371: Nancy Guthrie Update: Was He Stalking The House?

Join Annie as she discusses major updates in the Nancy Guthrie case. . If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow the show for weekly deep dives into the darkest true crime cases! To watch the video version of this episode, head over to youtube.com/@annieelise. .🔎Join Our True Crime Club & Get Exclusive Content & Perks..🎧 Need More to Binge? Listen to both of my weekly true crime series 10 to Life & Serialously with Annie Elise wherever you get your podcasts on the Annie Elise Channel!🍎 Apple Podcasts | Where you can also unlock access to 100+ and growing extra exclusive deep dives.💚 Spotify🔴 YouTube🎙️ All Other Platforms.📸 Follow Annie on Socials Instagram: @_annieeliseTikTok: @_annieeliseSubstack: @annieeliseFacebook: @10toLife.👗 Shop Annie’s Must-Haves! ShopMY: bit.ly/AnnieElise_ShopMy Amazon: bit.ly/AnnieElise_Amazon.🫵🏻 Get Involved or Recommend a CaseAbout Annie: www.annieelise.comFor Business Inquiries: [email protected]••••••••••••••••••🚨Disclaimers1️⃣ Some links may be affiliate links, they do not cost you anything, but I make a small percentage from the sale. Thank you so much for watching and supporting me. 2️⃣ Sources used to collect this information include various public news sites, interviews, court documents, FB groups dedicated to the case, and various news channel segments. When quoting statements made by others, they are strictly alleged until confirmed otherwise. Please remember my videos are my independent opinion and to always do your own research. 3️⃣ The views and opinions expressed in this video are personal and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer, or company. Assumptions made in the analysis are not reflective of the position of any entity other than the creator(s). These views are subject to change, revision, and rethinking at any time and are not to be held in perpetuity. We make no representations as to the accuracy, completeness, correctness, suitability, or validity of any information on this video and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use. All information is provided on an as-is basis. It is the reader’s responsibility to verify their own facts.

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• 1:29Annie Elise?

  Hey, true crime besties. Welcome back to an all-new episode of Serialishly.

• 1:52Annie Elise?

  Hello, hello, hello. Welcome back to an all-new episode of Serialishly with me, your host, Annie Elise. And I really want to talk about everything that's going on with the Nancy Guthrie case because we are on week four and there has been, I mean, a ton of information flying, you know, left, right, up, down. It's hard to keep everything straight. It's like they're finding a new glove this day, then a backpack this day, then there's a rest that day, then their SWAT team this day. And it's so difficult to not only make sense of it, but also to believe that, I can't believe it's been about four weeks now and we still... Don't have answers as to what happened to Nancy. And so I've given you guys some updates along the way. We've done some additional bonus episodes.

• 2:37Annie Elise?

  However, we haven't really talked in the last week or so about it with everything that had ever, you know, that had gone down since the raids, since the arrest. And so I want to just bring everything current and walk you through all of that. For those of you who maybe are unfamiliar with the case, although I'm sure everybody has heard about it at some point by now. Nancy Guthrie is Savannah Guthrie, the host of the Today Show. She's her mother and she went missing back in, gosh, what was it? I guess it was early February, right? And nobody has seen her. They, they believe she's been abducted. There have been all sorts of ransom demands, ransom demands that have been accepted.

• 3:18Annie Elise?

  And they, they say that they will put the money in the account, yet then the ransomer isn't actually giving them any sort of information. So it feels like it's kind of like a false promise. It's just been awful. And in the meantime, there have been a lot of searches, a lot of things discovered, but nothing that has pointed to what happened? Who was responsible for this? And the most important question of where is Nancy Guthrie? So go ahead and revisit some of my older episodes. If you want to get caught up with like what happened right when the abduction first happened? The initial pleas, the initial speculation that it was possibly a family member by proc, you know, adjacent to the family member, to the family, a spouse.

• 4:03Annie Elise?

  And that's now since been ruled out. They've said nobody directly or indirectly connected with the family in terms of like, you know, bloodline or spouses is appearing to be a suspect. So there's just been a lot. So what I want to really do with this episode is pick up where we left off. And that's where we really left off with another ransom note that had happened. The footage came out of the Ring Doorbell camera footage, or the Nest footage, rather, of the person coming up, approaching Nancy's house, trying to dismantle the camera, not being successful in doing so. So then they take a few steps back, they grab the shrubbery, they rip that out of the ground. They try to use that to block the lens.

• 4:45Annie Elise?

  And this person on camera looked prepared. I mean, there's no denying that. This person had a backpack, a full mask, gloves. They had a holster in the front of their crotch area, which was really weird, with either a gun or a gun-like taser, which usually people hold those on their hips. So I'm not sure why it was at the front. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. But that's where we left off. So where I want to go now is what happened starting around the 10th of February. Because on Tuesday, the 10th, in the afternoon, police, FBI, and search and rescue had returned to her other daughter, Annie Guthrie's house, and they started going door to door, talking to neighbors,

• 5:27Annie Elise?

  asking for cameras, asking to search an RV that was in a neighbor's yard, and just still canvassing the area. Then, later, two armored SWAT vehicles departed the sheriff's office in response to a situation with a potential person of interest. And this is what kind of got everybody, not up in arms, but very hopeful that this actually was going to be something tangible, and it would lead to Nancy's rescue or recovery. So a three-hour-long manhunt was conducted by Tucson PD, Pima County, and surrounding sheriffs, including to the FBI and Border Patrol. Police scanner chatter also confirmed the manhunt, and confirmed

• 6:07Annie Elise?

  that it was in relation to the kidnapping or abduction, and that the suspect was carrying a rifle and a revolver. At around the same time, TMZ also reported that there finally was activity in the Bitcoin wallet, and that $300 had been transferred into the account. Now, that wasn't the full ransom amount, but it was a small amount, and my belief is it was put in there to see if, you know, to see if they would take the bait, to then maybe possibly track them forensically through their digital footprint. I'm not sure. But during all of this whole search and the manhunt and all of that, police pulled over and detained a man named Carlos. So they actually pulled him over, too, while he was attempting to

• 6:48Annie Elise?

  deliver a DoorDash order, I believe. So he was put in cuffs while the police conducted a full search of a residence that's connected to him. So then around the same time as everybody's listening to this like police scanner chatter that's going on rumors began swirling to speculate that an 84 year old woman was being airlifted to a nearby hospital in Tucson and that because that age aligns with Nancy Guthrie that this woman especially happening in tandem with this arrest that it must be Nancy Guthrie. However, it was never confirmed and Nancy's location to this day still remains

• 7:27Annie Elise?

  unknown. So during the search of the property Carlos's mother-in-law who owns the home speaks out to the press and she it was pretty interesting to see what she said. She said like he could never do this. He's my son-in-law. But then when she looked at the footage and a still of the footage of the person on the doorstep, it was kind of interesting because she's like, well, yeah, it does look like him. He has the same eyes. But overnight Carlos, who by the way, was just a 27-year-old delivery driver, he was released after several hours of questioning. Authorities reportedly found no sufficient evidence that linked him to the Nancy Guthrie kidnapping despite that resemblance to the figure in the doorbell footage. He also stated that he doesn't recall ever delivering any items to her home. So

• 8:12Annie Elise?

  based on reports from NBC and other sources, police also seized Carlos's phone during the questioning in relation to the case, likely to check his GPS data or records because remember he is a delivery driver. But he was released. So I don't know if the phone is still being held for ongoing forensic analysis or if it's been returned. But we do know that no charges were ever filed. Then Carlos rightfully so in my opinion if they got the wrong guy was pretty pissed off by the whole ordeal and he spoke out to the press after he was released. In that he maintained his innocence. He confirmed he had absolutely nothing to do with it. And he said that he was terrified that he was actually being kidnapped and he had no idea what was going on. So it was a pretty

• 8:55Annie Elise?

  big night. A lot of events happening that night. People were up all night waiting for answers, hoping that again, this was going to lead to something tangible, that this was going to give answers. Then by the following morning TMZ received a third letter. And in this letter, it was a little bit different than the other ransom demands. In this one, They said they know who the kidnapper is and that they have tried reaching out to Savannah's sister Annie and to Savannah's brother, but that they had not received any response. They also say they want one Bitcoin, which totals to approximately $65,000, that they want it sent to an active Bitcoin address. And the note also included a name and an email address.

• 9:39Annie Elise?

  And I believe that this Bitcoin wallet was different from the other Bitcoin wallet. So by that afternoon, FBI agents were conducting a very extensive search in Nancy Guthrie's backyard and also in the surrounding Tucson Catalina foothills neighborhood. That's when a black glove was found on the roadside in the brush roughly a mile and a half from Nancy's home, and it was immediately sent to the DNA lab. But spoiler alert, they still don't have those results back. The sheriff said that those results could take days, weeks, possibly even up to a year. So everybody's just waiting a little bit on pins and needles for the DNA to come back. So then the next day, law enforcement was seen again at Nancy's doorstep, this time

• 10:23Annie Elise?

  conducting a forensic measurement. So FBI ups the reward to $100,000 and they are seeking to question and identify whoever this backpack man is who was seen on that Ring doorbell footage. The suspect was described as a male, approximately 5'9" to 5'10", average build, and in one video, he's wearing a black 25-liter Ozark Trail hiker pack backpack. So they put out more of a description. Someone who used to help the FBI with drawings, you know, suspect drawings also put out what they believe could potentially be a description of this person. And we're still kind of just like frozen in that moment. So then by Friday, what kind of threw a wrench in everything and again, got the rumor mill

• 11:08Annie Elise?

  really churning, was that pool cleaners were seen at the pool in Nancy's backyard doing maintenance, which this, everybody kind of was up in arms about this being like, why aren't you preserving the crime scene? Why would you have pool cleaners come in there? Why is that the priority? Which I believe it's just scheduled maintenance and they just showed up, the family allowed them in there. But I do understand where it's like, you know, you want to preserve a crime scene as best as possible, even if there was no evidence that she had ever been in the backyard. You don't know if somebody perhaps was casing the area weeks prior, which we'll get to, and had hopped a fence, had been in the backyard. I mean, you just never know. So at that point, law enforcement also confirmed that they had recovered multiple gloves at this point, found in the area, and that they are still awaiting DNA results.

• 11:53Annie Elise?

  Rumors at this point also started to swirl that there was conflict between the sheriff's department and the FBI, saying that they're not exchanging information properly, that there's a little bit of, not combativeness, but tension because the sheriff doesn't want the FBI taking over, the FBI wants to take over, and it seemed as though they were butting heads, or at least that's what was being reported in the media. By that evening, Pima County Sheriff's Office SWAT units and FBI agents executed another search warrant at a residence in Tucson, Arizona, that was located approximately two miles from Nancy's home. FBI Evidence Response Team members were observed entering the scene, indicating evidence collection

• 12:34Annie Elise?

  procedures were underway, which might have included collection of DNA, trace evidence, digital devices, or other forensic materials. And multiple individuals who were present or connected to the residence ended up being detained during the execution of the search warrant. So detention during a search warrant, too, is standard investigative procedure, so it doesn't necessarily indicate arrest or criminal charges, but just to pull everybody out of the scene as they are searching the property. So an additional third person of interest was detained around that same time, too, during a traffic stop at a nearby restaurant. Now, this also, again, sent everybody into a frenzy, because they're like, okay, Carlos wasn't the guy a couple nights ago, but now they're doing another search warrant, they're

• 13:19Annie Elise?

  detaining people at traffic stops, now they are closer, they do have the guy. And a video taken at the scene shows law enforcement officers surrounding the Range Rover car with a man who was passed out in the driver's seat. Then they later hung up sheets to block the public's view of the vehicle, but the video very quickly began circulating on social media, sparking a lot of speculation that the driver, who is believed to have been armed, may have taken their own life. So then the following morning on Saturday, law enforcement updated the media on that search warrant and the traffic stop. They said that the search was prompted by a credible tip that they had received, but they confirmed that there were no arrests and that the person of interest identities will actually not be released.

• 14:04Annie Elise?

  They also clarified that there were no injuries and that the driver of the Range Rover was detained and then later released. They did at this point, the FBI at least, received preliminary DNA results on one of the gloves that had been recovered near Nancy's home. And the profile is of an unknown male who does not appear to be in the CODIS database. So then going through the weekend, law enforcement announced that they had sent a total of 16 gloves for DNA testing. Now 15 to 16 gloves in total, people are probably like, where are all these gloves coming from? Well, they are coming from volunteers who were assisting in the search for Nancy, leaving only the one glove of that unknown male that matched the surveillance video. But I also have to say too, if you're part of the

• 14:49Annie Elise?

  search party, especially if it's not a public search party and it's a law enforcement search party, why are you taking your gloves off and dropping them along the crime scene? Like, that feels like in poor practice, right? So FBI agents continued going door to door questioning neighbors and at this time Savannah also released a fourth video to the alleged abductors, pleading for their mother's return, saying something in which I believe was a personal message to somebody I believe they may know or have some sort of history with. But it was again, and I've talked about this in previous episodes, that sentiment of like partnership or cooperation, like there's still time, we can figure this out, you're a good person, like things like that to where it feels

• 15:34Annie Elise?

  like maybe the plea isn't to somebody super random and unknown. And I could totally be wrong, but that's just what I gathered through it. So then at the top of the week TMZ received a fourth ransom letter. Law enforcement also announced that they have identified the Ozark Trail backpack that was seen in that surveillance footage and that it is exclusively and actively sold at Walmart. So they are actively working with the company to retrieve evidence or identify people who had purchased that backpack in nearby stores and also online. Sheriff Chris Nanos also gave a statement that the Guthrie family, including all siblings and all spouses, have been cleared as possible suspects in the case. And that was very important because if you remember, early on, if you've been following

• 16:19Annie Elise?

  this, there was a lot of speculation that the brother-in-law was somehow involved. And so they made it vocal that, you know, they have been cleared. Later in the week, law enforcement announced that they have identified that backpack. Like I said, they're still looking to see who, you know, could have bought it. They're tracking down receipts, all of that. And they also tried to ping Nancy's pacemaker. They clarified that they have no evidence that Nancy was taken to Mexico, despite a lot of reports at that point saying that there that she could have been taken to Mexico or that this was cartel-related. And there was also a fourth anonymous letter that had been sent to TMZ alleging that somehow Mexico was in the loop with all of this.

• 17:02Annie Elise?

  So one of the attorneys who is currently representing the three potential persons of interest who were detained by law enforcement back in the SWAT raid identified his client as Luke Daly. So social media then took off with theories regarding Luke and his relationship with somebody in Nancy's family, I believe. So law enforcement announced that they received more than 20,000 tips and they encouraged the public to keep sending information regarding the case. Meanwhile, online sleuths started to notice an inconsistency in the timeline based on a timestamp on the Pima County Evidence Submission Portal, which actually listed the

• 17:41Annie Elise?

  missing person report was filed on January 31st at 7:00 PM, which was Saturday and not Sunday. But very quickly, the sheriff's department clarified that the reason that that timestamp was shown on the official evidence submission portal, that they said it doesn't represent the missing person report and that the public portal automatically converts timestamps to the viewer's browser's time zone. So that's why people were, I guess, seeing different times like 5:00 PM versus 7:00 PM and different things like that. So helicopters were then seen hovering over a landfill, which also prompted online sleuths to believe that Nancy's body might be located there. And one of the people who were flying the helicopters clarified that he flew over the landfill

• 18:24Annie Elise?

  to actually use a laser and do some sort of mapping. He insisted that it was not Nancy Guthrie related, but he also said that he would be happy to assist with the search. Around this same time, private search parties began, and volunteer search groups were frustrated with the lack of progress on the case. So they began organizing their own search parties. However, per the sheriff, they were asked to please give investigators the space that they needed to work, saying, quote, "We appreciate their concern, and we all want to find Nancy, but this work is best left to professionals. PCSD has volunteer opportunities if they do wish to get involved with the department." So what's interesting, though, is that within hours of volunteer searches,

• 19:09Annie Elise?

  they recovered a black backpack in a bush near Nancy's house. And they turned it over to law enforcement, who collected the backpack as evidence. Then earlier this week, the sheriff announced that the suspect that was shown on surveillance in that Ring camera footage had also visited Nancy's house on more than one occasion, and that there is footage from two different dates. And that's what I was talking a little bit about earlier, indicating that this person might have been casing the house, casing the patterns, the routine. And that's why I don't know why they didn't buckle the whole thing down as a crime scene from the jump. But there are now apparently two different timelines of when this person was seen around the property.

• 19:53Annie Elise?

  Then on Tuesday of this week, Savannah posted another video. This time, in the video, she upped the family's personal reward to $1 million. So the combined total of reward money is around $1.2 million. She also announced that they would be donating $500,000 to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which I think is fantastic. But something that was different in the tone in this video versus the past videos... Even though a lot of people in the public, I believe, unfortunately, think that Nancy is no longer alive, in past videos and even the sheriff himself, the tone has been, we

• 20:34Annie Elise?

  still have hope, we still believe that she is out there, we still believe she's alive. And in this one Savannah says the word recovery versus rescue. And it's, and she basically pleads like, not for a tip to, like a million dollars for any tip that leads to her mother's safe return, but just to the recovery of their mother, so that they can have a proper celebration of life, they can properly have peace and grief, grieve properly. Because, as you can imagine, if you lose a family member, or a loved one, or anyone close to you, if you don't know where their remains are, it could be very difficult to try to close that chapter. And it would be difficult to go to an empty plot and grieve, in my

• 21:16Annie Elise?

  opinion at least, maybe not for you, but I'm just speaking for myself. So I think at this point now, they're upping the reward because, to me, the sentiment sounds like, we know she probably is no longer with us, but we would like to at least still receive her back so that we can give her a proper burial, a send off, and a celebration of life. And who knows, maybe there will be a miracle and she is still alive. But what I've been saying, and I'm curious to know your thoughts, what I've been saying from the very beginning, is I think that this was never intended to be a murder, was never intended to be as high profile as an abduction as it's become. I think that this was something

• 21:56Annie Elise?

  like a get rich, quick money scheme, and it went left really fast. It just like went sideways so quickly, and then spun out of control. And I think that that's still like, and part of the reason I think that is because these ransom letters, right, they're demanding Bitcoin, a million dollars, all of these things, and the family is saying, great, fine, yeah, we'll pay up, give us our mother, that's fine. But then, the kidnapper is not following up with actually retrieving the money. So I think it's almost done as a hail mary, like, or to throw them off, or I don't know, but I don't think that this was something that was supposed to get this far. That's my point. And I also think in the past videos and

• 22:37Annie Elise?

  pleas, that it felt more like they were looking for partnership and trying to connect with the person on the other side, which could just be a psychological tactic, perhaps, even for a stranger. But to me, it felt like they were talking to somebody. That they knew, or possibly knew by extension, by using the words of like, "We'll figure all of this out," or like, "It's still okay, "there's still time to turn it around." Things like that, to where maybe it could just be begging for mercy to a stranger, but it felt a little more personal to me. So, I don't know. I don't know when we're gonna have answers. I don't know if we ever will get the answer. I hope we do, and I hope that Savannah's family gets answers as to what happened to their mother and who is responsible.

• 23:21Annie Elise?

  But this has just been a very high-profile case. A lot of crazy rumors on the internet. And so, I wanted to just take a beat, gather everything, kind of sift through all the information, and then jump on here now and let you know what we know. So, that's where we're at right now. I will definitely keep you updated. We probably will do more of these like random, off-the-cuff-type episodes, where I just give you the update very quickly. So, if you're not following the podcast yet, make sure that you are, so that you don't miss that. But, um, yeah, let's just all pray for Nancy's safe return, and let's just hope that that she is found soon, one way or another. All right, guys. Thank you so much for tuning in.

• 24:05Annie Elise?

  I will be back with you on Monday with an all-new case. But until then, be nice, don't kill people, don't join any cults, and just hug your family. Okay, bye.

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