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Nancy Guthrie update: Savannah, family could be targeted again; expert weighs in on suspect's motive
More than two months after Nancy Guthrie was abducted from her Tucson-area home, an expert has weighed in on the kidnapping suspect's motive
More than two months after Nancy Guthrie was abducted from her Tucson-area home, an expert has weighed in on the kidnapping suspect's potential motive, suggesting that Savannah and her family could be targeted again. The ‘Today’ show host's 84-year-old motherdisappeared in the early hours of February 1, with troubling signs pointing to violence at the scene. Blood was found on the front porch, and data from her Bluetooth-enabled pacemaker showed it disconnected from her phone around 2:30 AM, suggesting she had been forcibly taken.
Expert warns Savannah and family
Former FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit researcher Ann Burgess believes the attack may not have been primarily about Nancy herself. Instead, she suggested the motive could involve retaliation against someone close to her.
“Who in her orbit, let’s call it family, could be friends, would be hurt the most [by her kidnapping]?” Dr Burgess told NewsNation’s ‘Brian Entin Investigates’ on Friday. She further pointed out to the possibility that the abduction was meant to emotionally impact loved ones.
She added that such a motive would indicate a deeply personal grievance rather than a random crime. “And I think you can answer… It’s a very mean, angry, horrible thing to do. And then if it goes wrong, which obviously it did, I think it doesn’t make sense that she would be a target to do more than abduct her,” she said.
Savannah's popularity made family vulnerable
Burgess also indicated that law enforcement likely explored whether Savannah’s public profile could have made her family vulnerable. “I am sure that law enforcement talked with her about that. Has she had any kind of, over the years, it wouldn’t have to be just recent, did she ever get any bad letters, or anything along that line?” she said.
The expert suggested the risk of repeat targeting may be low if the motive was personal and specific. “If it’s what we call a personal cause, in other words, only to that person does it have meaning, so it’s not like you have a serial offender that he’s going to go out and do this to someone else,” she explained.
She also raised the possibility that multiple individuals could be involved, which could ultimately help investigators solve the case. “I think there are other small bits of evidence that could be released that people could then have more to be able to, again, hypothesize on or speculate. I think they could let more out,” she said.
Reflecting on the crime scene itself, Burgess noted signs that the situation may have escalated unexpectedly. “I think something went very wrong inside the house … because you know, there was blood,” she said.
