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THE DISAPPEARANCE OF Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of ‘Today’ show Co-host Savannah Guthrie, has transfixed America in the last two weeks.
Quickly authorities came to believe that Nancy had been abducted and taken forcefully from her home.
Though there have been several breakthroughs in the investigation being conducted by the Pima County Sheriff’s Department and the FBI, we still don’t know who took Nancy Guthrie from her home in the affluent neighbourhood of Catalina Hills in Tucson Arizona in the early hours of 1 February.
We don’t know where she is now, or what condition she is in. Her family has said in public statements that she took life sustaining medication for a heart condition.
Here’s what we do know so far about the timeline of her disappearance and the subsequent investigation:
On the morning of 1 February Nancy Guthrie failed to show up to a friend’s house to watch a church service, which set off alarm bells. Her family had seen her on the prior evening for a games night, and she’d been given a lift back to her home.
At midday family members arrived at her home to check on her, and called police when they got no response.
We know now that a masked man was on Nancy’s doorstep the night authorities believe she was taken from her home.
Her security camera was disconnected around 2 am, and shortly after an app on her phone connected to her pacemaker was disconnected.
When the authorities did an initial search of the property, physical evidence suggested that she was taken forcefully.
The following day there was a report of a ransom note sent to media outlets which demanded that an amount of money be sent within a set deadline.
Savannah Guthrie responded to the reported note with a video posted online with her siblings. They said that they were willing to talk to whoever has their mother, and to pay, but that they needed proof of life.
Authorities were not able to establish the veracity of the note, and the deadline for the ransom note passed on 5 February.
On 7 February the siblings released another video addressed to their mother’s kidnapper. They said: “We received your message and we understand”.
“We beg you now to return our mother to us so that we can celebrate with her. This is the only way we will have peace. This is very valuable to us, and we will pay,” Savannah Guthrie said, speaking directly to her mother’s abductor.
In the intervening period Pima County Sheriff Chris Nolan confirmed that DNA testing confirmed that blood spatters found on the porch of Nancy’s home belonged to her.
On 10 February the FBI released images of a masked, armed man, who was on Nancy Guthrie’s doorstep the night that she vanished.
Authorities said that the footage was retrieved from a backend data repository, even though the Google Nest camera was not recording at the time.
In the footage the man is wearing a ski mask, gloves, and a backpack, and was carrying a gun secured in a holster.
In the clip he’s seen tampering with the camera, and obscuring its view with foliage.
Authorities estimated that he is 5’ 9 or 5’ 10 in height.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that US President Donald Trump had reviewed the footage.
“We hope this person is found soon and her mother is brought home safely,” she added.
On her Instagram account, Savannah Guthrie shared the images of the man, noting that “someone” knows who he is.
Authorities said that over 5,000 tips came in as a result of the footage.
On the same day, a man was arrested in Rio Rico in Arizona in connection with Nancy’s disappearance.
He was detained and questioned by detectives, and his home was searched with a court warrant, but he was later released without charge, and later told reporters outside his home that he had no idea who Nancy Guthrie was.
Since then another, separate property has been searched off the back of a lead, but no arrests were made.
Yesterday Savannah Guthrie released another video on social media, in which she addressed her mother’s kidnapper again telling them that it’s “not too late” to do the right thing.
“You’re not lost or alone,” she further said.
Investigators recover glove believed to be that of suspect
Yesterday, in the latest apparent breakthrough in the case, the FBI said that it had recovered a glove nearby Nancy’s home that appeared to match that of the suspect in the security camera footage.
They said that multiple other sets of gloves had been recovered, but they were all believed to be those of searchers.
The glove being held as potential key evidence was found “in a field near the side of a road”, the FBI said, and they were sent to a private lab.
The FBI said that it had already received preliminary results, but they were awaiting confirmation before putting a previously “unknown male profile” into its database.
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department had previously confirmed that it had collected DNA from inside Nancy’s home that didn’t belong to her or anyone who was regularly in the home, but they didn’t specify where the DNA was found.
Donald Trump today warned the kidnapper (or kidnappers) of Nancy Guthrie that they will face the “most severe” consequences if she is found dead.
Arizona is one of the US states that still has the death penalty.
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