Anonymous Tip Claims Nancy Guthrie, Mother of Today Show Anchor Savannah Guthrie Is Buried in Mexico
Four months after 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie vanished from her home in Tucson’s Catalina Foothills neighborhood, the case took a genuinely unsettling turn this week. Per The New York Post, an anonymous caller tipped off a volunteer search collective in Mexico, claiming her remains were buried near a stream just west of Nogales, right along the Arizona border. And yes, people went looking.
The Nogales-based group Buscando Corazones, which translates to “Searching Hearts,” received the anonymous tip on Wednesday and didn’t hesitate.
The group’s leader, Ramona Guadalupe Ayala Ortiz, told the Spanish-language outlet El Imparcial that the caller, believed to be a man, described a specific location in the Mariposa area and even provided identifying details about clothing or physical characteristics that searchers could use to confirm identification. That level of specificity is not nothing.
Searchers Found 25 Graves, just not the Right One.
Buscando Corazones, working alongside the Sonora State Commission for the Search of Missing Persons, went out and searched the area on June 10. They came back empty-handed on Nancy, but what they did find in that region during searches from April through May alone is genuinely haunting.
The collective had previously discovered more than 25 clandestine graves and recovered the remains of at least 32 individuals in the Mariposa area. Let that sink in. The very terrain searchers are combing for Nancy Guthrie is the same terrain that has been yielding the remains of dozens of unidentified people.
Ayala Ortiz confirmed that a first search of the area on May 16 also turned up nothing. The caller allegedly reached out a second time and described another area to search in the region. Another search is scheduled for June 16. Whoever is making these calls knows enough to keep the search team moving, and that alone is worth paying attention to.
Arizona Authorities Are Playing It Cool, Maybe Too Cool
Meanwhile, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department issued a statement Thursday that read more like a form response than an active investigative update.
“We are aware of reports regarding an anonymous tip related to the Nancy Guthrie investigation that was provided to a group in Mexico,” the department posted to social media, before adding pointedly that Mexican authorities had not contacted them. The statement closed with the familiar line that the investigation “remains active and ongoing.”
To be fair, that is technically accurate. But after four months, with no arrests and a sheriff whose credibility has taken some real hits, per Entertainment Weekly, “active and ongoing” is starting to feel like the investigative equivalent of “we’ll look into it.”
In March, an Arizona Republic report revealed misrepresentations in Sheriff Chris Nanos’s stated work history. And FBI Director Kash Patel went on record claiming that federal agents were not allowed in to assist on the case for several days after Nancy was declared missing. Nanos pushed back, but the friction between local and federal authorities is real and documented.
This Case Has Been Messy From the Start
Nancy Guthrie, mother of Today show anchor Savannah Guthrie, was reported missing on February 1 after doorbell camera footage captured what investigators believe was an armed, masked suspect outside her home in the early morning hours.
Authorities believe she was abducted from her Arizona home in the early morning hours, and DNA evidence was recovered at the scene, but no suspects have been publicly identified.
A man and his mother were detained in connection with the case at one point, but nothing from that interrogation led to charges. DNA samples were sent to the FBI lab at Quantico. Still, nothing has stuck. Authorities in Arizona acknowledge there have been no significant developments or breakthroughs in recent weeks.
Savannah Guthrie has remained remarkably composed in public, even breaking down during a Today segment earlier this month, and her family is still offering a $1 million reward for information leading to answers. Hoda Kotb recently said of her co-anchor that nobody is stealing Savannah’s joy, which is either deeply inspiring or the kind of thing people say when they genuinely cannot think of anything else to say.
The Search Is Not Over
What makes this particular tip stand out from the usual noise is the consistency. This is not an anonymous call to a tip line that was logged and then forgotten. The caller reached out the first time; the search came up empty, and then the caller returned with new location details, and another search was organized.
A third search is now set for June 16, and Buscando Corazones says they are not walking away. The Sonora region near Mariposa is a remote, porous border territory, and the fact that volunteer groups are doing the heavy lifting while U.S. and Mexican law enforcement agencies seem to be playing phone tag with each other is a story in itself.
Nancy Guthrie has been missing for over four months. Her family is waiting. The search groups are still digging. And somewhere out there, someone who keeps calling in tips apparently knows more than they are saying. When they decide to say it clearly, everyone will be listening.
