Kidnapping survivor Elizabeth Smart is calling on the public to keep searching for Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of "Today" co-host Savannah Guthrie, who was taken from her Tucson home 25 weeks ago with no arrest and no proof of life.
Smart, who was held captive for nine months after her own abduction as a teenager in 2002, told E! News in an interview published Friday that the absence of a body means hope remains. She pointed to her own rescue, made possible only because ordinary people recognized her captors from news coverage and picked up the phone.
The case has dragged on for nearly half a year. The Pima County Sheriff's Department says Nancy Guthrie was taken by force from her home in the Catalina Foothills neighborhood of Tucson, Arizona, in the early hours of February 1. Investigators have released doorbell camera footage of a masked intruder, confirmed bloodstains on the property belong to Guthrie, fielded at least one fraudulent ransom demand, and conducted DNA testing whose results remain sealed. No suspect has been publicly charged. The reward for information now exceeds $1.2 million.
Smart, now 38, did not hold back about what she wants the public to do. Fox News reported her appeal:
"I want to remind people that there isn't a body, so there is still reason to have hope that she is alive and that we shouldn't give up until we find her."
She pressed the point further, urging anyone with even a fragment of information to come forward.
"If anyone knows anything or seen anything, or the smallest detail that might seem insignificant can make all the difference, just report it."
Smart's own rescue came down to a phone call from a stranger
Smart's credibility on the subject is personal. In June 2002, at age 14, she was abducted at knifepoint from her family's home in Salt Lake City, Utah, by Brian David Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee. For nine months she was held captive. Her rescue came only after members of the public recognized Mitchell and Barzee from news coverage and called authorities in Sandy, Utah, roughly 20 miles south of the Smart family home.
That experience, a case cracked not by a forensic breakthrough but by an alert citizen, is the foundation of Smart's argument. Twenty-five weeks into the Guthrie investigation, with forensic results still under wraps and no named suspect, public vigilance may be the most valuable asset left.
Doorbell footage shows a masked, armed figure at 1:47 a.m.
The most concrete piece of evidence released to the public is home security video from Nancy Guthrie's Nest doorbell camera. The FBI and Google released the recovered footage, which shows a masked individual carrying a backpack and what appears to be a holstered weapon attempting to disable the camera at 1:47 a.m. on February 1. National Review reported that the backpack was identified as a black 25-liter Ozark Trail Hiker Pack.
Bloodstains found at the scene were confirmed to belong to Guthrie. Paulette Sutton, a retired bloodstain pattern analyst formerly with the Shelby County Medical Examiner's Office, described the pattern as a "drip trail", meaning a continuous source of blood dripping from an object or a person. That detail suggests Guthrie may have been injured during the abduction, a grim fact compounded by her family's disclosure that she suffers from a heart condition and has limited mobility.
DNA testing and other forensic work have been conducted, but investigators have not made the results public. The FBI has faced scrutiny over its handling of the evidence, with reports of internal disagreement about how to interpret what investigators have collected so far.
Ransom notes, a death claim, and one guilty plea, but no answers
The case has been clouded by a series of ransom demands whose authenticity remains unresolved. At least one note demanded millions in Bitcoin and was sent to multiple media outlets. A separate follow-up message claimed Guthrie had died. Investigators have declined to confirm or deny whether either communication is genuine.
FBI Special Agent in Charge Heath Yonke of the Phoenix Division acknowledged the ransom letter publicly but kept his assessment narrow. "We are aware of a ransom letter that was sent to the local media and then to national outlets," he told reporters. "As with every lead, we are taking it seriously."
One demand turned out to be a fraud. Derrick Callella, 42, of Hawthorne, California, pleaded guilty to federal charges for sending a fake ransom note to the family. His arrest, while a step forward, did nothing to identify the person on the doorbell footage or explain what happened to Nancy Guthrie after she was taken.
The full text of the first ransom note has since been made public, revealing demands for cryptocurrency and threats against Guthrie's life, yet investigators still have not confirmed a link between any ransom communication and the actual abductor.
A detention south of Tucson, then silence
In early February, a person was detained for questioning south of Tucson by the Pima County Sheriff's Department with FBI assistance. FBI Director Kash Patel said at the time that investigators had "made substantial progress in these last 36-48 hours, thanks to the technical capabilities of the FBI and our partnerships." Newsmax reported the detention came after the release of the doorbell camera footage prompted a surge in public tips.
But no charges followed. No suspect has been publicly identified. And the investigation, now stretching past five months, has produced no announced leads beyond the footage, the blood evidence, and the fraudulent ransom plea.
Savannah Guthrie has described her family as living in a "nightmare that will not end." In a public plea directed at whoever took her mother, she said: "The world can be a cruel and unforgiving place, and I know that you have tried to do things the right way. So I am asking you, begging you, to do the right thing now." She also told viewers upon her return to the "Today" show that "it's really hard to come back." Just The News reported that the family has contributed to the reward fund alongside authorities and Tucson Crime Stoppers.
Separately, investigators confirmed that a second ransom note claiming Guthrie was dead could not be verified, leaving the family in an agonizing limbo between grief and hope.
A nearby kidnapping suspect ruled out, but questions remain
Public speculation briefly spiked when the Pima County Sheriff's Department issued a BOLO alert for Coral Michelle Smith, 40, wanted for kidnapping and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in an incident roughly 6.8 miles from Guthrie's home. Smith had an extensive criminal history, including a prior kidnapping charge and a residential robbery conviction involving a victim under 15. But Pima County officials told the New York Post flatly: "This case is not related to the Guthrie investigation."
The false alarm underscored a broader frustration. After 25 weeks, the public knows what the masked figure on the doorbell camera looked like. They know the blood on the porch was Guthrie's. They know a convicted fraud sent a fake ransom note. They know DNA tests were run. What they do not know is who took an 84-year-old woman from her bed in the middle of the night, or whether she is still alive.
The case stands at five months with no resolution, and the list of unanswered questions grows longer with each passing week.
Over $1.2 million in rewards, and still waiting
The combined reward from federal authorities, Tucson's 88-CRIME tip line, and the Guthrie family now exceeds $1.2 million. Authorities are asking anyone with information to call the FBI tip line at 1-800-CALL-FBI or the anonymous Tucson Crime Stoppers line at 520-88-CRIME.
Elizabeth Smart's intervention carries weight precisely because she lived through the worst-case scenario and came out the other side. Her rescue in 2003 did not happen because of a forensic lab result or a wiretap. It happened because two people on a street in Sandy, Utah, looked at a stranger's face and thought, "I've seen that man on the news."
Smart did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment beyond the E! News interview. But her message was clear enough: the smallest detail from an ordinary person could break the case open.
Twenty-five weeks is a long time. For an 84-year-old woman with a heart condition and limited mobility, it is an eternity. If anyone in law enforcement or the public has a lead they have not yet reported, the clock is not slowing down.
