Guthrie, was reported missing on February 1 and the focus might be back on her neighbors. Authorities believe Guthrie was taken from her home the night before and it's been over a month but law enforcement agents are yet to name a suspect or find Guthrie.
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos announced that the Guthrie family members, including Annie Guthrie and husband Tommaso Cioni, were not suspects in the case.
However, there is a chance that they might be focusing more on her neighborhood in the Catalina Foothills near Tucson, Arizona. A former SWAT commander who served with the Pima County Sheriff's Department, who are probing the case, suggested as much. Further the FBI, who are assisting in the matter, have also been speaking to neighbors about two crucial dates in January – a month before Guthrie was reported missing.
What ex-SWAT commander said about Nancy Guthrie
Bob Krygier, a retired SWAT commander, suggested that a neighboring home could have served as the ‘staging area’. The former law enforcement official said that this would have allowed the perpetrator to ‘fly under the radar’ and they could secretly watch the ‘comings and goings of people’ in the community, including Guthrie's mother, as per Parade.
“A location like [a vacant home], out of the prying eye of the neighborhood, could also be a location to set up surveillance equipment if anyone chose [to do so], It could be easily stashed in a structure or on the property without anyone knowing,” the retired officer said.
Self-styled investigator Jonathan Lee Riches, who has been reporting on the case from Tucson thus far, also added on X “FBI went to a house multiple times that is under construction on the corner of Camino Escalante & Camino Miraval. Focused on cheap labor workers. Just down the street from Nancy Guthrie.”
The FBI also quizzed neighbors about two dates in January, which an expert took to mean that the bureau might have some information pertaining to the Guthrie case which they're checking out.
FBI quizzes neighbors about January dates
Guthrie's neighbors have been asked about January 11 and January 24, with FBI agents seeking security camera footage from these two days as per The Express US. Both these days are Saturdays in January.
Legal expert Chad D. Cummings commented on the matter, speaking to the publication. “I do not believe January 11 and 24 are dates investigators pulled from witness interviews. Witnesses do not remember specific Saturdays six and three weeks before a crime. Those dates likely came from data,” he said.
Cummings added “Cell tower records produce exact timestamps. When the FBI identifies a phone number that pinged a tower near Nancy Guthrie’s home on the night of January 31, the next step is to run that same number backward through the carrier’s records and identify every other date that phone appeared in the same geographic cell.”
He then continued “January 11 and 24 are likely dates that phone showed up before.” The legal expert further suggested that this might be why the FBI wanted footage from said dates.
“The bureau already knows a device was in the area,” Cummings suggested, adding that they would need ‘visual confirmation and a description of the person carrying it.’ As per Cummings, the FBI “can match that sighting to the cell data it already possesses and build a case it can take to a grand jury.”
“This also explains why no arrest has been made. The FBI has a phone number. It may not yet have a name attached to that phone,” he added.
