For nearly seven months, one disappearance has haunted southern Arizona.
Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of TODAY co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, vanished from her home near Tucson at the beginning of February.
There were searches.
Ransom notes.
DNA evidence.
Security-camera footage.
Public pleas from her family.
And still, no Nancy.
So when deputies announced that human remains had been discovered in the desert approximately 15 miles from her home, the reaction was immediate.
Could this finally be the discovery that ended one of America’s most closely watched missing-person cases?
But investigators quickly revealed one crucial detail:
They had no indication the remains belonged to Nancy Guthrie. (NTD)
Instead of solving one mystery, the discovery had apparently created another.
Search and Rescue deputies were called into the desert
On August 17, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department announced that its Search and Rescue deputies were responding to a report of human remains.
The location was near West Ajo Way and South La Cholla Boulevard, southwest of Tucson.
This is desert country.
Dry earth.
Sparse development.
Vast stretches of rugged Sonoran landscape.
And somewhere in that terrain, human remains had been discovered.
Authorities immediately began investigating.
But there was something about their condition that stood out.
The Sheriff’s Department said the remains appeared to have been at the location for an “extended period of time.” (NTD)
That raised an obvious question:
Who was this person?
The location immediately attracted national attention
Ordinarily, the discovery of unidentified remains in southern Arizona might remain primarily a local story.
This one didn’t.
There was a reason.
Approximately 15 miles away was the home from which Nancy Guthrie had disappeared months earlier. (The Independent)
Nancy isn’t simply another name on a missing-person poster.
She is the mother of Savannah Guthrie, one of the most recognizable faces on American morning television.
Her disappearance has generated national headlines since February.
And after months without answers, almost any significant discovery around Tucson inevitably raises the same question.
Could it be Nancy?
Police addressed that possibility immediately
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department didn’t allow speculation to go unanswered for long.
Its statement was clear:
At that time, there was “no indication” that the remains were connected to the Nancy Guthrie investigation. (NTD)
That sentence changed the story.
The discovery hadn’t apparently provided the breakthrough people following Nancy’s case were hoping for.
But it created another unsettling reality.
If these weren’t Nancy’s remains, then investigators potentially had another unidentified person to account for.
Authorities initially released few additional details.
They did not publicly identify the person.
They didn’t say how long the remains had been there beyond describing it as an extended period.
And they didn’t immediately explain publicly what evidence allowed them to say there was no indication of a connection to Nancy’s disappearance. (Deseret News)
Why identifying remains in the Arizona desert can be extraordinarily difficult
The Sonoran Desert is beautiful.
It can also be brutal.
Extreme heat, exposure, animals and the environment itself can rapidly alter human remains.
Pima County Chief Medical Examiner Greg Hess recently explained that remains in the desert can become skeletonized far faster than many people might expect — potentially within a matter of one or two months under some conditions. (KESQ)
That creates enormous challenges for forensic investigators.
A recently deceased person and someone who has been missing for considerably longer may not necessarily look the way the public imagines when remains are eventually recovered.
Investigators therefore turn to science.
Bones can begin telling a story
Forensic anthropologists can examine skeletal remains and begin constructing what is known as a biological profile.
They may attempt to estimate characteristics such as:
Sex.
Age.
Stature.
Possible ancestry.
Evidence of injury or disease.
But the condition and completeness of the remains matter enormously.
A relatively complete skeleton can provide investigators with far more information than a handful of badly damaged bones.
And when the physical evidence can’t provide a definitive identity, DNA becomes particularly important. (KESQ)
Even DNA isn’t always simple.
Heat, time and environmental exposure can degrade biological material.
That means something that sounds straightforward — just test the DNA — can become a complicated forensic process.
Southern Arizona has another tragic reality
Human remains are found in the region more often than people outside Arizona may realize.
Pima County’s medical examiner handles an unusually large number of unidentified and migrant deaths because of its location near the U.S.-Mexico border.
Hess told CNN that many people whose remains are recovered in the desert are believed to be migrants who died attempting to cross the unforgiving terrain. (KESQ)
Temperatures can become deadly.
Water runs out.
Distances are enormous.
And once someone becomes lost or incapacitated, finding them can be extremely difficult.
That context is important.
The discovery near West Ajo Way was startling because of its proximity to Tucson and the intense attention surrounding Nancy Guthrie.
But for the forensic teams working in Pima County, unidentified desert remains represent a grim reality they have dealt with for years.
Nancy’s disappearance changed the way every discovery is viewed
Hess acknowledged something striking.
Since Nancy disappeared, when remains arrive at his office, one of the questions that naturally comes to mind is whether they could be hers. (KESQ)
That’s understandable.
Nancy has now been missing for months.
Her case remains unresolved.
And investigators still don’t know publicly where she is.
Every unexplained discovery creates another possibility that has to be considered — and then either pursued or eliminated.
For Nancy’s family, that must create an almost unimaginable emotional cycle.
A discovery.
A headline.
A possibility.
Then another disappointment.
Nancy disappeared from her own home
The mystery began around the night of January 31 and the early hours of February 1.
Nancy, 84, was last seen at her Tucson-area home on January 31.
Her family reported her missing the following day.
Investigators came to believe she had been abducted.
And several details immediately made the case deeply concerning.
Her phone remained behind.
So did medication she needed.
She hadn’t simply packed a bag and disappeared voluntarily. (Deseret News)
Something had happened.
Then came the ransom notes
As the investigation developed, another disturbing element emerged.
Two ransom notes were sent to media outlets in the week after Nancy’s disappearance by someone claiming responsibility for taking her.
Authorities eventually released the full text of those notes as investigators sought information from the public. (TheWrap)
One of the notes made a particularly disturbing claim.
It alleged that Nancy had died shortly after being taken and had been buried somewhere in nature. (TheWrap)
That claim has not provided investigators with a confirmed location for Nancy.
But imagine what it means whenever remains are subsequently discovered somewhere around Tucson.
People remember those words.
And speculation begins immediately.
Her family hasn’t stopped looking
Savannah Guthrie and her siblings have repeatedly appealed for information and for their mother’s return.
Savannah has also offered a $1 million reward, while the FBI has offered an additional $100,000 for information leading to Nancy’s recovery and progress in the investigation. (TheWrap)
For a family accustomed to seeing Savannah speak confidently to millions of Americans every morning, the public pleas have shown a completely different side of her.
Not a television anchor.
A daughter.
One who wants her mother back.
Investigators still have evidence to examine
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has indicated that investigators continue working through substantial amounts of evidence.
That includes DNA and video material.
Hair recovered from Nancy’s residence was tested, but investigators said it had not led them to the identity of a suspect. (Deseret News)
There is also video evidence connected to the investigation.
And after so many months, detectives are still looking for the detail that connects everything.
A person.
A vehicle.
A DNA match.
A witness.
Something someone remembers.
That’s why the desert discovery caused such an immediate reaction
Imagine following Nancy’s case since February.
Then suddenly seeing the headline:
HUMAN REMAINS FOUND NEAR TUCSON.
The mind makes the connection before reading another sentence.
But geography can be misleading.
Fifteen miles sounds close when discussing a nationally famous missing-person case.
In the enormous landscape surrounding Tucson, however, it represents a substantial area.
And authorities were careful not to suggest a connection unsupported by evidence.
Their message remained:
No indication of a link. (The Independent)
That distinction matters.
Because behind every set of unidentified remains is another family that may also be waiting for an answer.
Someone is still missing from someone’s life
It’s easy for unidentified remains to become part of another famous story.
“The remains near Nancy Guthrie’s home.”
But whoever this person was had a story before this discovery.
Perhaps someone has been wondering where they went.
Perhaps a family has been waiting years.
Perhaps investigators already have a missing-person case somewhere that will eventually match.
Or perhaps identification will take considerably longer.
Until authorities determine who the remains belong to, those questions remain unanswered.
And that’s what makes the discovery haunting even after investigators say it doesn’t appear connected to Nancy.
It still belongs to someone.
The desert makes missing-person investigations uniquely difficult
Look at a map around Tucson and you’ll see roads and neighborhoods.
Look at the landscape itself and the scale becomes much clearer.
Mountains.
Washes.
Canyons.
Dense desert vegetation.
Miles of sparsely populated terrain.
A person can disappear surprisingly close to civilization and still be extremely difficult to locate.
Search teams may use aircraft, dogs, volunteers and specialized rescue personnel.
But there is simply an enormous amount of ground.
And nature doesn’t preserve evidence neatly for investigators.
Rain moves objects.
Animals scatter remains.
Heat accelerates decomposition.
Vegetation obscures visibility.
Time makes everything harder.
Forensic teams now have to answer a different question
If the remains aren’t connected to Nancy Guthrie, investigators still need to determine:
Who are they?
That process may involve forensic anthropology, dental records, DNA databases and comparisons against missing-person reports.
Sometimes identification happens quickly.
Sometimes it takes years.
Advances in forensic genealogy have given investigators another powerful tool in some unidentified-person cases.
DNA from remains can potentially be compared with genetic relatives, allowing investigators to work backward through family trees.
Cases that once seemed permanently unsolvable have been cracked this way decades later.
But the condition of the DNA determines what is possible.
Meanwhile, Nancy’s case remains exactly where families never want a case to remain
Unresolved.
No confirmed location.
No publicly identified suspect.
No reunion.
And no definitive explanation of what happened after she disappeared.
The human remains discovered southwest of Tucson briefly appeared as though they might change that.
They haven’t — at least according to what investigators have said publicly.
As of the latest reporting, authorities continue to say there is no indication of a connection. (The Independent)
So the search continues.
Nearly seven months is an extraordinarily long time to wait
For the public, seven months means headlines come and go.
Other stories replace them.
Attention shifts.
For a family, seven months is different.
It’s waking up every morning without knowing.
Birthdays pass.
Holidays pass.
Seasons change.
And every phone call from investigators could contain either the news you’ve prayed for or the news you’ve feared.
That uncertainty is one reason Nancy’s case continues resonating with people.
There has been no ending.
Sheriff Nanos says he still believes the case can be solved
Despite the time that has passed, Sheriff Chris Nanos has publicly expressed optimism that investigators can resolve Nancy’s disappearance.
He has pointed to the amount of DNA and video evidence investigators still have to examine. (TheWrap)
Modern investigations can move slowly precisely because there is so much information.
A tiny piece of evidence that means nothing today could become important months later when another piece finally appears.
A DNA profile could find a match.
Someone could recognize language in a ransom note.
A witness could finally come forward.
A previously overlooked image could reveal something important.
Investigators need only one breakthrough.
And the newly discovered remains represent another investigation entirely
That’s the strange and sad twist in this story.
When deputies arrived in the desert, people wondered whether one mystery was about to end.
Instead, authorities essentially said:
Not this one.
Nancy Guthrie remains missing.
And now forensic investigators have human remains whose identity has not been publicly disclosed.
Two unanswered questions.
Two stories.
And somewhere, potentially two families waiting for answers.
The photograph captures the beginning, not the conclusion
Look at the scene again.
The sheriff’s vehicle.
Investigators gathered beneath a temporary canopy.
The barren earth.
The orange markers.
From a distance, it looks almost quiet.
But every person underneath that tent is trying to extract information from what the desert left behind.
How long were the remains there?
Who was this person?
How did they die?
Is there a missing-person report somewhere that matches?
Can DNA provide a name?
And perhaps the question millions immediately asked:
Could this be Nancy?
Authorities say there is currently no indication that it is. (NTD)
But that doesn’t make the discovery less important
The national spotlight may have landed on these remains because of Savannah Guthrie’s missing mother.
Eventually, however, the investigation has to return to the unidentified person themselves.
Because somewhere behind those remains was a human being with a name.
A childhood.
People they knew.
Places they went.
Perhaps people who loved them.
Forensic investigators now have the difficult task of giving that identity back.
And fifteen miles away, another investigation continues.
Nancy Guthrie is still missing.
Her family is still waiting.
And nearly seven months after she vanished, the Arizona desert has produced another mystery — just not the answer everyone thought it might be. (KESQ)
For more stories about incredible rescues and human perseverance, check out how a paramedic jumped from a helicopter to save a drowning man and a 14-year-old boy saved a 76-year-old woman lost in the desert.
