Trump voices hope for Nancy Guthrie's safe return as search enters 20th week with disturbing ransom notes and no arrests

President Donald Trump said Tuesday he hopes investigators find Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old Arizona mother of NBC "Today" co-host Savannah Guthrie, who vanished from her Tucson-area home on February 1 and has not been seen since. Speaking to reporters at Reading Regional Airport in Pennsylvania, Trump offered a blunt assessment of what the family has endured across nearly five months of silence, false leads, and ransom notes that authorities still cannot fully explain.

"I hope they find her," Trump told the press gaggle. "That family has gone through hell."

The case has now stretched into its 20th week. The FBI and the Pima County Sheriff's Office remain actively investigating, but no suspect has been publicly charged. At least two ransom communications sent to the Guthrie family have been deemed potentially credible, while others were determined to be fraudulent. The second note, Fox News reported, claimed Nancy Guthrie had died and was "buried with nature." It did not seek payment. It included language expressing remorse.

That combination, no ransom demand, an apology, a claim of death, is unusual enough to raise serious questions about what happened to this woman and who is behind the letters.

What investigators know, and what they don't

Nancy Guthrie disappeared from her home in the Catalina Foothills north of Tucson around midday on February 1, after she failed to appear for virtual church services. Surveillance footage recovered by the FBI showed an armed, masked individual tampering with her doorbell camera the morning she vanished, AP News reported in a detailed timeline of the case. DNA testing later confirmed that blood found on her front porch was hers.

The premeditation suggested by that footage, an armed figure disabling a camera before an elderly woman disappears, points to an abduction, not a wandering senior or a random crime of opportunity.

Within days of the disappearance, a local Tucson television station, KOLD-TV, received an email that appeared to be a ransom note, including a demand for money with deadlines. A second note followed, sent from the same IP address as the first, according to a New York Post analysis featuring retired FBI supervisory special agent Jason Pack. That second communication claimed Guthrie had died and been buried in nature, and offered what the authors described as an apology.

Pack noted that the first note contained specific operational details, what Nancy was wearing and a broken floodlight at her home, that would not have been available from news reports alone.

"The specific operational details in that first note, what she was wearing, the damaged floodlight, those aren't things you read in a news report. Someone was there."

That assessment from a retired FBI supervisor carries weight. If the first note's author had direct knowledge of the scene, the second note's claim that Guthrie died takes on a darker significance. Yet authorities have not confirmed the authenticity of either note, and investigators have not identified who sent them.

Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos told Fox News Digital that investigators and the FBI have examined numerous ransom communications throughout the case. Some were determined to be fraudulent. Others were considered potentially credible. The distinction matters, and the public still does not know which category the two most alarming notes fall into.

A family's public plea

On the same Tuesday that Trump spoke, Savannah Guthrie appeared on the "Today" show and made an emotional appeal for anyone with information to come forward. Her words were direct and unadorned.

"Somebody knows something."

"We are in agony."

Savannah Guthrie has also said, "We love our mom," and "We'll never stop looking for her, never." The family has offered a $1 million reward for information leading to Nancy Guthrie's location.

The Pima County area has seen its share of serious crime, but the Guthrie case stands apart in its duration, its mystery, and the public profile of the victim's daughter. Savannah Guthrie previously shared that some purported ransom notes were fake, but she believes two that she and her siblings responded to were real. In one response, the family wrote back pleading for their mother's return.

"We received your message, and we understand. We beg you now to return our mother to us so that we can celebrate with her. This is the only way we will have peace. This is very valuable to us, and we will pay."

That a prominent American family was reduced to begging unknown correspondents, offering to pay a ransom that was never even demanded, captures the desperation of a case that has produced more questions than answers for nearly five months.

The search crosses the border

Early in the investigation, the Pima County Sheriff's Department detained an individual for questioning during a traffic stop south of Tucson on February 10, Just The News reported. Law enforcement was preparing to search a location associated with that person. But no arrest was publicly announced, and the case remained open.

The investigation has since expanded internationally. A Mexican volunteer search group, Buscando Corazones Nogales, began searching for Nancy Guthrie's remains near the Arizona-Mexico border after receiving an anonymous tip that her body was buried near a stream in the Mariposa area, the Washington Examiner reported. That same group had found over 25 secret graves in the region between April and May 2025, a grim reminder of the violence that festers along the border corridor.

Separately, the group Madres Buscadoras De Sonora placed a sign reading "Nancy Guthrie Desparecida" approximately one mile from Nancy Guthrie's Tucson residence on February 24. The involvement of Mexican volunteer organizations, groups that exist because cartel violence and border-region lawlessness have produced so many missing persons that families formed their own search teams, adds a troubling dimension to this case.

The Pima County Sheriff's office confirmed the investigation remains active. "This investigation remains active and ongoing, and we will continue to follow up on any credible information," the office stated.

Twenty weeks and counting

What makes the Guthrie case so unsettling is not just the disappearance itself but the accumulation of evidence that points to a planned crime, and the absence of anyone held accountable for it. An armed figure on camera. Blood on the porch. Ransom notes with insider details. A second note claiming death and offering an apology. A tip pointing searchers toward the Mexican border. A detained individual who was questioned and apparently released.

And still, twenty weeks later, no charges. No confirmed remains. No identified suspect.

The FBI has faced scrutiny on multiple fronts in recent years, but the bureau's involvement in the Guthrie investigation has drawn little public criticism, largely because the family has been focused on finding Nancy, not on casting blame. That restraint is admirable. But the public deserves to know whether federal and local investigators have the resources and leads they need to close this case.

Trump's brief remarks at Reading Regional Airport did not promise federal intervention or announce new resources. He simply acknowledged a family's suffering and expressed hope. In a case where so many questions remain unanswered, even that acknowledgment matters.

The White House has addressed other high-profile missing persons situations in recent months, and the Guthrie case, with its $1 million reward, its FBI involvement, and its border-region search operations, clearly warrants continued attention at every level of government.

Savannah Guthrie put it as plainly as anyone could: "Somebody knows something." The question is whether the people who know something will come forward, and whether the investigators tasked with finding Nancy Guthrie can piece together what happened before the trail goes cold for good.

An 84-year-old woman was taken from her home in broad daylight. Five months later, the people responsible remain free. That is not a cold case. It is an open wound, and it will stay open until someone is held to account.