An 84-year-old woman was taken from her Arizona home in the middle of the night. Three months on, despite a high-profile family, national media attention, and an active FBI investigation, no one has been charged.
On 1 February 2026, Nancy Guthrie, the mother of NBC News Today co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, was reported kidnapped from her home in Catalina Foothills, a suburb of Tucson, Arizona. Investigators found blood on her doorstep, a tampered doorbell camera, and ransom notes demanding millions in cryptocurrency. As of 1 May 2026, three months after her disappearance, the Pima County Sheriff's Department has not publicly disclosed any significant breakthroughs, and no suspect has been named, identified, or charged.
A timeline released by the Pima County Sheriff's Department shows that Guthrie ate dinner with relatives and was dropped off at her home by family at approximately 21:48 on 31 January 2026. Detectives determined her garage door closed at 21:50.
At 01:47 on 1 February, her Nest doorbell camera went offline. At 02:28, her pacemaker device lost connection with her smartphone. She was reported missing around noon after she failed to appear at a friend's house to watch an online church service.
Sheriff Chris Nanos stated that evidence recovered from Guthrie's residence indicated a crime had taken place inside the house. 'At this point, investigators believe she was taken from her home against her will, possibly in the middle of the night,' Nanos said. 'She couldn't walk 50 yards by herself.' Authorities classified her as a vulnerable adult due to her age, mobility limitations, and reliance on daily medication.
🎗️👀🎗️We still don’t know who this guy is.So here’s another look.It’s now been more than 13 weeks since#NancyGuthriewas reported#missing.1-800-CALL-FBIpic.twitter.com/9owij9UJaT
On 10 February 2026, FBI Director Kash Patel released four black-and-white images on X showing a masked and armed intruder outside Guthrie's home. The intruder attempted to tamper with the video doorbell, first tapping it, then covering the lens with foliage from a potted plant. Patel confirmed that data from the device had been successfully recovered.
Authorities described the suspect as male, approximately 5 feet 9 inches to 5 feet 10 inches tall, with an average build and a black moustache, carrying a 25-litre Ozark Trail Hiker Pack backpack.
Ransom demands surfaced within days. A local Arizona television station reported that the alleged kidnappers demanded £4.7 million ($6 million) in Bitcoin, with a deadline set for 17:00 on a Monday. The purported captors warned the payment must be made on pain of Guthrie's life. In a video posted to Instagram, Savannah Guthrie and her siblings told a possible kidnapper: '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.'
The US Department of Justice later charged Derrick Callella of Hawthorne, California, with demanding Bitcoin via text from the Guthrie family, using a VOIP account after obtaining the family's contact information from a website. Authorities have not linked those messages to the original ransom demand.
Source: International Business Times UK
