Expert Suspects Nancy Guthrie Taken to Mexico in Tucson Disappearance

A retired Arizona Department of Public Safety lieutenant said the desert washes near Nancy Guthrie's Tucson home pose major hurdles for searchers. The 84-year-old mother of Today co-host Savannah Guthrie vanished from her residence on Feb. 1. Just a couple of miles away lies a thickly brushed natural drainage ditch that screens surrounding multimillion-dollar homes.

Dave Smith, now a law enforcement consultant, described Tucson's landscape. "The whole Tucson Valley is literally built around these arroyos, these ephemeral rivers," he told Fox News Digital. "This is literally your green belt here, only instead of parks and things like the rest of the nation has, we have this wonderful desert area. But again, it works between houses. It's like a giant alley through the neighborhoods."

Such areas hide people well but erase evidence fast in rain, Smith added. "The evidence is transitory," he said. "Once it rains, your footprints go away, the sun is hard on other forms of evidence and frankly this is a tough place to investigate crimes."

Smith believes Guthrie was moved farther, possibly to Mexico, 60 miles from her neighborhood to the border town of Nogales. Surveillance video from her Nest doorbell camera captured a suspect carrying a holstered pistol Mexican carry style. "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. "But in this case obviously there was somebody was taken with intent. And I think that that's why we need to wonder, perhaps, was she taken to Mexico?"

Nogales expands into a 300,000-person urban area across the border, which could help a suspect blend in, he noted.

Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos and FBI Director Kash Patel have clashed over federal involvement. Federal authorities said they joined days after the abduction, by which time the crime scene had been released briefly, letting journalists and delivery drivers reach the front porch with its blood spatter trail.

"My personal theory is, if Mexico was suspected, that would make it a federal investigation," Smith said. "There seemed to be a great deal of effort to keep the feds out of this case. And the best way to do it was to deny any possibility of interstate or international transport of the person's body or kidnapped."

In February, Nanos stated no firm evidence showed Guthrie crossed the border. Days later, the FBI contacted Mexican authorities about the case. Patel, on Sean Hannity's podcast, said the FBI offered help right away but was sidelined for four days. "What we, the FBI, do is say, ‘Hey, we're here to help. What do you need?’" he said. "What can we do? And for four days, we were kept out of the investigation."

The FBI partnered with Google to retrieve video of a masked suspect on Guthrie's steps, even without her Nest doorbell or cloud subscription. Disputes arose over evidence like DNA from the home. Patel said he had a plane ready for quick transport to the FBI lab, but the sheriff's office sent a hair sample to a Florida lab instead. Eleven weeks passed before it reached the FBI.

"We would have analyzed it within days and maybe gotten better information or more information," Patel said. "Our lab's just better than any other private lab out there, and we didn't get a chance to do that."

Nanos issued a statement claiming prompt FBI coordination. "The laboratory utilized by the Pima County Sheriff’s Department and the FBI Laboratory in Quantico have worked in close partnership from the outset and continue to collaborate in the analysis of evidence," he said. "A member of the FBI Task Force was also notified and present at that scene working alongside our personnel. The FBI was promptly notified by both our department and the Guthrie family."

Two men were detained briefly and released without charges. No suspects are publicly named, and Guthrie's location is unknown. A reward topping $1.2 million remains unclaimed. The family asks tips at 1-800-CALL-FBI.