The investigation into the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of Savannah Guthrie continues to puzzle investigators and crime experts. Speaking at Variety True Crime Summit during the SXSW festival in Austin, a legal commentator Nancy Grace said she is just as confused about the case as many others following it.
Nancy Grace spoke about the investigation during a conversation with Dea Lawrence. The disappearance of Nancy Guthrie has been widely reported since authorities said she was kidnapped from her home in Tucson, Arizona on February 1.
“I’ve been asking that question since about Day 2 of Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance,” Grace said while discussing why the case remains unsolved despite modern forensic tools. “I’ve been wondering, how is this happening?”
Grace says she does not believe family members are involved
Early in the investigation, online speculation suggested that members of the Guthrie family might be involved. As Nancy Guthrie’s daughter Annie Guthrie and her husband, Tommaso Cioni were reportedly the last people to see her alive and Annie’s car was also examined by investigators.
However, authorities later confirmed that Savannah Guthrie and her family were cleared as suspects. And at the summit, Nancy Grace said she strongly believes the family is not responsible.
“For one reason, and one reason only, I do not believe the Guthrie family is responsible, because although it was many years ago that I first met Savannah Guthrie, she is, I’d like to assure you, not a fake TV person,” Grace said.
“She’s real. She is real, just like she is on TV. She’s super-smart. She’s a trained lawyer, and I find it not just difficult but impossible to believe that Savannah Guthrie would drape her arm around [a family member] if she suspected he was involved.”
Grace added that investigators often look at relatives first in missing-person cases.
“All your true crime, legal aficionados would say you look at the family first. Of course you do, because statistically, that’s who did it. But I don’t think that’s who did it in this case.”
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Grace criticizes early handling of the case
During the discussion, Nancy Grace also criticized how local authorities handled the investigation in the early days. She said the delay in bringing in federal investigators may have harmed the case.
“I believe that they were advised by law enforcement not to jump on a ransom, that they thought law enforcement could solve it organically by the sheriff that runs desert justice, a reality show. So that’s another big problem — waiting so long to call in the feds,” she said.
Grace added that federal investigators have tools that local departments often do not.
“The feds have the power, the technology that local law enforcement does not have,” she said.
Despite the uncertainty surrounding the case, she said her main concern remains the impact the crime is having on the Guthrie family.
