It’s been three months since the TODAY show host Savannah Guthrie’s 84 year-old mother Nancy Guthrie was kidnapped from her home in Tucson, Arizona. Sadly, no trace of her has been found, and she remains missing at this time.
Now, a law enforcement expert is speaking out to reveal why he firmly believes that Nancy was taken to Mexico.
Could Nancy Guthrie Be In Mexico?
Dave Smith, a retired lieutenant with the Arizona Department of Public Safety and a law enforcement consultant, noticed that the suspect seen in the surveillance camera video outside Nancy’s home on the night of her disappearance appeared to be wearing his holstered pistol “Mexican carry” style. This has led him to believe that Nancy could be in Mexico.
“My first thought is always Mexico in a major crime, because it’s a great haven, and it’s hard for us to follow up on,” Smith told Fox News. “But in this case, obviously there was somebody was taken with intent. And I think that that’s why we need to wonder, perhaps, was she taken to Mexico?”
Smith went on to say that the potential Mexico connection could have been downplayed because it would have made it a federal investigation. Indeed, there has been quite a bit of back and forth between the Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos and FBI Director Kash Patel about the timing regarding when the FBI got involved in Nancy’s case.
“My personal theory is, if Mexico was suspected, that would make it a federal investigation,” Smith explained. “There seemed to be a great deal of effort to keep the feds out of this case. And the best way to do it was to deny any possibility of interstate or international transport of the person’s body or kidnapped.”
Smith Doubles Down
Smith then said that just a few miles from Nancy’s Tucson home, there’s a desert “wash.” This is a natural drainage ditch that is typical of the region. This terrain could make it tough for the authorities to find evidence.
“The whole Tucson Valley is literally built around these arroyos, these ephemeral rivers,” he said. “This is literally your green belt here, only instead of parks and things like the rest of the nation has, we have this wonderful desert area. But again, it works between houses. It’s like a giant alley through the neighborhoods.”
This could present major problems for law enforcement.
“The evidence is transitory,” Smith concluded. “Once it rains, your footprints go away, the sun is hard on other forms of evidence and frankly this is a tough place to investigate crimes.”
Nancy’s Abduction
Nancy was last seen on the night of Saturday, January 31. That evening, she had dinner with her daughter Annie and son-in-law Tommaso Cioni. They dropped her off at home afterwards at around 9:45pm, and she tragically hasn’t been seen since.
A masked intruder was captured on Nancy’s doorbell ring camera in the early hours of February 1. He managed to cover the camera with some plants before moving forward with the kidnapping.
It has since been revealed that the masked man had been seen in the doorbell ring camera prior to the night Nancy was taken. This indicates that he may have been casing out her home.
As for Savannah, she bravely returned to the TODAY show last month. She’d spent the previous two months in Tucson desperately trying to find her mother, to no avail. Finally, Savannah decided that she needed to get back to both her job and her family, which includes her husband and two young children.
“I will not fall apart,” Savannah, 54, defiantly told her former TODAY colleague Hoda Kotb just before her return. “I will not let whoever did this take my children’s mother from them, I will not let them take my joy.”
“They will not take my sister’s joy, they will not take my brother’s joy,” she continued. “They will not take our love, they will not take our faith. But our anguish is real. We need help. We need someone to tell the truth.”
This has clearly been an incredibly difficult and devastating time for Savannah, and for the entire Guthrie family. Please join us in saying a prayer for the return of Nancy Guthrie.