As the Nancy Guthrie abduction case enters its 14th day, news outlets were waiting on official word from authorities after law enforcement swarmed a Tucson home and detained three people in connection with the elderly woman’s mysterious disappearance.
“Law enforcement activity is underway at a residence near E Orange Grove Rd & N First Ave related to the Guthrie case,” the sheriff’s department posted on X in the early morning hours. “Because this is a joint investigation, at the request of the FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation] — no additional information is currently available.”
Authorities executed a search warrant at the home about two miles from the missing 84-year-old Guthrie’s house and took two men and one of their mothers into custody, according to Fox News Digital.
The news outlet also reported, “While the raid was underway, local authorities and FBI detained the driver of a gray Range Rover for questioning and fingerprinting following a traffic stop in a Culver’s restaurant parking lot in Tucson. The vehicle was searched and towed.”
It’s unclear if anyone is a suspect in a case that has dominated cable news coverage and gone viral on social media for the last two weeks.
Sheriff Nanos, however, told Fox News that no one involved in the raid was in custody.
Nancy Guthrie is the mother of Today show anchor Savannah Guthrie. She was last seen on January 31 at her Tucson home after having dinner with her eldest daughter and son-in-law.
Multiple ransom notes from purported kidnappers have been sent to local news outlets and the gossip site TMZ since she vanished.
But, as Breitbart News reported, the ransom notes may be nothing more than criminal opportunists trying to cash in on the disappearance as there has been no direct communication with authorities or “proof of life” provided by the purported kidnappers.
Earlier this week FBI released a description of the suspect seen in a mask and gloves tampering with the doorbell camera in front of the missing grandmother’s home in the early morning hours of February 1 around the time she went missing.
The suspect is described as a male between 5’9” – 5’10” tall with an average build and was seen carrying a 25-liter “Ozark Trail Hiker Pack” backpack.
The FBI also doubled its reward to $100,000 for information leading to the location of Guthrie or the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in her disappearance.
As days have worn on with no suspects or persons of interest named, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos, a twice-elected Democrat, has faced increasing scrutiny on his handling of the case.
Criticism of the sheriff surfaced this week when a federal source inside the investigation told Reuters the sheriff blocked the FBI from accessing a glove and DNA found inside Guthrie’s Tucson, Arizona home and sent it for testing to a private lab in Florida instead of the bureau’s state-of-the art lab in Quantico, Virginia.
The sheriff denied the report.
The Arizona lawman has also been criticized for releasing the crime scene too soon, waiting too long to bring the FBI and all its formidable resources into the case, and for attending a college basketball game last weekend while the search for Guthrie was in full swing.
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the author of the New York Times true crime best seller House of Secrets and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
