Nancy Guthrie
Nancy Guthrie

Nearly six months after 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie disappeared from her home outside Tucson, Arizona, the sheriff leading the investigation says he remains confident authorities will solve the case, even as the search continues without a named suspect or a confirmed resolution.

Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said investigators are still working through substantial amounts of forensic and video evidence gathered since Guthrie's disappearance. "We have so much DNA to sort through," Nanos said in an interview that aired Tuesday on NBC's "Today" show. "We have so much in terms of video evidence to look at. So, I'm still positive that we're going to resolve this case."

Guthrie, the mother of "Today" co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, was reported missing on Feb. 1 after she failed to appear for a Sunday church livestream. Authorities believe she was taken from her home in the Catalina Foothills area north of Tucson sometime late on Jan. 31 or in the early hours of the following morning. The FBI has said it is investigating the case as a kidnapping for ransom, and the bureau reiterated in a recent statement on X that the case continues to be treated that way.

In the days after Guthrie's disappearance, her family received a ransom note demanding $6 million, with a deadline set for 5 p.m. on Feb. 9. That deadline passed without confirmation that Guthrie had been located or that any payment had changed hands. A combined reward exceeding $1.2 million has remained active throughout the case for information leading to her safe return.

The investigation took an unusual turn in June, when NBC News reported that a second note had been sent to media outlets indicating Nancy Guthrie had died. According to three people familiar with the matter who spoke to NBC News, the note contained no apology and made no additional request for payment in exchange for the return of her body. Savannah Guthrie addressed the development briefly on "Today" following the report. "This is unusual and unprecedented to say the least, to be sitting here," she said on air, adding that she was not personally involved in her network's coverage of the story and had no further comment on it.

Despite that development, authorities have not confirmed Nancy Guthrie's death, and the case remains classified as an active kidnapping investigation. In June, volunteers and investigators searched an area near the U.S.-Mexico border in southern Arizona after receiving information suggesting she might have been buried there, but the search turned up no evidence.

Savannah Guthrie has continued to make repeated public appeals throughout the case, most recently in a video posted to Instagram on July 27. "It has been months since our mom was taken from us," she said in the video. "Our family is in agony. We are in a nightmare that will not end. Nothing about our situation has changed. We have done our part, and we will never stop looking for her." She directed part of her message toward whoever is responsible for her mother's disappearance, urging them to "tell us where to look for her."

The case has drawn sustained national attention since Guthrie's disappearance, including commentary from other high-profile figures connected to past kidnapping cases. Elizabeth Smart, who survived a widely publicized abduction as a teenager in 2002, said recently that she still sees reason for hope in the Guthrie case despite the amount of time that has passed without resolution.

Authorities have released few specific details about the physical and forensic evidence collected during the investigation, citing concerns about protecting the integrity of the case. Local, state and federal agencies, including the FBI and the Pima County Sheriff's Department, have continued to jointly analyze evidence and interview potential witnesses in the months since Guthrie vanished.

Nanos, speaking separately to NBC affiliate KVOA News 4 in Tucson this week, said the investigation remains active and should not be regarded as a cold case, even as it approaches the half-year mark without a publicly identified suspect.

Nancy Guthrie has heart problems and requires regular medication, a detail her family has repeatedly emphasized in public appeals since her disappearance, underscoring the urgency they have attached to the search regardless of how much time has elapsed.

The case has unfolded alongside significant public scrutiny of how law enforcement has handled aspects of the investigation, including questions raised publicly by at least one crime scene investigator about the pace and direction of the inquiry. Sheriff's officials have defended their approach, saying the scale of evidence involved, spanning DNA analysis, surveillance footage and witness interviews, requires methodical work that does not always produce fast public updates.

As the investigation continues, Savannah Guthrie has remained a visible presence both on and off air, balancing her role as a national television anchor with her family's ongoing search for answers. She briefly stepped away from anchoring duties following her mother's disappearance before eventually returning to the "Today" studio, where colleagues and network officials have said she continues to focus on supporting her family while the search for her mother continues.

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