A quiet desert retreat has transformed into a chilling crime scene. As the search for Savannah Guthrie’s mother, Nancy, enters its third day, terrified neighbors are breaking their silence about bloodstains on the porch and the pitch-black streets that may have aided a kidnapper. From helicopters over the Catalina Foothills to the “horrible invasion” shaking the community, this is a race against time. WATCH the latest updates on the investigation that has a whole city on edge.
The affluent Catalina Foothills community remains in shock as investigators probe a “horrible invasion” and search for clues in the 84-year-old’s disappearance.
TUCSON — Helicopters circled over Karen Lane’s residence the night of Feb. 1, while police vehicles crowded the quiet, winding streets of the Catalina Foothills neighborhood in southern Arizona.
Lane didn’t know what to make of the unusual commotion until the following morning, when she discovered that Nancy Guthrie, the mother of “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie and the neighbor across from her relative’s house, was missing. “Something was unfolding, but we didn’t know what, and so that makes it frightening,” said Lane, who has resided in the neighborhood for 44 years and now bolts her door after the incident.
“This is a bizarre occurrence. It’s one thing to have intruders come in and harm someone. But she has been abducted,” Lane added.
As the search for Nancy Guthrie stretched into its third day, neighbors on their morning walk stopped near the house, trying to make new meaning of the event. Guthrie was declared missing after she did not attend church on Sunday as usual; authorities state she was kidnapped from her home sometime after about 9:45 p.m. on Jan. 31. There was little new information released on Feb. 3.
The Pima County sheriff said he would not hold another news conference until Thursday, Feb. 5, awaiting a break in the case.
Nancy Guthrie is the ‘sweetest, kindest woman,’ neighbor says
The foothills, north of Tucson, are a wealthy district made up of spacious lots with plentiful desert flora and a front-row view of the Catalina Mountains. The skyline of downtown Tucson can be seen from spots in the neighborhood, but it is miles away.
Taking a walk on an unusually warm February morning, neighbors stopped near the cross streets to Guthrie’s home and asked each other what they knew. Some were newcomer retirees, others said they had raised kids and lived for generations in the area, and described the neighborhood as a quiet place where everyone knows each other.
Aldine Meister, 58, was traveling to work and drove near the residence hoping to obtain fresh updates. She has resided in the neighborhood for decades and attended high school with Guthrie’s three children. When a neighbor north of Guthrie’s home told her she had gone missing, they went to look for her in nearby desert trails and desert washes, fearing she had gone out for a walk and fallen.
The event has been “devastating,” said Meister, adding she has been glued to the news since Sunday. She described Nancy as “the sweetest, kindest woman”.
Outside Guthrie’s red brick home, bird song was only interrupted by the hum of dozens of running engines from reporters’ cars lining the street. An Amazon delivery driver dropped off a package addressed to Guthrie on the front stoop.
There was a blue shirt strewn over a rock near the front entrance. One garden light was tipped over. Nothing indicated either had to do with the abduction of the 84-year-old Guthrie. There were dried beads of a reddish substance on the Spanish tile threshold.
So rural, home security cameras capture bears on the streets
The home was described as a crime scene, though there was no yellow tape surrounding the Guthrie home on Feb. 3. The Pima County Sheriff’s Department said it would not comment on any DNA evidence collected at the scene. It would not confirm whose blood was found outside.
The event feels like a “horrible intrusion,” said Lane, who was out walking her grandson in a carriage with a friend.
Authorities went to her house Monday night and interviewed other neighbors on Tuesday morning, asking them to be on the lookout and share any footage from security cameras outside their homes.
There are no streetlights in that Catalina Foothills neighborhood, a trait praised by stargazers but one that can assist someone with malicious intent to act with the benefit of darkness. With the streets in pitch blackness, some neighbors said their cameras don’t capture much more than the immediate surroundings of their home. The neighborhood gets “pretty dark” at night, Lane said.
“It’s not a trick-or-treat kind of neighborhood, if you get my drift,” she added.
Mary Wombat, 65, who has lived in the neighborhood for 50 years, said her security camera captured a black bear near her house three times. One of the times, it was just after sunrise. For the other two, she said, the bear got close enough to trip over a light and the camera.
“This is how rural we are,” Wombat said.
In a separate region of north Tucson, law enforcement vehicles were stationed outside the residence of Annie Guthrie, the sister of Savannah Guthrie.
About 4:15 p.m. local time, two people wearing suit jackets and a man wearing a gray T-shirt walked out of the home. A few moments later, a woman who had a county sheriff’s badge clipped to her pants walked out. None responded to reporters’ requests for comments. A private security guard parked outside the house said the family did not wish to be disturbed.
