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Nancy Guthrie update: Kidnapped woman's Facebook profile goes private; 'investigator' alleges 'cover up'
The Facebook profile of missing Arizona woman Nancy Guthrie has undergone significant privacy changes since her disappearance.
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The Facebook profile of missing Arizona woman Nancy Guthrie has undergone further privacy changes, prompting renewed speculation online as the search for the 84-year-old continues. A self-styled investigator on X has alleged that the changes point to a possible “cover-up,” but there is no public evidence that authorities have linked the social-media activity to her disappearance.
Guthrie, the mother of TODAY show host Savannah Guthrie, was reported missing from her Catalina Foothills home near Tucson on February 1. Authorities have said they believe she was taken against her will. The FBI and Pima County Sheriff's Department have continued investigating the case.
Nancy Guthrie’s Facebook profile changes
Guthrie had maintained a largely public Facebook presence before her disappearance, with posts, photographs, personal information and a visible friends list accessible to users. That changed in stages.
Parade reported in June that Guthrie's Facebook friends list had been made private. The account continued to show 372 friends, but the names were no longer publicly visible. Other personal details were also restricted. The publication previously reported that comments on her posts had been switched off in February, shortly after her disappearance.
More recently, social-media users have claimed that additional photographs and other material have disappeared from the account. One X user said she noticed that material on Guthrie's Facebook page was disappearing and that some photographs appeared to have been removed or made private.
Another X user claimed to have contacted people connected with Guthrie and said the user's own Facebook account subsequently entered a “weird state.” However, HT.com could not independently verify those claims.
The changes have fueled questions over who has access to Guthrie's account and why its visibility has changed months after her disappearance.
‘Cover-up’ claim circulates online
The latest speculation has also been driven by a self-described investigator who has repeatedly posted theories about the Guthrie case.
The individual has made allegations concerning people in Guthrie's circle and has questioned actions taken after her disappearance. As per previous reports, some of these claims were made by a self-styled investigator and had not been corroborated by law enforcement.
The latest Facebook-related changes have led Jonathan Lee Riches, or JLR, the self-styled investigator to allege a “cover-up.”
There is, however, no publicly confirmed evidence that the Facebook privacy changes constitute a cover-up or that they are connected to Guthrie's disappearance.
