Law enforcement fighting online rumor mill in Nancy Guthrie investigation
The disappearance of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie, mother of “TODAY” show co-host and NBC News journalist Savannah Guthrie, and information about the circumstances leading up to her kidnapping have fueled false claims on social media about suspects and the family’s role in the investigation.
The claims social media users made have reached the Pima County Sheriff’s office, which has joined Guthrie’s family in issuing statements debunking rumors. One such claim gaining traction from journalists and online personalities is the role a family member is playing in Guthrie’s disappearance.
“I can tell you that there is a family member who is being heavily looked at right now as a potential suspect,” journalist Ashleigh Banfield said on a Tuesday episode of her Drop Dead Serious true crime podcast carried by NewsNation.
She later credits an anonymous law enforcement source for saying that son-in-law Tommaso Cioni is a prime suspect. True crime sleuths and news outlets spread the claim, causing one of Guthrie’s relatives to speak up.
“Tommaso is an amazing guy,” Zach Lind, Guthrie’s nephew and drummer for rock band Jimmy Eat World, wrote on X Wednesday morning. “Absolutely no way he’s involved. Shame on Banfield for spreading this garbage.”
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos, at a Thursday news conference, called it “reckless to report that someone is a suspect when they could very well be a victim.”
“You can actually be doing some damage to the case, but you can do some damage to that individual too,” he said. “Social media is kind of an ugly world sometimes.”
Guthrie’s family is the latest to be affected by speculation during an active investigation.
Misinformation harming innocent people
The online public’s attraction to true crime and compulsion to help police crack tough cases has caused distress — and in an extreme case, death — to those people accused.
An Idaho professor became the target of social media’s theories in the killings of four University of Idaho students. She was exonerated when police arrested Bryan Kohberger months after the murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin.
Time Magazine reported in 2023 that the professor became the public’s suspect after TikToker Ashley Guillard told her followers the professor had a romantic relationship with one of the victims and conspired with another person for the quadruple homicide. She repeated the claim at least 50 times.
The professor served Guillard with two cease-and-desist letters, but Guillard continued her claims and still contends on TikTok that Kohberger didn’t commit the crime. She credits her claims to tarot readings.
“These untrue statements create safety issues for the Professor and her family,” the professor’s lawyer told Time.
Sometimes, misinformation has led to deadly results in criminal investigations, as seen in the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing when police searched for suspects.
Internet sleuths wrongly said Sunil Tripathi committed the bombings, The Independent reported in 2013. Brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were later arrested as the lone suspects.
Tripathi died by suicide.
False information hinders police investigations
University of Utah associate professor of communications Ben Lyons said that, because social media is optimized for engagement, emotional and shocking content spreads much faster than news updates.
“Official sources have to compete side-by-side with rumors and unverified accounts,” he said.
That’s happening in real time, with the Pima County Sheriff urging people not to spread unverified information as police continue searching for Guthrie.
“Detectives are working closely with the Guthrie family,” the department posted Wednesday morning. “While we appreciate the public’s concern, the sharing of unverified accusations or false information is irresponsible and does not assist the investigation.”
It had a deadly effect in the Boston Marathon bombings, but has helped investigators find a crack in the case of Gabby Petito, criminal justice professor Adam Scott Wandt wrote in an NBC News analysis in 2021. Petito’s body was later found in Wyoming after YouTubers reviewed their own videos and sent information on to the police.
He cautioned against users crediting themselves for solving the case as law enforcement possess both skills and equipment to vet through tips.
For Guthrie’s family, accusations are personally harmful. Lind asked his followers to rethink their theories as the search continues for Nancy.
“Imagine going through everything this family is going through and also having to contend with vile humans who post stuff like this,” he wrote on X in reply to a claim about Cioni. “Unreal. Annie and Tommy are amazing people, dedicated parents who also love and care for Nancy on a daily basis.”
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
