How Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance compares to other missing persons cases
The search for Nancy Guthrie, mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie, is well into its third week, and there are still no suspects. It’s a search that has made headlines nationally and even caught the attention of President Donald Trump.
Nancy was taken from her home in Tucson, Arizona, in the early morning hours on Feb. 1. Since then, law enforcement has executed extensive searches in the neighborhood around her home, released surveillance photos and videos, and even recovered a glove similar to what a suspect wore in surveillance footage.
The FBI has been called in to investigate, and agents are using a “signal sniffer” mounted on a helicopter to detect possible transmissions from Guthrie’s pacemaker in the area around her home.
Yet, law enforcement has not identified any suspects or planned any additional press conferences to provide updates. It’s unclear how many officers and federal agents remain on the case, or if there are plans to draw back efforts.
The FBI is now offering a $100,000 reward for information that would lead to Guthrie’s recovery, and the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said the department and the FBI have received between 40,000 and 50,000 leads.
Where the case goes from here and how long searches for Guthrie could continue remain unknown. Similar nationwide hunts, however, have lasted anywhere from days to years.
Other prominent missing person cases
In the case of Gabby Petito, who went missing during a cross-country “van life” road trip with her fiancé, law enforcement never formally pulled back search efforts until Petito’s remains were found three weeks after her disappearance and eight days after being reported missing.
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The Federal Bureau of Investigation estimates that 750,000 to 800,000 missing-person cases occur annually.
Her disappearance led to law enforcement discovering five more bodies of missing persons.
In a statement to the Guthrie family last week, the Petito family said to never “let go of hope.” They added, “Hang on and just don’t read the comments.”
The search for Petito was different than that of Isabel Celis, a 6-year-old girl who was taken from her bed in Arizona in 2012 and found dead five years later.
Celis was last seen in Tucson on a Friday, and by the following Wednesday, police announced they were scaling back search efforts. The police chief at the time said the department was shifting from search-and-rescue to investigative efforts.
It would be another five years before Celis’ body was found.
Even longer than that is the ongoing disappearance of 3-year-old Madeleine McCann. She vanished while on vacation with her family in Portugal in 2007 and has been missing for over 18 years.
Police searched for McCann for months before her parents finally returned to the U.K. It was more than a year later when law enforcement at last shelved the investigation, having found no new leads.
Years passed, and the McCanns said law enforcement wasn’t actively searching for their daughter. In 2011, then-Prime Minister David Cameron asked the police to reopen the investigation into her disappearance, which led to a two-year review.
Since then, search efforts have been intermittent as new witnesses, evidence, and suspects have come forward, but none have yielded answers for the McCann family.
Is the case going cold?
While it’s unclear how the Guthrie case will play out, previous missing-person cases show that investigators will continue investigating even if they eventually scale back efforts.
If Guthrie’s disappearance goes on long enough, the case could go cold, but that typically only occurs when law enforcement has exhausted all efforts and has no new leads for an extended period of time, typically more than a year.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
