Nancy Guthrie has been missing for almost two months, and due to the lack of substantial leads in the investigation, many have used the stagnant developments to push their own conspiracy theories.
One recent rumor has prompted local authorities to directly address it, as the discovery of a woman’s dead body has sparked online speculation it could be the missing 84-year-old.
Police Address Rumors That Woman’s Dead Body Found Is Nancy Guthrie
On Friday, March 28, the Scottsdale Police Department shared a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, regarding the discovery of an unidentified woman’s body in an Arizona canal about 100 miles from Nancy Guthrie’s Tucson home.
“A death investigation is underway after an adult woman’s body was recovered from a canal near Indian Bend and Hayden Roads on March 28th,” the statement began. “Police and fire personnel were first called to the area around 8 a.m. after someone walking along the canal saw the body in the water.”
“Scottsdale detectives and crime scene specialists responded to the scene to collect evidence and thoroughly document the scene,” the statement continued.
Authorities also shared the condition of the body and confirmed they are working to determine the identity of the dead woman.
“Due to the condition of the body, investigators are initially unable to confirm if there are traumatic injuries present. The investigation is still in the early stages as detectives work to confirm the identity of the person and how they ended up in the canal,” the statement read.
When an X user asked if the unidentified body was connected to Guthrie’s disappearance, the Scottsdale Police Department responded that it was “not related” to Guthrie’s disappearance, which is being led by the Pima County Sheriff’s Department.
Retired FBI Agent Shared That Guthrie Investigation Is ‘Much Harder’ As Case Lingers On
On March 17, CBS News spoke with retired FBI supervisory special agent Lance Leising, who told the outlet that it will be difficult to keep the investigation going without any new leads.
“The lack of meaningful leads. That’s the initial thing it says to me,” Leising said of the investigation seemingly being at a standstill. “It becomes much harder to keep the investigation going, keep it current, and fight for new leads.”
However, he did note that the lack of leads doesn’t mean that all hope is lost in finding Guthrie because the process “takes a while.”
“Maybe you’ve got multiple people within the same DNA family that could potentially be suspects. You have to investigate each one of those independently,” he said.
“I’d like to be hopeful that — and I’m sure the family is incredibly hopeful — that the silence is because they’re on to something,” Leising continued. “They just need to investigate harder.”
Dates Of Two Surveillance Videos Have Taken Guthrie Investigation In New Direction
According to PEOPLE, investigators are now paying close attention to video footage from the weeks before Guthrie disappeared, specifically on January 11 and January 24.
Neighbors in her Tucson community say authorities have recently asked about surveillance footage tied to those dates, suggesting they could be the key to determining what led up to Guthrie’s disappearance.
The January 11 footage was previously requested by authorities, specifically between 9 p.m. and midnight, pointing to a precise window they believe could contain relevant activity.
Additionally, footage from January 31 between 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. was also requested, which was the day before Guthrie was last seen.
The renewed attention follows previously released footage showing a masked individual at Guthrie’s front door in the early hours of February 1, who was described as having an average build, carrying a backpack, and appearing to be armed.
Pima County Sheriff Reveals Authorities ‘Know Why’ Nancy Guthrie Was Abducted
Sheriff Chris Nanos of the Pima County Sheriff’s Department shared in an interview with NBC News that he and other members of the sheriff’s department believe they “know why” Guthrie was kidnapped from her home.
“We believe we know why [the kidnapper] did this and we believe that it was targeted, but we’re not 100% sure of that,” Nanos said on March 12. “So it’d be silly to tell people, ‘Don’t worry about it. You’re not his target.’ You could be. Don’t think for a minute that because it happened to the Guthrie family, you’re safe. No. Keep your wits about you.”
Speaking about the details of a possible motive, Sheriff Nanos stopped short of sharing them publicly.
“I think it’s come out from day one,” he told NBC News. “I think day one, we had some strong beliefs about what happened, and those beliefs haven’t diminished. I’m not going to get into those theories. We have our beliefs. Everybody else has theirs.”
Savannah Guthrie Announced Her Official Return To The ‘Today’ Show
On Friday, March 27, Hoda Kotb, who conducted Savannah Guthrie’s first sit-down interview since her mother’s disappearance, shared on the “Today” show that she would officially make her return to the show on Monday, April 6.
In the third part of the interview, Savannah explained her decision to return to the show as her mother, who disappeared on February 1, remains missing.
“It’s hard to imagine doing it because it’s such a place of joy and lightness and I can’t come back and try to be something that I’m not,” she said of returning to her co-anchor spot. “But I can’t not come back because it’s my family. I think it’s part of my purpose right now. I want to smile.”
“And when I do, it will be real. And my joy will be my protest. My joy will be my answer,” she continued. “And being there is joyful. And when it’s not, I’ll say so. I have been so grateful to have this family. I consider this my family, my greater family, and when times are hard, you want to be with your family. And I want to be with my family.”
Savannah admitted how difficult it will be to return to airwaves in the midst of such an extreme personal tragedy.
“I don’t know if I can do it. I don’t know if I’ll belong anymore, but I would like to try. I would like to try. I’m not gonna be the same, but maybe it’s like that old poem, more beautiful in the broken places,” she told Kotb.