Nancy Guthrie was probably taken into Mexico by her kidnappers and may have died there, according to a grim new theory from a veteran former Pima County lawman.
Former Pima County Sheriff’s Department official Rick Kastigar told NewsNation he believes multiple people abducted the 84-year-old from her Tucson-area home and moved her south of the border so they could manage her medical needs while seeking ransom.
He said the kidnappers would have had an incentive to keep Guthrie alive at first because her family was being asked to pay millions of dollars, according to TV Insider.
Kastigar added that he now thinks she has died and that those responsible “have nothing to bargain any further,” stressing this is his theory, not an established fact.
Guthrie, the mother of “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie, has been missing since she was abducted overnight around Feb. 1 from her home near Tucson, Arizona.
Investigators say evidence at the scene shows she was taken against her will, and they have treated her residence as a crime scene. Authorities have not recovered her phone or the vehicle believed to have been used in the abduction.
Detectives have released doorbell camera footage of a masked suspect outside the residence around the time Guthrie vanished, including images of the person removing the device.
Around that same period, her home security system, other connected devices, and her pacemaker-linked monitoring equipment abruptly stopped transmitting. Investigators say those cutoffs are part of why they are treating the case as a sophisticated, targeted kidnapping.
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has said homicide investigators are involved and that his office is working closely with federal agents, including an FBI-led task force now dedicated full-time to the case.
Officials have emphasized that the family has been cleared as suspects and are considered victims. No one has been arrested or charged, and authorities have not publicly named any person of interest.
In recent days, Nanos has highlighted Jan. 11 as a key date and said investigators “believe something happened” then, based on FBI analysis of digital evidence.
The sheriff’s office has asked neighbors and anyone within about a 2-mile radius of Guthrie’s Catalina Foothills home to review security footage and share anything unusual from Jan. 1 to Feb. 2.
The FBI has also recovered new still images from cameras around the property, though nothing in them has been deemed suspicious.
Law enforcement sources say the FBI contacted Mexican authorities in February about Guthrie’s disappearance and the possibility she could have been taken across the nearby border, My News4 reported.
Sonoran officials, however, have said they have not been asked to carry out a formal search on Mexican soil and have not seen proof that Guthrie is in Mexico. Security specialists note that heightened monitoring at ports of entry would make moving a high-profile kidnap victim into Mexico risky and difficult.
Investigators and the family have received ransom emails demanding large cryptocurrency payments, which have been turned over to the FBI. Tip-line calls have tapered off after an early surge, but investigators say the case is not going cold as the dedicated task force continues to work leads.
As the search passes the 50-day mark, Guthrie’s family has issued new pleas asking people to recheck cameras, messages, and memories from late January and early February for anything that might have been missed, as per Men’s Journal.
Originally published on Lawyer Herald
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