Forensic Expert Offers New Theory in Nancy Guthrie Disappearance

By Maine News Now Staff

A veteran forensic scientist is speaking out about the ongoing mystery surrounding the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of NBC "Today" show co-host Savannah Guthrie, suggesting the victim may have been targeted by a local opportunist who assumed the family was wealthy.

Barbara Butcher, a longtime medicolegal death investigator who spent decades working in one of the largest medical examiner's offices in the country, shared her perspective Saturday while attending CrimeCon in Las Vegas. Butcher, who also hosts Oxygen's "The Death Investigator," offered a theory about who might be behind the abduction and why no credible ransom has emerged.

"I find it flabbergasting that anyone would take a woman her age, but what I think is probably the case is that someone in the area, maybe a handyman, maybe a service person, had known, had found out that Mrs. Guthrie was the mother of Savannah Guthrie and said, 'Oh, she must be rich,'" Butcher explained. "So this person is not well."

Butcher's comments come more than three months after Guthrie was reportedly taken from her Tucson, Arizona, home in the early morning hours of February 1. Despite a widely publicized investigation and a reward now exceeding $1.2 million, Guthrie's whereabouts remain unknown.

In February, the family was contacted through TMZ with what appeared to be ransom demands, and Savannah Guthrie publicly stated that her family was willing to meet those demands. However, no successful exchange occurred, and investigators have raised questions about whether the communications were legitimate.

Butcher said the absence of a genuine ransom demand has led her to consider a grim possibility: that Guthrie may not have survived long after being taken from her home.

"My second thought was that after time, when there was no valid ransom demand or any information forthcoming that it's probably likely that Mrs. Guthrie died of shock, fright, heart disease, whatever it was, very soon after being taken from her home," Butcher said. "And that's just horrifying to me, and so now this kidnapper had nothing and probably, unfortunately, took her body into the desert and buried her there."

Earlier reports indicated that an internet user had searched for Nancy Guthrie's address and information about her daughter's salary shortly before the disappearance, lending some weight to the theory that the alleged perpetrator may have researched the family's circumstances in advance.

Butcher's decades of experience in death investigation lend her perspective particular weight, though her theories remain speculative as the investigation continues. The Pima County Sheriff's Office has not publicly identified a suspect and has continued to appeal to the public for information.

Anyone with information about Nancy Guthrie's disappearance is urged to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI. Anonymous tips can also be submitted to Tucson's Crime Stoppers affiliate, 88-Crime, at 1-520-882-7463.