Skip to Content Facebook Feature Image

What to know about the investigation into Nancy Guthrie's disappearance

News

What to know about the investigation into Nancy Guthrie's disappearance
News

News

What to know about the investigation into Nancy Guthrie's disappearance

2026-02-16 09:36 Last Updated At:09:40

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — A glove containing DNA found a couple of miles from the Arizona home of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie ’s missing mother appears to match those worn by a masked person outside her house the night she disappeared, the FBI said Sunday.

The development comes as law enforcement gathers more potential evidence in the search for Nancy Guthrie, 84, which heads into its third week.

Nancy Guthrie was last seen at her Tucson home on Jan. 31 and was reported missing the following day. Authorities say her blood was found on the front porch. Purported ransom notes were sent to news outlets, but two deadlines for paying have passed.

Authorities have expressed concern about Nancy Guthrie’s health because she needs vital daily medicine. She is said to have a pacemaker and have dealt with high blood pressure and heart issues, according to sheriff’s dispatcher audio on broadcastify.com.

Here's what to know about her disappearance and the search to find her:

The FBI on Tuesday released surveillance videos of a person wearing a handgun holster outside Guthrie’s front door the night she vanished. A porch camera recorded video of the person with a backpack who was wearing a ski mask, long pants, jacket and gloves.

On Thursday, the FBI called the person a suspect. It described him as a man about 5 feet, 9 inches (1.75 meters) tall with a medium build. The agency said he was carrying a 25-liter “Ozark Trail Hiker Pack” backpack.

On Sunday, the FBI said in a statement that a glove, found in a field near the side of a road about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) from the home, had been sent off for DNA testing. The agency said that it received preliminary results Saturday and was awaiting official confirmation.

Late Friday, law enforcement agents sealed off a road about two miles (3.2 kilometers) from Guthrie’s home as part of their investigation. A series of sheriff’s and FBI vehicles, including forensics vehicles, passed through the roadblock.

Investigators also tagged and towed a Range Rover SUV from a nearby restaurant parking lot. The Pima County Sheriff’s Department said the activity was part of the Guthrie investigation.

Investigators collected DNA from Guthrie’s property which doesn’t belong to Guthrie or those in close contact with her, the sheriff's department said. Investigators are working to identify who it belongs to.

Evidence requiring forensic analysis is being sent to the same out-of-state lab that has been used since the beginning of the case, the department said.

The FBI has said approximately 16 gloves were found in various spots near the house, most of which were searchers’ gloves that had been discarded.

The Pima County sheriff and the FBI announced phone numbers and a website to offer tips. Several hundred detectives and agents have been assigned to the case, the sheriff’s department said.

The FBI said it has collected more than 13,000 tips since Feb. 1. The sheriff’s department, meanwhile, said it has taken at least 18,000 calls.

The sheriff’s department has not said whether any tips have advanced the investigation.

On Tuesday, sheriff deputies detained a person for questioning during a traffic stop south of Tucson. Authorities didn’t say what led them to stop the man but confirmed he was released.

The same day, deputies and FBI agents conducted a court-authorized search in Rio Rico, about an hour's drive south of the city.

Savannah Guthrie, her sister and her brother have gone on social media and shared multiple video messages to their mother’s purported captor.

The family’s Instagram videos have shifted in tone from impassioned pleas to whoever may have their mom, saying they want to talk and are even willing to pay a ransom, to bleaker and more desperate requests for the public’s help. A video on Thursday was simply a home video of their mother and a promise to “never give up on her.”

And on Sunday night, Savannah Guthrie posted an Instagram video in which she issued an appeal to whoever abducted her mother or anyone who knows where she is being kept. “It is never too late to do the right thing,” Guthrie said. “And we are here. And we believe in the essential goodness of every human being, that it’s never too late.”

Nancy Guthrie lived alone in the upscale Catalina Foothills neighborhood, where houses are spaced far apart and set back from the street by long driveways, gates and dense desert vegetation.

Savannah Guthrie grew up in Tucson, graduated from the University of Arizona and once worked at a television station in the city, where her parents settled in the 1970s. She joined “Today” in 2011.

In a video, she described her mother as a “loving woman of goodness and light.”

She has credited her mom with holding their family together after her father died of a heart attack in 1988 at age 49, when Savannah Guthrie — the youngest of three siblings — was just 16.

A person places flowers in front of Nancy Guthrie’s home in Tucson, Ariz., on Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)

A person places flowers in front of Nancy Guthrie’s home in Tucson, Ariz., on Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)

Stocks drifted mostly lower on Wall Street and oil prices slipped Friday ahead of planned U.S.-Iran talks following a shaky ceasefire agreement.

The S&P 500 inched 0.1% lower after a day of choppy trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.6% and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.4%.

The major indexes each notched a weekly gain for the second week in a row. They have been gaining ground this month amid optimism that the war with Iran could be heading toward a resolution. High-level talks between negotiators from Iran and the U.S. are planned for Saturday in Pakistan.

The benchmark S&P 500 has erased most of its losses from March and is just 2.3% short of its all-time high set in January. The market is still prone to big swings on developments around the war.

Oil prices have been behind many of the stock market’s sharp movements. They've risen sharply as shipping through the vital Strait of Hormuz essentially stalled since the war began.

Brent crude oil, the international standard, has gone from roughly $70 per barrel before the war in late February to more than $119 at times. Brent for June delivery fell 0.8% to $95.20 per barrel Friday.

A barrel of U.S. crude oil for May delivery dropped 1.3% to $96.57.

The situation leading into the peace talks over the weekend remains uncertain. Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency claimed that talks wouldn’t happen unless Israel stopped its attacks in Lebanon.

The conflict is behind surging inflation in the U.S. in March. The government reported the biggest spike in inflation in four years as prices at the gas pump jumped. The inflation increase was just short of what economists expected.

Bond yields rose a bit following the latest inflation update. The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 4.32% from 4.29% late Thursday.

Inflation has been a lingering concern for economists. Prices on a range of consumer goods and services are already stubbornly high, in part from the impact of extensive global tariffs. Higher gas prices are immediately felt by drivers at the pump, but they could eventually raise prices on everything from food to airfare as companies pass along higher costs for shipping and fuel.

Analysts are warning that there might be a drawn out impact from the oil supply shock in the months ahead.

“While I’m glad to see the effects to be less than expected in March, the effects in April are now more likely to be worse,” Jamie Cox, managing partner for Harris Financial Group, wrote in a research note.

Consumer sentiment slumped 10.7% percent in April, according to a closely watched monthly survey from the University of Michigan. It also shows that consumers are growing more worried about inflation, with year-ahead expectations surging to 4.8% in April from 3.8% in March.

Inflation remains a major concern for the Federal Reserve, which has signaled more caution amid worries about inflation reheating. The rate of inflation remains above the central bank's 2% target. The threat of rising inflation will likely mean the central bank continues to hold interest rates steady. Several Fed officials have also said a rate hike may be needed if inflation doesn’t cool.

Lower interest rates help boost stocks and other investments by lowering borrowing costs. Interest rate cuts also risk worsening inflation.

Most companies in the S&P 500 lost ground Friday, with health care and financial company stocks driving much of the decline. Eli Lilly and Co. fell 1.6% and Charles Schwab closed 2.5% lower.

Technology stocks with hefty values helped offset losses elsewhere. Nvidia rose 2.6% and Broadcom rose 4.7%.

All told, the S&P 500 fell 7.77 points to 6,816.89. The Dow dropped 269.23 points to 47,916.57, and the Nasdaq gained 80.48 points to close at 22,902.89.

Markets in Asia gained ground while markets in Europe were mixed.

Bobby Charmak works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Bobby Charmak works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

John Mauro works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

John Mauro works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Philip Finale works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Philip Finale works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A screen showing Asia markets indexes at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A screen showing Asia markets indexes at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders stretch near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), right, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders stretch near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), right, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Recommended Articles