The Federal Bureau of Investigation is turning to billboard advertising in Houston, appealing to the public for assistance in the case of Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance.
Nancy Guthrie, the mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie, was last seen on January 31. Authorities suspect she may have been taken from her residence.
To bolster the search for the 84-year-old grandmother, billboards displaying her image and an FBI contact number will be placed in surrounding states, according to the Pima County sheriff. This initiative is part of a strategy that has yielded positive results in prior investigations.
These billboards are scheduled to appear not only in other Texas cities such as El Paso, San Antonio, and Dallas, but also in Albuquerque, San Diego, and Los Angeles, as stated by Brooke A. Brennan, Public Affairs Officer for the FBI’s Phoenix division.
The FBI launched the digital billboard program in 2007 following a suggestion from a citizen academy participant who proposed using outdoor advertising as a public service, the FBI’s program page explains.
Since its inception, the program has expanded to include 7,300 billboards across 46 states, and it has “directly led to 57 fugitive captures” while assisting in “numerous other investigations,” according to a 2017 update from the FBI.
“Because digital billboards can be quickly changed and updated, information about a kidnapped child, a bank robbery, or a matter of public safety can immediately be displayed,” the FBI says on its website. “And messages can be targeted to specific geographic locations, which is important when time is of the essence.”
CNN writers Taylor Romine and Josh Campbell and ABC News’ Nadine El-Bawab and Aaron Katersky contributed to this report.
