A Mexican volunteer search group combing the desert south of the Arizona border for missing 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie has turned up 25 unmarked graves, none of them linked to the mother of "Today" show host Savannah Guthrie, who vanished from her Tucson home more than four months ago.
Buscando Corazones Nogales, the Nogales-based organization leading the effort, resumed its search Wednesday after days of scouring a remote area roughly 70 miles from Guthrie's home. The group came up empty again. It was the 136th day since Nancy Guthrie was last seen.
The grim discovery of two dozen-plus graves in the Mariposa region tells its own story about the lawlessness that prevails just across the border, and raises hard questions about why U.S. and Mexican law enforcement have been so slow to coordinate on a case that has drawn national attention and more than $1 million in reward money.
The search near Nogales, Sonora, was triggered by an anonymous tip received May 10. The caller told Buscando Corazones Nogales that a body matching Guthrie's description had been buried in a shallow grave near a stream in the Mariposa area, northwest of Nogales.
The group's leader, Ramona Guadalupe Ayala Ortiz, told the New York Post what the tipster said:
"We received an anonymous call telling us that the woman's [Guthrie's] remains were in the Mariposa area, in a grave over a stream."
Volunteers searched on May 16 and found nothing. A second call from the same tipster pointed to another nearby location. That search also came up empty. Wednesday's operation, the third prompted by the same source, produced the same result.
But the group told TMZ it is not discouraged and planned to search two new locations within the same general area on Thursday. The terrain is vast and difficult to cover, and the 25 unmarked graves the volunteers have uncovered between April and May in the Mariposa region suggest the area has been used as a dumping ground for some time.
As we previously reported, the initial anonymous tip set off a wave of activity that has yet to produce a confirmed lead on Guthrie's whereabouts.
Perhaps the most troubling detail in the case right now is the disconnect between the volunteer effort in Mexico and official U.S. investigators. Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said his office and the FBI learned about the Buscando Corazones Nogales searches through media reports, not through any communication from Mexican authorities.
"We are aware of reports regarding an anonymous tip related to the Nancy Guthrie investigation that was provided to a group in Mexico. At this time, we have not been contacted by Mexican authorities."
Nanos added that the investigation "remains active and ongoing" and that his office would "continue to follow up on any credible information." Both the sheriff's office and the FBI have attempted to make contact with Mexican authorities, but the communication has apparently been one-directional.
That gap is worth sitting with. A volunteer group is digging through desert soil in a foreign country, acting on anonymous tips in a case involving a kidnapped American citizen, and the official law enforcement agencies on both sides of the border are not talking to each other. Mexican state and municipal officials did provide security for the volunteers during one of the earlier searches, the New York Post reported, but that is a far cry from a coordinated criminal investigation.
The FBI's legal attaché office in Mexico City is supposed to serve as a link between FBI headquarters, the U.S. Embassy, and Mexico's federal attorney general's office, Newsmax reported in February. The FBI suboffice most relevant to the case sits in Hermosillo, Sonora, the Mexican state bordering Arizona, roughly 170 miles south of the border. Those channels exist on paper. Whether they are producing results is another matter.
Nancy Guthrie was last seen January 31, when family members dropped her off at her Tucson home after dinner. She was reported missing the following day. Authorities believe she was kidnapped or taken against her will. Drops of blood were found on her front porch.
The FBI released a screen grab from a video showing an armed individual appearing at Guthrie's front door the morning of her disappearance. The suspect appeared to be masked and carrying a camera. The image has been widely circulated, but no arrest has been made.
The investigation has been dogged by questions about early coordination failures. FBI Director Kash Patel stated publicly that the bureau was kept out of the investigation for four days. During that window, Fox News reported, the crime scene was briefly released, and journalists and delivery drivers accessed the front porch where blood spatter was present. Key DNA evidence was sent to a private lab in Florida rather than to the FBI's own laboratory.
Retired Arizona DPS Lieutenant Dave Smith told Fox News that the proximity to the border, Tucson sits roughly 60 miles from Nogales, should have made a Mexico connection an immediate investigative priority. "My first thought is always Mexico in a major crime, because it's a great haven, and it's hard for us to follow up on," Smith said. He also noted the suspect on Guthrie's doorbell camera appeared to be carrying a holstered pistol in what he described as "Mexican carry" style.
The Pima County sheriff has pointed to labs and process delays as the search has dragged past four months, but the jurisdictional friction between local and federal investigators has never been fully explained.
With official channels producing no visible progress, volunteer groups have stepped in on both sides of the border. Buscando Corazones Nogales is not the only organization involved. Members of Madres Buscadoras de Sonora, Searching Mothers of Sonora, have also participated in search efforts. Lupita Tello, a member of that group, told the Associated Press why they got involved:
"We know the soil. We know when someone has dug deep or when there is a shallow grave. We hope we can help because we understand the pain of having a missing relative."
The Pima County Sheriff's Department has urged volunteers to stand down, warning that uncoordinated searches risk contaminating potential crime scenes. "We all want to find Nancy, but this work is best left to professionals," the department said in a statement.
That is a reasonable concern in the abstract. But when the professionals have not made a public arrest, have not identified the suspect on camera, and have not even managed to establish a working communication line with Mexican authorities four months in, the argument for deference loses some of its force.
The case has also drawn attention for possible links to cryptocurrency-related crime, though no official confirmation has tied the abduction to that theory.
Nancy Guthrie has a pacemaker and requires daily medication for a heart condition. She is 84 years old. Every day without answers is a day her family cannot know whether she is alive.
Savannah Guthrie, Annie Guthrie, and Annie's husband Tommaso Cioni visited a makeshift memorial for Nancy on March 2. Savannah Guthrie posted on Instagram what amounts to a plea: "Mother, daughter, sister, Nonie, we miss you with every breath. We will never stop looking for you. We will never be at peace until we find you," the Washington Examiner reported.
The family is offering a $1 million reward for information leading to answers. The FBI has put up $100,000. The tipline organization 88-CRIME is offering $102,500. Combined, more than $1.2 million is on the table for anyone who can provide credible information.
Savannah Guthrie has stepped away from her duties at the "Today" show more than once as the ordeal has stretched on.
And still, the ransom notes, anonymous tips, and dead-end searches continue to pile up while the official investigation produces no visible breakthrough.
Anyone with information is urged to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI, 88-CRIME at 88crime.org, or through the P3 Tips mobile app.
The open questions in this case are stacking up. Who is the armed, masked individual on the doorbell camera? Why has no suspect been publicly identified after 136 days? Why have Mexican authorities not contacted U.S. law enforcement despite searches taking place on Mexican soil? Has the anonymous tipster been interviewed by any official agency? And what, exactly, is buried in those 25 unmarked graves near Nogales?
When civilian volunteers in a foreign country are doing the digging that governments on both sides of the border have failed to do, the system is not working. An 84-year-old woman with a heart condition deserves better than a jurisdictional shrug.