A year after Savannah Guthrie shared stories about her Tucson roots on the “Today” show, investigators and outside experts are considering whether the broadcast may have drawn attention to her mother, Nancy Guthrie, who remains missing after being abducted.
The segment introduced viewers to Nancy and featured some of Savannah’s favorite places in her hometown. Experts say it might have sparked someone’s interest in Nancy, or supplied details later used by a person trying to make ransom messages seem authentic. There is no public evidence establishing that the broadcast played a role.
Morgan Wright, a digital-forensics expert who leads the National Center for Open and Unsolved Cases, noted that the program showed Nancy wearing a white Apple Watch. Someone might reasonably assume she would still have it months later, he said, and that an older person might remove a watch before going to bed.
Investigators have not publicly identified who sent two early ransom notes, and there has been disagreement about whether the messages were genuine. One note referred to details at the scene, including where Nancy’s watch was and a broken floodlight in her backyard. The note was reportedly sent on Feb. 2, before information about the watch had begun circulating publicly. Wright said the detail could have been a lucky guess or learned from video, and he does not consider the notes credible.
Lisa Miller, a retired detective and former law enforcement executive with the Colorado Attorney General’s Office, said the broadcast was worth examining as a possible starting point for someone’s interest in Nancy. It could have introduced her to a person fixated on Savannah, Miller said, or to someone considering a kidnapping for ransom. She stressed that the motive is unknown and that Savannah should not be blamed for speaking about her family.
Retired FBI supervisory agent and profiler Jim Clemente has also said Savannah’s public profile might have attracted the perpetrator’s attention. He cautioned that there is no way to know whether it contributed to the crime, but said the mother-daughter relationship might have prompted jealousy or a delusional sense of attachment.
Bob Krygier, a retired SWAT commander with the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, said he had not known Savannah was from Tucson until the segment aired. He said he had long suspected there might be a connection between the broadcast and the case. Krygier added that public figures should think carefully about what they share, while avoiding the idea that they must withdraw entirely from public life.
The segment, sponsored by a Tucson tourism organization, aired Nov. 5, 2025. Savannah spoke proudly of growing up in the city, attending college there and having her mother still live there. It also showed local landmarks and the region’s saguaro cacti.
Nancy was taken from her home in Tucson’s Catalina Foothills neighborhood in the early hours of Feb. 1. Her family discovered she was missing after she failed to show up for a church gathering with friends and contacted police.
The FBI and Google worked to recover footage from her Nest doorbell camera. It showed a masked, gloved person on the porch, apparently carrying a gun. Nine months later, authorities have not publicly identified the person, and Nancy’s whereabouts remain unknown.
Miller said the information publicly available does not offer much explanation for why Nancy might have been targeted apart from her relationship with Savannah. She also said the circumstances do not fit easily with a burglary that went wrong. In her view, taking Nancy required planning and a significant decision, though that alone does not establish a motive.
Miller has previously suggested the abduction could have been an attempt to pressure Savannah for money by threatening her mother. She said another possibility is that someone fixated on Savannah shifted that attention toward Nancy. The evidence, she said, will ultimately need to answer what happened.
No arrests have been made, and authorities have not publicly named any suspects. Savannah renewed her appeal for information on Nov. 1, nine months after her mother’s disappearance.
Clemente has urged Savannah and her siblings to review their communications across social media, email, phone calls and in-person contacts. He said the person responsible may have interacted with one or more family members, including Nancy.
Anyone with information is asked to call the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or Crime Stoppers at 520-88-CRIME. Rewards totaling more than $1 million remain unclaimed.
