Kidnapping survivor Elizabeth Smart says she still believes 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie can be brought home alive, a message that lands as investigators chase thousands of tips but have yet to make an arrest in one of the most closely watched abduction cases in years.
Smart, who was abducted at knifepoint from her Salt Lake City home in 2002 at age 14 and held for nine months before police rescued her, told E! News in an interview published Friday that the absence of a body should keep the public engaged, not resigned. The 38-year-old survivor drew on her own ordeal to press the point: ordinary citizens spotting her captors on the street is what ended her nightmare, and the same kind of vigilance could break the Guthrie case open.
Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of "Today" co-host Savannah Guthrie, was taken by force from her home in the Catalina Foothills area of Tucson, Arizona, in the early hours of February 1, according to the Pima County Sheriff's Department. Twenty-five weeks later, no suspect has been publicly identified, no arrest has been announced, and the results of DNA testing and other forensic work remain under wraps. A combined reward pool now exceeds $1.2 million.
Fox News Digital reported that Smart urged anyone with even a minor detail to come forward.
"I want to remind people that there isn't a body, so there is still reason to have hope that she is alive and that we shouldn't give up until we find her."
Smart added that she hopes investigators have more information than is publicly available and are making progress behind the scenes. She did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
The public response to Nancy Guthrie's disappearance has been enormous, and, so far, insufficient. The FBI has collected more than 13,000 tips since February 1, and the Pima County Sheriff's Department has fielded at least 18,000 calls, Newsmax reported. Roberto Villaseñor, a former Tucson police chief, told the outlet that kind of volume is essential: "In a situation like this, you really cannot do what's been done without tips and public input."
The FBI identified the suspect as male, approximately five-foot-nine with a medium build. Agents released the brand and model of the backpack the suspect was carrying, along with two images recovered from Nancy Guthrie's Nest doorbell camera showing a masked intruder on her doorstep that morning. It remains unclear whether both images show the same person.
That doorbell footage has become a central piece of evidence, and a source of frustration. The FBI and Google released the video after recovering it from Guthrie's missing Nest camera. A four-day delay early in the investigation may have cost detectives access to additional critical video, a timeline gap that has drawn scrutiny from the start.
The case has attracted a disturbing parade of ransom communications. National Review detailed how ransom notes demanding $4 million in Bitcoin by February 5, escalating to $6 million by February 9, were sent to local Tucson television stations KOLD and KGUN, as well as TMZ. FBI Phoenix Division Special Agent in Charge Heath Yonke said at the time that investigators were "taking it seriously."
At least one of those communications turned out to be an outright fraud. Derrick Callella, 42, of Hawthorne, was arrested and charged federally for sending a bogus ransom demand to the Guthrie family. A California man later pleaded guilty to sending fake ransom messages to the family, a grim reminder that high-profile cases draw predators alongside tipsters.
Anonymous letters to media outlets have also muddied the waters. Multiple notes sent to TMZ claimed knowledge of Nancy Guthrie's whereabouts, with one alleging she is in Mexico. Investigators have not confirmed the authenticity of any purported ransom note or a follow-up message that claimed Nancy Guthrie had died.
The Pima County Sheriff's Department has dismissed at least one subsequent ransom letter as likely fake, underscoring how much noise investigators must sift through to find signal.
Sheriff Chris Nanos moved publicly to shut down one persistent line of speculation. The Pima County Sheriff's Department officially cleared all Guthrie family members and their spouses as suspects, with Nanos delivering a pointed rebuke to media coverage that had fueled conspiracy theories targeting the family.
"The Guthrie family are victims plain and simple. Please, I'm begging you, the media, to honor your profession and report with some sense of compassion and professionalism."
That statement, reported by the Washington Examiner, came as investigators pursued leads through Walmart sales records tied to the suspect's clothing and backpack captured in doorbell footage. A glove found near Guthrie's home appeared to match gloves worn by the suspect and was being analyzed for DNA evidence.
Savannah Guthrie made an emotional plea on air earlier in the week, saying "somebody knows something" and describing her family's state as "agony." The case passed the 150-day mark with a private investigator urging the public to keep calling in tips, a sign that even those closest to the investigation recognize momentum depends on outside help.
The Tucson area's safety climate drew fresh attention in June when the Pima County Sheriff's Department issued an alert for Coral Michelle Smith, a 40-year-old career criminal wanted for a kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon incident on May 29, roughly seven miles from Nancy Guthrie's home. Smith's record includes convictions for robbery, aggravated assault, and a prior kidnapping-related case involving a victim under 15.
Authorities told the New York Post there is no known connection between Smith and the Guthrie disappearance. But a second kidnapping suspect operating in the same stretch of Tucson does nothing to reassure residents that their community is under control.
Separately, law enforcement executed a federal court-ordered search warrant at Nancy Guthrie's home based on a new lead, sealing off a nearby road and towing a Range Rover SUV from a restaurant parking lot about two miles away. The AP reported that despite the heightened activity, sheriff's and FBI vehicles, forensics units deployed, no arrests were made.
Bloodstain pattern analysis expert Paulette Sutton described evidence at the scene as a "drip trail," meaning "a continuous source of blood dripping from an object or from a person." That detail, combined with the masked intruder footage, the chilling demands contained in the first ransom note, and the still-sealed forensic results, paints a picture of an investigation with significant physical evidence, and no public resolution.
Elizabeth Smart's credibility on this subject is not abstract. In 2002, Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee abducted her at knifepoint from her family's Salt Lake City home. She was fourteen. For nine months, she was held captive, until members of the public recognized Mitchell and Barzee from news coverage and called police in Sandy, Utah, about twenty miles south of Salt Lake City.
Smart has since become an advocate for missing persons cases and appeared on "America's Most Wanted." She also took first place in the novice category at the Wasatch Warrior bodybuilding competition in Salt Lake City in April 2026, placing second in Class D and third in the Masters 35+ division, a detail that speaks to someone who rebuilt her life through discipline after unimaginable trauma.
Her message on the Guthrie case was direct: report anything, no matter how small.
"If anyone knows anything or seen anything, or the smallest detail that might seem insignificant can make all the difference, just report it."
Authorities have asked anyone with information to call 1-800-CALL-FBI or the Tucson-area Crime Stoppers line at 520-88-CRIME.
Twenty-five weeks is a long time. But Smart spent nine months in captivity before a stranger's phone call brought her home. The Guthrie family deserves at least the same chance, and that chance runs through the public, not the bureaucracy.
