TUCSON — On the six-month anniversary of Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance, all that was left of a memorial that once stood outside her home was a yellow ribbon on a lamppost and “NO PARKING” signs lining her quiet street.
Tucson is slowly moving on from Guthrie’s abduction as the unsolved case hits the half-year mark, with few answers to who may have taken her ― or why.
“Any time there's a passage of time, given the pace of life and just the pace of change in our culture, people do start to … move on,” said Pima County Supervisor Rex Scott, a Democrat who represents Guthrie’s neighborhood in the Catalina Foothills.
The frantic search for the 84-year-old Guthrie captured the attention of the nation when she disappeared from her home on Feb. 1. As the months
passed, Scott said the community felt “just a tremendous amount of sadness and loss for the fact that she hasn't been found.”
The case has been marked by chilling ransom notes, a tug-of-war between the FBI and the local sheriff and a media circus that upended Guthrie’s neighborhood and left her loved ones on edge.
Despite receiving tens of thousands of tips, investigators have never publicly identified a suspect in Guthrie’s abduction.
“The community really tried to help as much as we possibly could,” said Tucson Mayor Regina Romero, who met the Guthrie family when they filmed a “Today” show segment in Tucson last year.
“I'm really praying for the Guthrie family and for them to find peace, but also get the information that they need,” Romero said.
Just before the anniversary of Guthrie’s disappearance, law enforcement hit another dead end. Testing on a hair found at Guthrie’s home led nowhere, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos told a local TV station.
“Nothing about our situation has changed,” “TODAY” show co-host Savannah Guthrie said in a recent Instagram video. She begged anyone with information about her mother’s disappearance to do the right thing.
The Pima County Sheriff's Department on July 31 shared the initial ransom notetied to Guthrie's kidnapping, along with the follow-up note claiming she had died, as officials renewed their plea for information.
‘Almost like it didn’t happen’
Traces of the search for Guthrie slowly faded from southern Arizona as the case stretched to six months.
“There's no flyers. There's like one billboard off of I-10,” said Sgt. Aaron Cross, the president of the Pima County Deputy’s Association and a sharp critic of Nanos. “It’s almost like it didn't happen.”
On a late July morning, the only remnant of the Guthrie memorial that had once filled her street was a yellow ribbon on the lamppost outside her house.
Guthrie’s driveway was roped off and blocked by traffic cones. Signs read “PRIVATE PROPERTY” and “NO TRESPASSING.” There were no cars in the driveway. Curtains were drawn over each window.
“For people who know the family as well as many of the folks in that neighborhood do, I'm sure there are frequent reminders of the loss that's occurred and the sadness associated with that,” Scott said.
Parking is banned on Guthrie’s stretch of Camino Escalante, a restriction that was sparked by media that descended on her quiet neighborhood in February and March. Three true crime YouTubers were arrested there in June after months of complaints from neighbors.
Though the news reporters, livestreamers and influencers have largely moved on from the scene of Guthrie’s kidnapping, the occasional onlooker still stops by.
A silver SUV rolled to a stop at Guthrie’s house with its windows down on July 29. Passengers in the back seat held up smartphones and appeared to snap pictures of the house.
A few miles away, the home of Guthrie’s daughter Annie was similarly fortified with a “NO TRESPASSING” sign and covered windows. The driveway was empty.
A small Guthrie tribute had also disappeared from a storied Tucson restaurant where the missing woman was featured dining with her daughters in a “TODAY” show segment.
Staff at El Charro Café had donned yellow ribbons to show their hope that Guthrie would be found. By the end of July, the servers no longer wore the ribbons on their uniforms.
Investigators still searching
As the search for Guthrie dragged on, there was little new information on the six-month anniversary of her kidnapping.
“The Guthrie investigation remains active and ongoing. A task force of investigators from the Pima County Sheriff’s Department and the FBI remains committed to finding Nancy and providing answers to her family,” Pima County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson Angelica Carrillo said in an email.
Investigators are still analyzing DNA and digital evidence, Carrillo said.
The last significant break in the case came in February, when investigators retrieved doorbell camera footage of a masked person on Guthrie’s doorstep the night she disappeared. However, the video yielded few answers.
The FBI described the man as 5-foot-9 to 5-foot-10 inches tall, with an average build and wore a black, 25-liter "Ozark Trail Hiker Pack" backpack sold exclusively at Walmart.
While law enforcement detained and questioned at least two individuals shortly after retrieving the footage, both were ultimately released without criminal charges. Investigators have not identified a suspect in connection to Guthrie’s kidnapping.
“As Savannah Guthrie recently said, it is never too late to do the right thing. Anyone with information is urged to come forward and help bring this case to a resolution,” Carrillo said.
Law enforcement has asked anyone with information to contact 1-800-CALL-FBI, 520-351-4900, 88-CRIME or visit tips.fbi.gov.
The FBI declined to comment on the six-month milestone. Officials have not held a news conference on the case since Feb. 5.
Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona, is so close to the Guthrie family that Savannah Guthrie called him before her mother was publicly reported missing. Kelly, a Tucson resident, brought donuts to the Sheriff’s Department in the early days of the search.
He did not respond to a request for comment about the six-month anniversary of Guthrie going missing.
Recent developments about the investigation have largely come from media reports sharing the contents of two notes allegedly from Guthrie’s captorsshared with news outlets early in the investigation.
Those details included the second note offering an apology for Guthrie’s unintended death and that she was “buried in nature now,” according to former KTVK-TV reporter Brianna Whitney on an episode of the “Crime Junkies” podcast.
Mayor: Support for family will remain
Tucson-area residents have faced new challenges since Guthrie’s disappearance.
Nine people were injured in a mass shooting in downtown Tucson on July 19, the city's largest instance of gun violence since a man opened fire on former Rep. Gabby Giffords, D-Arizona, in a Tucson parking lot in 2011.
Still, there have been recent reminders of Guthrie’s disappearance. A man broke down in tears at a Pima County Board of Supervisors meeting on July 14, telling county leaders he had traveled from Florida to Tucson to search for the missing woman.
“I do not think we are going to forget,” Romero said. “And the support that Tucsonans have been offering the Guthrie family will remain.”
Stephanie Murray covers national politics and the Trump administration for The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. She co-hosts “The Gaggle,” The Republic’s weekly politics podcast. Reach her at stephanie.murray@usatodayco.com, on X and TikTok @stephanie_murr and on Instagram @stephaniemurray.news.
Reach the reporter Perry Vandell at perry.vandell@arizonarepublic.com or 480-341-9433. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @PerryVandell.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Despite 'tremendous sadness,' Tucson area moves on as Guthrie search stalls
