The disappearance of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie — mother of NBC “Today” show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie — has moved from a heartbreaking missing-persons case into one of the most unsettling suspected kidnappings currently under investigation in the United States. On February 5, 2026, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos delivered a grim update that effectively ended any lingering hope the case might end with Nancy simply wandering away: the investigation is now a major-crime kidnapping inquiry with strong indications of premeditation.

A retired FBI agent who spent 23 years in the Bureau’s Behavioral Analysis Unit and Violent Crimes section, speaking on condition of anonymity, described the evidence trail as “textbook inside-job indicators with planning written all over it.” He pointed to the precise sequence of events captured by technology and the single, chilling 2:03 a.m. data point that has investigators particularly troubled.

Nancy was last seen alive at approximately 9:50 p.m. on January 31, 2026, when her son-in-law Tommaso Cioni dropped her off at her Catalina Foothills home after dinner at his and Annie Guthrie’s residence. The garage door opened, closed, and the house lights went off shortly afterward. Nothing unusual appeared for the next three hours and 57 minutes.

Then came the critical 41-minute window:

1:47 a.m. — The Ring doorbell camera physically disconnects or is removed from its mount. Sheriff Nanos confirmed the device itself is missing; it was not merely disabled or smashed while still in place.
2:03 a.m. — The camera’s motion-detection software registers a person (or significant movement) in its field of view and sends an alert to Nancy’s paired phone. Because Nancy never subscribed to Ring’s cloud-storage plan, any temporary footage was automatically overwritten after a short buffer period. No video survives.
2:28 a.m. — Nancy’s pacemaker Bluetooth connection to her cellphone drops permanently. The phone itself remained at the residence, meaning Nancy — or at least the pacemaker — was moved out of Bluetooth range (typically 30–100 feet depending on walls and interference) sometime between 2:03 a.m. and 2:28 a.m.

That single 2:03 a.m. motion alert is now regarded as one of the most important — and frustrating — pieces of evidence in the case. The former FBI profiler explained why:

“The camera is tampered with at 1:47 — taken down, removed, or destroyed. Twenty-six minutes pass. Then the very same device, or its sensor field, detects a person at 2:03 a.m. Either the offender came back after disabling it, or a second person was already inside the house waiting for the camera to be neutralized. Either scenario screams planning. Random burglars or opportunistic kidnappers don’t methodically disable the front-door camera and then wait 26 minutes before moving the victim. They grab and go. This delay suggests someone was waiting for the camera to be out of commission before carrying out the next step.”

Blood droplets — later confirmed as Nancy’s — were found on the front porch and inside the home near the entry. No signs of a prolonged struggle were reported, leading investigators to believe Nancy was either incapacitated quickly or taken by surprise while asleep or disoriented. Her cellphone, wallet, keys, and life-sustaining heart medications were all left behind — another hallmark of an abduction rather than a voluntary departure or random attack.

The profiler emphasized that the 26-minute gap after the camera is removed strongly points to someone familiar with the residence:

They knew exactly where the camera was mounted.
They knew disabling it would eliminate the primary visual record of the front approach.
They waited long enough to ensure no immediate alert would reach Nancy’s phone or a monitoring service (she had no paid subscription).
They then moved her during the small window when the device could still detect motion but could no longer record or store video.

“That kind of timing and foreknowledge usually comes from inside the household circle or someone who has had regular access to the home,” he said. “Strangers rarely have that level of situational awareness.”

The investigation has not publicly named any suspects or persons of interest. Sheriff Nanos has repeatedly stressed that “no one has been ruled out and no one has been definitively cleared.” However, law-enforcement sources speaking to multiple outlets have confirmed that Annie Guthrie and her husband Tommaso Cioni — the last people confirmed to have seen Nancy alive — have been extensively interviewed. Tommaso drove Nancy home after dinner at their house that evening. The couple’s vehicle was towed and searched, though authorities have not disclosed what, if anything, was recovered.

Three ransom-style emails were sent to media outlets (TMZ and two Tucson television stations) demanding millions in Bitcoin and threatening harm to Nancy if payment was not made. One individual, Derrick Callella of California, was arrested for sending a fraudulent note, but investigators believe at least one of the other messages may contain authentic details only the perpetrator would know.

The former FBI agent cautioned against jumping to conclusions but said the combination of premeditated camera tampering, the 26-minute delay, the pacemaker disconnect, and the fact that the last confirmed contact was with family members creates a “very troubling picture.” He added: “In abductions involving elderly victims, when no stranger is immediately apparent and the crime scene shows signs of familiarity with the residence, the statistical likelihood that someone close to the victim is involved rises sharply. The 2:03 a.m. motion hit is the piece that keeps pointing back to planning rather than impulse.”

Nancy’s pacemaker requires proximity to her phone for continuous monitoring. The sudden loss of connection at 2:28 a.m. — with the phone still at the house — strongly indicates she was physically removed from the property at that time. Without her medication and with her cardiac condition, time is critically short.

The FBI has joined the investigation and is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to Nancy’s safe return or the arrest and conviction of anyone responsible. Search efforts continue across the Tucson area, including desert regions, washes, and abandoned properties. Drones, K-9 units, and ground teams are still active.

For Savannah Guthrie and her family, every hour brings renewed anguish. The public waits anxiously for answers, while investigators quietly follow every lead — including the unsettling possibility that the person who planned Nancy’s disappearance may have been someone she trusted.