Top experts lay out 'local' criminal profile of Nancy Guthrie kidnappers
A TV special on the dissapearance of Nancy Guthrie aired May 6 on NewsNation, exploring the possibilities behind what happened to the mother of the Today Show's Savannah Guthrie
A new Nancy Guthrie TV special aired on NewsNation(Image: Facebook)
Criminal profilers put their heads together to hypothesize about Nancy Guthrie's kidnapper.
Nancy, 84, was reported missing on February 1, 2026, after she didn't show up to a church service that day. The mother of Today Show co-host Savannah Guthrie was last seen entering her Arizona home the night before, after returning from her daughter Annie's house.
A TV special aired on NewsNation on May 6, 2026, more than three months after Nancy went missing, despite the case stalling with no viable clues or suspects. The special aired more than a week after a man's trial date was set for creating fake ransom notes concerning Nancy's kidnapping.
NewsNation's Brian Entin brought together three criminal profiles for the special, and the group dug into the possible profile of the suspect who was found on Nancy Guthrie’s front door security camera. The man, who has not been named, was seen attempting to break into Nancy’s Tucson home while tearing the Nest camera off the front door.
The male suspect was wearing a ski mask, gloves, and a backpack. He was also armed with weapons.
Savannah Guthrie's mom Nancy dissapeared on February 1(Image: Getty)
The experts shared their thoughts based on the footage, with Dr. Casey Jordan saying the suspect was “27 to 28 years old, definitely lives locally, probably not there anymore.”
“I think he was either eliminated by a puppet master or he fled. And I’m not saying he’s Mexican, but it's the closest border, and that’s where he would go. This is a guy who, on the day this came out, quit his job, left his job, broke up with his girlfriend,” she added. Dr. Ann Burgess replied, “The only thing I'd add there is anyone who isn’t working. just doing odd jobs.”
Dr. Gary Brucato added, "What you’re dealing with is somebody with some cruel, sadistic, scheming personality, and you don’t develop that kind of personality overnight; you tend to have a long history of being that way...they tend to be cool under pressure like this, but what tends to make them not cool is when there are slights to this ego.”
Featured in the episode was NewsNation correspondent Brian Entin. Brian has been closely following the investigation, posting daily on his YouTube account.
During his investigation, a law enforcement source spoke to Brian on condition of anonymity to safeguard their identity. They said that authorities presumed Nancy had merely "wandered off" at the beginning of the investigation.
The FBI released doorbell footage of a masked suspect outside Nancy's house(Image: FBIDirectorKash/X)
"Some people that actually know the intimate knowledge of this investigation have told me that there was an immediate rush to judgment on what was happening at the scene, and it was that Nancy had somehow wandered off," the source said.
They continued, "And so, they rushed to that judgment, stayed with that judgment, and then ran the investigation as if this was a search-and-rescue issue, as opposed to a possible criminal issue."
The investigation is currently being treated as a kidnapping. Footage was released early from Nancy's doorbell camera, showing a masked figure at her front door who appeared to be trying to tamper with the camera the night she disappeared.
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For some time, Nancy's daughter, Savannah, took a break from her job at the Today Show to be with her family. During her absence, Savannah's co-stars wore yellow ribbons of support on their lapels.
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THE EVIDENCE THEY HID: Nancy Guthrie | Special Report
My Husband Chose His Mistress and a Luxury Yacht Over My Desperate Calls—Fourteen Days Later, Federal Agents Were Waiting at Our Front Door
My Husband Chose His Mistress and a Luxury Yacht Over My Desperate Calls—Fourteen Days Later, Federal Agents Were Waiting at Our Front Door
CHAPTER 1
My husband ignored fifty emergency calls from the ICU because he was too busy drinking champagne on a luxury yacht with his mistress.
Two weeks later, he came home expecting an angry wife.
Instead, he found an empty mansion, armed officers, and one document that destroyed the life he thought he still owned.
“His phone is switched off, Maya. You need to stop calling him,” the funeral director whispered gently.
But his words barely registered.
I stood beneath a black umbrella in the freezing rain at a small cemetery outside Chicago, my hands wrapped around the edge of a tiny white casket.
Inside was my seven-year-old daughter.
Lily.
My beautiful little girl.
And I was burying her alone.
No relatives stood beside me.
No friends held my hand.
And the one person who should have been there most wasn’t delayed by a flight.
He wasn’t trapped in some emergency business meeting.
He wasn’t sick.
My husband, David, was in the Bahamas.
On a luxury yacht.
With his twenty-five-year-old fitness instructor, Julianne.
While our daughter was fighting for her life in the ICU, David was drinking champagne beneath the Caribbean sun with another woman.
Lily had developed a sudden, aggressive case of meningitis.
Everything happened terrifyingly fast.
One moment, she was sick.
The next, doctors were rushing around her hospital bed while machines screamed beside me.
I called David once.
Then again.
Then again.
By the time Lily took her final breath, I had called him fifty times.
Fifty.
Every single call was rejected.
Then, finally, a message appeared on my screen.
Stop suffocating me with your anxiety, Maya. I’m on a digital detox trip for my mental health. Do not contact me for the next two weeks.
I stared at those words while my daughter’s body was still warm beneath my hand.
David thought I was being dramatic.
He thought I was nagging him.
He thought whatever I wanted could wait until his vacation was over.
He had no idea his only child had just died.
And standing there at Lily’s grave, watching wet dirt stain the toes of my black shoes, I made a decision.
I would not tell him.
Not by text.
Not by voicemail.
Not through anyone else.
David had demanded fourteen days of silence.
So I gave him exactly what he wanted.
Fourteen days later, the front door of our four-million-dollar estate swung open.
David walked inside looking like a man returning from paradise.
His skin was deeply tanned.
Expensive sunglasses rested on top of his head.
A bright linen shirt hung loosely over his shoulders.
And he was laughing.
Actually laughing.
Julianne walked in behind him carrying a designer shopping bag that David had almost certainly paid for.
“Maya, we’re back!” he shouted into the house.
His voice echoed strangely.
He didn’t notice.
Not yet.
“Look, I know you’re probably furious, but honestly, the detox was exactly what our marriage needed.”
He glanced back at Julianne and smiled.
“Julianne came along to help me work through our emotional distance, and we’ve decided—”
He stopped.
The smile vanished.
The house was empty.
Completely empty.
No sofas.
No dining table.
No artwork.
No rugs.
No family photographs.
Nothing.
Every room had been stripped bare.
His luggage slipped from his hand and hit the hardwood floor with a heavy thud.
But the empty mansion wasn’t what truly terrified him.
Three people were waiting in the middle of the living room.
Two armed state troopers stood near the windows.
Between them was a grim-faced man in a dark tailored suit holding a thick leather folder against his chest.
David’s golden tan seemed to disappear in seconds.
“Maya?”
His voice cracked.
“What the hell is going on?”
He looked around wildly.
“Who are these people?”
The man in the suit stepped forward.
His expression never changed.
“David Vance?”
David swallowed.
“Yes.”
The man opened the leather folder.
“Mr. Vance, you are hereby placed under emergency executive arrest.”
Julianne immediately pulled her hand away from David’s.
“What?” David whispered.
His eyes darted from the officers to the empty rooms.
Then back toward me.
“Maya, what did you do?”
I said nothing.
Not yet.
Because he still didn’t know why Lily’s bedroom had been emptied.
He still didn’t know what had happened while he was drinking champagne in the Bahamas.
And he had absolutely no idea what was inside the document the man in the suit was about to hand him.
David had spent fourteen days believing he had escaped his family.
Now he was standing inside the ruins of it.
And the luxury vacation was officially over.
CHAPTER 2 in here 👇👇👇
