Six weeks. Zero leads. And now, the sheriff running the investigation into the disappearance of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie from her Tucson home says he believes the person responsible could do it again.
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos told NBC News Thursday night that investigators believe Guthrie's disappearance was deliberate and directed at her specifically. But in the same breath, he conceded his department is not certain.
We believe we know why he did this, and we believe that it was targeted, but we, we can't, we're not 100% sure of that.
That halting, hedge-filled statement is the most substantive update the public has received since Guthrie, the mother of "Today" show co-host Savannah Guthrie, was reported missing on January 31, 2026. Nanos declined to provide any further deta New ils on the case or on theories surrounding her disappearance.
What he did offer was a warning to the community that should concern every resident of Pima County.
So it'd be silly to tell people, 'Yeah, don't worry about it. You're, you're not his target.' Don't think for a minute that because it happened to the Guthrie family, you're safe. No, keep your wits about you.
According to the New York Post, the investigation, now nearing its sixth week, has produced zero leads according to available public statements. The FBI has released a picture of a suspect wanted in connection with Guthrie's disappearance, but no arrest has been made and no charges have been filed. Authorities have not publicly confirmed the suspect's identity.
Nanos has faced criticism for what have been described as confusing and contradictory public statements earlier in the investigation. His department drew particular scrutiny for leaving the scene outside Guthrie's Tucson home so poorly secured that reporters and even a pizza deliveryman were able to walk up and knock on the front door.
Let that sink in. An 84-year-old woman vanishes under circumstances the sheriff himself now calls likely "targeted," and the agency responsible for the investigation could not keep a delivery driver off the front porch of what should have been an active crime scene.
Authorities have not publicly confirmed a motive, despite Nanos claiming investigators "believe" they know why the suspect acted. They have not confirmed the identity of the individual in the FBI's released photograph. They have not confirmed whether any physical evidence has been recovered. And they have not confirmed whether Guthrie is alive.
Investigators will need to establish whether additional individuals in Pima County face a credible threat from the same suspect, particularly given Nanos's public warning that no one should assume they are safe. They will also need to determine how a scene allegedly connected to a targeted disappearance was left accessible to the general public in the critical early hours of the investigation.
Five weeks without a suspect in custody is not merely an investigative challenge. It is a public safety crisis, compounded by the sheriff's own admission that the person responsible may act again. Pima County residents deserve a clear accounting of what has been done, what resources have been deployed, and why the early handling of this case fell so visibly short of basic law enforcement standards.
When a sheriff tells the public to "keep your wits about you" because his own department has not neutralized a threat it claims to understand, that is not reassurance. That is an institution asking citizens to do the job it has so far failed to do.
