LOS ANGELES (OC).–Unable to locate 84-year-old Nancy Gutheries, mother of NBC Today host Savaanah Guthrie, after abducted from her hillside Tucson home Feb. 1, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos and FBI officials have been utterly embarrassed, unable to come up with any real leads of her whereabouts. In a blackmail-ransom scheme that went awry, Guthrie’s abductors have no where to turn now that there’s a police dragnet that closes in on solving the case. After three weeks into the case, local and federal law enforcement and the best investigative journalists are just as stumped as on Day One, except for the fact that the kidnapper has gone silent, no longer thinking they can collect the initial demand of $6 billion in Bitcoin, something traceable to anyone attempting ot cash in. Whether Nancy Guthrie, who has pacemaker and takes heart meds, is still alive is anyone’s guess.
Whoever the kidnappers, they’ve decided that it’s too risky to continue demanding the cash or contacting the family, fearing their contacts would be traced. So, the current stalemate in locating Guthrie has to do with the kidnappers’ second thoughts about pulling off the heist. Law enforcement finds itself going on scant information, looking at DNA that means nothing unless it’s recorded in a law enforcement database. While anything looks like a big deal today, finding a glove that matches an electronic doorbell pic means nothing in terms of locating the kidnappers. Law enforcement says they don’t know the motive, something preposterous, since the motive was clearly to blackmail the family of a minor celebrity to obtain cash. New information about the backpack or clothing purchased at Walmart adds little to locating the whereabouts of the kidnapper.
Pima County Sheriff’s Department indicated that they found DNA, not Nancy Guthrie’s, at the crime scene but did not say whether the national DNA database identified the biologic material found in Guthrie’s Tucson home. How Sheriff Nanos can call the DNA find promising is anyone’s guess. It’s still a shot in the dark to ascertain whether or not DNA collected at the scene can be identified. “Investigators are working to identify who it belongs to. We are not disclosing where that DNA was located,” Sheriff Nanos said. Police confirmed that several gloves were found in the vicinity of Guthrie’s home, one in particular matched a doorbell camera video. Law enforcement or media have not received another ransom demand since Feb. 3, meaning there’s a blackout in any communication from kidnappers. Law enforcement has lost the trail for Guthrie’s kidnappers.
Focused on what the kidnapper was wearing, Nanos said that Walmart gave him all in store and online purchases that match the doorbell video of the alleged abductor. Whatever the kidnapper wore on Feb. 1, the date of Nancy Guthrie’s abduction, it not likely what he’s wearing now. Every bit of information released to the public seems extraneous to an investigation that appears to hit a dead end. Nanos has taken a lot of heat for not tracking down Guhrie’s kidnappers, in part because it’s a national headline. Savannah has made sever pleas to her mother’s kidnappers, appealing to their sense of humanity. No one knows whether her 84-year-old mother is still alive, no longer with an active pacemaker or on her heart medications. If it’s any consolation, many heart patients can live without pacemakers and heart medications for extended periods of time.
Guthrie’s kidnappers have no way with all the surveillance in the area to dropping Nancy off at a local police station or wherever. Guthrie’s kidnappers ransom plot for $6 million in bitcoin has been foiled, with surveillance at a fever’s pitch, no longer communicating with the media for fear of detection. Whoever kidnapped Guthrie, it’s clear they have some savvy about getting caught because they’ve disappeared off the radar. Local and federal law enforcement are limited by their own methods, trying to match any DNA evidence found at the crime scene, a real crapshoot for investigators. Relying on the public at this point offers little in the way of actionable intelligence because Guthrie hasn’t been seen for over two weeks. Sheriff Nanos has cleared the Guthrie family of any possible involvement in her abduction, referring to the family as all victims.
Once the kidnappers realized that local and federal surveillance ratched up, they’ve had zero contact with the press, since the Feb. 3 Bitcoin ransom note. Any move the abductors make now puts them one step closer to getting caught. How long they can keep an 84-year-old with medical problems is anyone’s guess. Based on her medical issues, it’s still more likely than not that she’s still alive regardless of where she’s been kept. When the Guthrie family dropped Nancy off Jan. 31 before her abduction after dinner with Savannah’s sister Annie, no one questioned why an 84-year-old with a heart condition was living by herself. While many 84-year-old live independently, it’s makes you wonder Nancy Guthrie’s capacity to live independently. Now that she’s gone, there are more questions than answers certainly about her kidnappers and whereabouts.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of Olinecolumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
