A prominent forensic expert, who has dedicated years to one of the nation’s largest medical examiner’s offices, shared her insights with Fox News Digital over the weekend, suggesting that Nancy Guthrie might have been targeted by a local individual who mistakenly presumed the family was wealthy.
“It’s astonishing that anyone would abduct a woman of her age,” remarked Barbara Butcher on Saturday during CrimeCon in Las Vegas. “I suspect someone local—perhaps a handyman or service worker—discovered that Mrs. Guthrie is Savannah Guthrie’s mother and assumed she must be wealthy. This individual is clearly troubled.”
Butcher, who is both a seasoned medicolegal death investigator and the host of Oxygen’s series “The Death Investigator,” expressed additional concerns. The absence of a genuine ransom demand suggests that Guthrie might have succumbed to shock or an existing health issue shortly after the alleged kidnapping, prompting the perpetrator to conceal the crime before it could be brought to light.
“Initially, when there was no credible ransom or information forthcoming, I suspected that Mrs. Guthrie likely died soon after the abduction—possibly from shock or a heart condition,” she explained.
“This thought is terrifying. The abductor, having achieved nothing, probably disposed of her body in the desert,” Butcher speculated.
Nancy Guthrie is believed to have been taken from her Tucson, Arizona home in the early hours of February 1.
She is the 84-year-old mother of “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie, whose family offered to meet ransom demands sent to TMZ in February.
Despite that, Guthrie’s whereabouts remain unknown.
The family is urging anyone with information to dial 1-800-CALL-FBI. There is a combined reward of more than $1.2 million for information that breaks the case.
Anonymous tips can also be sent to Tucson’s Crime Stoppers affiliate, 88-Crime, at 1-520-882-7463.
