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Jesse Watters Primetime 2/4/26 FULL END SHOW | ᖴO᙭ ᗷᖇEᗩKIᑎG ᑎEᗯS February 4, 2026
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00:00Fox News alert. Major police activity at Nancy Guthrie's house. Authorities put up crime scene
00:14tape around the premises, then took it down just moments ago as drones, dogs, and border patrol
00:20agents searched the surrounding area for Savannah Guthrie's mom. The 84-year-old has been without
00:26her medication since Saturday, when authorities said she was kidnapped from her home in the middle
00:30of the night. Police found blood inside the house, leading out to the driveway. But earlier today,
00:37the Pima County Sheriff said he believed Nancy's still alive. We have nothing else to go on but
00:43the belief that she is here. She's present, she's alive, and we want to save her. Police still have
00:50no suspects or persons of interest. We're also learning what happened in the hours before
00:55Nancy vanished. The sheriff says she had dinner with her daughter Annie and her husband, who dropped
01:02her off at home and made sure she got inside safely before leaving. Today, President Trump spoke to
01:09Savannah Guthrie and told her he's there to help in any way possible. He's also deployed the FBI in an
01:15elite border patrol unit that specializes in rescues. Jonathan Hunt is on the ground in Tucson
01:21with the breaking details. What's going on, Jonathan? Yeah, Jesse, potentially major developments
01:28tonight. We have seen two very active scenes. Let's get to the one you were talking about first
01:34at the home of Nancy Guthrie. Just a couple of hours ago, a huge team comprised of sheriff's deputies,
01:45border patrol agents, and FBI agents suddenly descended on that property. And remember, as we
01:52talk about that, that the sheriff's department said they had cleared the crime scene yesterday
01:57and were handing the home back to the Guthrie family. Well, within 24 hours, that obviously all
02:04went into reverse. And we saw all of these law enforcement agents descend on the home, tape it
02:11off once again and conduct searches both inside and outside. There was a team out the back of the
02:19house searching through the cactus and the landscape there. There was a team in the house and a team
02:25that was going through the garage, all of them wearing the kind of gloves you see during these sort
02:31of forensic examinations of scenes of evidence. They were there, as I say, for about two hours. They
02:38appear to be wrapping that search up right now. They did remove some items from the property.
02:46The yellow crime scene tape has come down once again. So what they were looking for, what they
02:53found, why they went back, having said 24 hours ago they cleared that property, we do not know. We
03:00expect and we hope we will get some answers from the sheriff at a press conference here scheduled for
03:051 p.m. Eastern on Thursday. We may get some idea before then. We certainly hope we will. Then to
03:11the second major scene that we have seen today. That was at the home of Annie Guthrie. She is Savannah
03:18Guthrie's sister, the other daughter of Nancy Guthrie. Annie Guthrie shares her home with her husband,
03:26Tommaso. Now, just about the same time as the search was suddenly happening at Nancy Guthrie's home,
03:34federal agents showed up at Annie Guthrie's home. Our team were there. They saw them go into the home.
03:40They saw them at one point. Some of the agents come out of Annie Guthrie's home with a small box of some
03:47description. They put it into the back of the SUV that they were using and then they went back into the
03:52home. As far as we know right now, those federal agents are still at Annie Guthrie's home. A little bit of
03:58background on them. Annie Guthrie, as I say, married to Tommaso. Now, we believe and we cannot say this
04:04with 100 percent certainty because law enforcement has not directly confirmed it. But we believe that
04:10Annie and her husband are the family members the sheriff is referring to when he says they told us
04:16they dropped her off, Nancy Guthrie, at her home at around 9.30 on Saturday night. And one point I just
04:24want to bring up here, Jesse. In the early going of the press conferences, the first couple of days,
04:31the sheriff said the plain statement family members dropped her off at 9.30. It just struck me yesterday
04:39in his latest press conference. He changed that language slightly, may have been purely coincidental,
04:46may have been significant. But instead of saying family members dropped her off at 9.30, he said the
04:53words we were told by family members they dropped her off at 9.30. I do not know, again, if that is a
05:01significant, deliberate change in his language. But it certainly struck me the moment he said it at
05:07yesterday's press conference, Jesse. I mean, you're not sensing that the family or the son-in-law
05:14would be persons of interest or would have anything to do with the disappearance.
05:21The sheriff has said plainly this morning in a statement in response to a lot of inquiries
05:26about certain names that were being talked about. The sheriff said in a statement,
05:31there are no suspects, there are no persons of interest at this time. On the other hand,
05:37he has also said that, obviously, we will talk to every member of the family, anybody who was
05:45close to Nancy Guthrie, anybody who had regular contact with her. And obviously, two very important
05:52witnesses in this would be the last people to see Nancy Guthrie. And we believe that the last people
06:00to see Nancy Guthrie were her daughter, Annie Guthrie and Annie's husband, Tommaso. So obviously,
06:06they would be questioned by law enforcement in this case. Jesse.
06:11Jonathan, very interesting. Thank you. Jim Clemente is a former FBI profiler and writer and producer for
06:17Criminal Minds. Jim, clearing a scene and then going back days later, what does that indicate? Poor police
06:27work or a break in the case or what? Well, first of all, it's just following leads. They have to go
06:36with what they have at the time. And clearly, there has been some serious indication that they didn't
06:43get everything from either of those locations. And that's why they're there. But I think that
06:49there's there's a real probability that the question you just asked, the issue is, why would somebody
06:58remove the victim from her home? If it was a case that they were trying to rob the place? If it was
07:05a case that they wanted money, perhaps a kidnapping? Well, then they would have made that direct
07:10request for a ransom to to the person or the company that that she worked for that her daughter
07:20worked for. But they didn't do that. And I think here you have an indication people who who remove a
07:28victim from their home typically have a known connection to that victim, a known connection to
07:35that home or both. And so those are the real issues that are raised with this activity.
07:41So we're under the understanding that Savannah Guthrie never received
07:45anything from the kidnappers. We're under the understanding that this ransom note was sent out
07:51to TMZ and local media. Well, what does that tell you? Well, TMZ really skews younger. So
07:59I don't know that that seems like it it could be a hoax. But yeah, but certainly sending it to CBS
08:06rather than NBC where Samantha worked, it just doesn't make sense. There's this has to be this
08:13is a very high risk crime. There has to be some level of sophistication on the part of the people
08:18who did this. So to do that, to make a mistake as to who to send it to, it just doesn't sound very
08:24sophisticated. And and that could mean that this was sort of an impulsive act, that something
08:30happened when they were at the house and they didn't expect it. And and this is how they responded
08:35to it in the end. Yeah, because by by making some kind of demand, if you're going to kidnap someone,
08:41you probably don't do it to the mother of one of the most famous newscasters in the world.
08:48That just brings so much attention. The FBI, the president's now involved. You got the bug on every
08:53cable station with the tip line. You probably want to do it with an anonymous, wealthy family.
08:58What are you feeling about the the daughter and the husband? Did you read into the change of
09:05statement from the sheriff about they said they dropped her off? Yeah, well, again, that it could
09:16be an indication that there isn't any proof that she was actually dropped off. And it raises that
09:21question. Did they actually drop her off at nine thirty the night before or did they not do that?
09:27Or if they did drop her off, did one or more of them return? And so that's the biggest investigative
09:34question right now. Clearly, people have made statements and law enforcement took them at face
09:40value because there were family members. But now it appears they're questioning that.
09:45All right. Thank you so much. Excellent analysis. Thank you. Carly Shimkus is the co-host of Fox and
09:51Friends First. Carly, we don't want to place any undue scrutiny on Savannah Guthrie's sister and the
09:59husband. But there does seem to be a change in the posture of the sheriff with regards to those.
10:05Yeah. And you know what? I think that the more unique detail than police going back to the house right
10:10now is that they left in the first place, because if you think about other and you hate to bring up
10:17other violent crimes when it comes to this, because we really don't know what happened yet.
10:22But if you bring up the Idaho murder college off campus home and you think about how long
10:29police were at that house or, you know, I remember covering the Gabby Petito case
10:33in Florida. And there was a massive police presence in the homes involved in that case for a while.
10:39So I think that the interesting detail is they they left to begin with and said that they were done in
10:44closing up the investigation surrounding the house. And then you have this. And when police do come into a
10:51scene once again, and it's all of a sudden, it is a jarring thing when you're covering it. And I,
10:57you know, you say, why? What's going on? And that is also, Jesse, why everybody in this country is
11:03wondering about this case, because there are so many more questions and answers here.
11:07And the lingering thing in the back of everybody's mind is that time is of the essence. Right.
11:11Because this woman needs medication every 24 hours. So can she survive without this? Did the
11:17people who potentially have her know her medical history and took some of the medication to keep
11:22her alive? You pray that that is potentially one of the because in the beginning you heard from the
11:27sheriff that the medication didn't go with her and the medication may have still been in the house,
11:33which made everybody think that time really was of the essence. I'm still disturbed a little bit
11:40about the fact that they go back not only to the house, but to the house of the sister and the husband,
11:45and they removed something from that house. Yeah. I mean,
11:48if they removed electronic devices, ring doorbell camera footage, something like that. I mean,
11:54this case could be moving really fast in that direction. Yeah. And then when you, when,
11:58when law enforcement removes something from a house, I mean, it usually comes in a black box. You do,
12:02you do not get to see it. You don't know what it is. And with the way that this particular case is
12:08developing in terms of public eye, I mean, the sheriff is being very closed lipped and he didn't even,
12:16he wasn't even gonna have a press conference today. When he had previous press conferences,
12:20it was almost like, all right, maybe you should stop because there's clearly nothing that you can
12:25give us. So how have you felt the sheriff has been, there's been some divided opinion as to his
12:32performance. And I know he's probably in touch with the people who may have her, maybe not, but
12:38he's leading people to believe that he knows a lot more than he's letting on from all law enforcement
12:46that I've spoken to who know him or know of the county sheriff's office. They say that he's great
12:51and that he's handling this by the book. I think oftentimes law enforcement, they're just not natural
12:57public speakers. And then you're put in the public spotlight and everybody wants answers to these burning
13:03questions that we have. And then sometimes there's a little bit of disconnect in terms of
13:07what you can give. So I was glad when he said, we're going to hold off on press conferences for
13:13a little while. And all you have to do is just say, I know that everybody has a lot of questions right
13:17now. This is a scenario that we need to keep really close to the vest for obvious reasons.
13:23And I think a lot of people can understand that.
13:24I can understand that, Carly. Thank you so much.
13:26You're very welcome. Jeff Bennett's a retired FBI special agent. Jeff,
13:30we're hearing now, it's not just blood just by the door. You're seeing blood
13:34trailed down to the driveway or something like that. That indicates a violent struggle,
13:40violent resistance. That wouldn't happen with someone she knew though, right?
13:48That's correct. That's an accurate assumption. What does stand out to me is,
13:53it doesn't appear, it doesn't appear that there's forced entry, and it appears from what I've seen,
13:57is that the blood trail ends. That would indicate possibly a vehicle. And if there's a vehicle,
14:04I would assume detectives are chasing video as far as they can to follow a vehicle from the house
14:13to wherever that vehicle goes. My specialty when I was in the FBI prior to retiring was tracking
14:23cell phones. So what we did was we would layer cell phone data on top of crime scenes and try and
14:29figure out what devices were at a location around the time an incident occurred. And whether that's
14:39at the crime scene or at a secondary location. And if you have a secondary location, now you have a
14:46location to compare data to try and come up with a common device. Yeah. And you can tell if someone's
14:53telling the truth. If someone says they were here and they weren't there, that can obviously be checked.
14:57And you can also, and we learned this at the Brown University homicide, you can get these ring doorbell
15:04cameras, but it doesn't always happen immediately. It takes 48 hours, 72 hours to kind of canvas the
15:11neighborhoods and pull these pieces of video and then put that story together. Are we expecting,
15:18you know, quickly to find out from a neighbor, they might have something here?
15:25Yeah, the video turnaround should be in short order. But to your first point, when we talk about cell
15:33phones, you made a very good point in my job, if I had enough cell phone records, I can decipher what's important
15:45in your life based on your cell phone activity, who you talk to, where you live, who's important in your life,
15:53what time you get up, what time you go to bed, where you possibly work out, if you talk to somebody new,
16:00and if you stop talking to somebody on a specific date and time. Now, how that comes into play in this case
16:08is I would look at the family's cell phone records and I would try and determine if there's a pattern
16:14that matches, was the family possibly talking to somebody or are these folks talking to somebody or
16:23multiple people that they hadn't talked to in the months prior to this event. Yeah. And maybe they
16:31stopped talking to them shortly after. A trove of information. So the analysis really, you can harvest
16:35from that. It's a trove of information. Real quick, her phone, Nancy's phone, do we know where that is?
16:42Has that been located? We assume that's at the house they've taken that?
16:46I don't know. Okay. I haven't heard. Okay. Thank you so much. We really appreciate it.
16:54Yes, sir. Rob Chadwick's a former FBI supervisory special agent. Rob, they brought the dogs in
17:01to the house after they'd cleared it. What does that indicate to you?
17:07Jesse, it really indicates that they're looking a little deeper. Maybe they have some new information.
17:12Maybe they've developed some information that prompts them to bring in. It really depends on the
17:16type of dog. You know, different dogs are trained to, you know, some dogs are actually trained to
17:20look for electronic devices, believe it or not. So it really depends on the type of dog. There's so
17:26much speculation going on right now. It's really hard to say without knowing a little more,
17:30which I know exactly what we're trying to figure out. One of the things that occurs to me right
17:36now, Jesse, is this gives all of us an opportunity to check on older loved ones and come up with a
17:43discussion about, hey, how do you keep yourself safe while you're at home? Older people are such
17:49a vulnerable population, and a lot of times they're preyed upon, and I pray that this is the case,
17:56but certainly we should be thinking along those lines and checking in on our loved ones
18:00as we speak. Yeah, check in on them right now or in the commercial break. The fact that they went back,
18:07would you have stationed units at the residence for the week until something cracked just to
18:14kind of have eyes and ears on the house? Or is it normal procedure to just kind of vacate it?
18:21You know, given this is such a high-profile event, obviously international news coverage. So I would
18:30think it would be pretty standard to have at least someone there, if nothing else, just for crowd
18:33control and safety, because as you know, lots of people start showing up and wanting to see what's
18:38happening just from a safety standpoint. Again, you know, coming back to the scene looking for more
18:45doesn't really indicate much to me other than they're just digging deeper and maybe have come up with
18:50maybe some other leads through discussing with family members.
18:53All right, Rob, thank you so much. Jody Weiss is a former FBI special agent in charge. Jody,
19:01going back to the sister's house, the daughter's house with the husband,
19:06not just calling them on the phone, but going to the house and removing something. How does that strike you?
19:14You know, it's a little bit unusual. I mean, if they went, why would they go back and take it out?
19:20And you're referring to at Nancy's house, right?
19:22Yeah, the daughter that dropped the mother off at 930, allegedly.
19:28Right, right. That's a good starting point. And the other thing, Jesse, what I like about this,
19:35you had when her pacemaker kind of last synced with her phone. So there's a window that they have,
19:42and that can help hopefully identifying a vehicle, anything new in the area. It gives them a good
19:47starting point. But as Rob was saying, something I think happened that brought all these investigators
19:52back to the scene. Either some new leads came in, something emerged, hopefully, that they're looking
19:57at. The other angle could be is that they're going back and starting on ground zero. Start from
20:04the original scene of the crime, start with more resources and go through that house from, you know,
20:10with a fine tooth comb to see if there's something new out there. So I think it's one of those two.
20:14Either something new has come in, or they're maybe at a point where they have to go back and start over.
20:19I hope it's the first one, because that would be, I think, much more a sign of something positive
20:24moving along. Absolutely. There were some reports earlier this afternoon that there was some
20:29suspicious person. I mean, I don't know what you'd call him, someone that was walking around in the
20:37neighborhood, kind of fishy looking. A neighbor had noticed him, kind of a short distance from the
20:43house. What do you make of that? Do you feel like that's connected at all, or that's just random?
20:49Jesse, we don't know. And this is the type of case that any and every lead is going to be run down.
20:56And that's why it's so important to get those, get that technology, get those films from the ring
21:00cameras, because hopefully something will pop on there. Maybe that person was seen there a couple
21:05times. In looking at the neighborhood just on TV, though, the houses are recessed quite a bit. So
21:10I'm a little bit concerned, how much will the ring cameras catch? But it's a great starting point.
21:15And, you know, they've got to try to find that guy. They're going to run down leads that are
21:19maybe a little bit crazy. But right now, time is the essence. I can't stress that enough. It's,
21:24you know, a lot of, we have a lot of people wandering off out here in Arizona into the desert,
21:28and the desert's a harsh climate. That doesn't seem to be the case here with the, you know,
21:32the blood trail and the house in disarray. So let's all just pray that they find this woman quickly.
21:37Yeah. And if she was kidnapped and someone is, I guess, trying to obtain ransom,
21:43do you believe that they're in communication with the sheriff, with the family? Is there any
21:50indication that there's a negotiation going on?
21:55No. And we haven't seen that, Jesse, or at least heard about it, or at least law enforcement isn't
21:59relaying that. And that was my first thought with Savannah's Guthrie's really high profile. I would
22:04have thought this was a clear ransom case, and they would have been making sure the mother's in good
22:08shape staying alive so they could get this ransom. But if that's happening, we have not been told
22:13that. So, which is not unusual. That could be happening, but there's just so many questions
22:18out there. But like you and I think everybody else, that was the first thought I had once we ruled out
22:23an elderly person walking out in the desert and just getting disoriented.
22:27Yeah. I wonder tactically, what would be the advantage of having this negotiation and not
22:33disclosing it publicly? It's just something, it's just something to think about. There might be an
22:38advantage to that. You never know. That might even be a kidnapping situation. That's how little we know
22:43about what's going on here. Very frustrating. Thank you again.
22:49Chief national correspondent Jonathan Hunt joins us. Any developments, Jonathan?
22:53Well, they certainly seem to have been winding down the search at Nancy Guthrie's home to some extent.
23:03But our team on the ground are telling us right now, Jesse, that they have not left the property
23:09entirely. We don't know, therefore, whether they intend to leave the property entirely now or keep it
23:17sealed off to some extent. But some of the tape has come down. Now, what we saw
23:22were border patrol agents with dogs, sheriff's deputies and FBI agents, all involved in what
23:30appeared to be a pretty extensive search of the interior of the house, the garage attached to the
23:37house and the property, the wider property itself once again. And the curious part of this, Jesse,
23:44is that just yesterday, just a little over 24 hours ago, the sheriff's department said that the crime
23:51scene had been, in his words, cleared and the house was being handed back to the Guthrie family.
23:57So clearly something happened today to have this sudden rush of law enforcement personnel going
24:04straight back to that property, sealing it off again. And you have to wonder how it was allowed to be
24:13handed back, declared no longer a crime scene. And reporters were, in some instances, walking
24:19right up that driveway, all the way up to the front door. We've all seen the video of the blood spatter
24:25right outside the front door there and the missing nest camera, just the stand for it on the frame of the
24:31door. The people were allowed to go all the way up there. And yet they're back here tonight going through that
24:39quite meticulously. Once again, we do know that some items appear to have been removed
24:44tonight in this search, Jesse. And that is just one part of what is happening tonight. That's a very
24:49significant part, very obviously. But about 10 minutes from Nancy's, Nancy Guthrie's house
24:56is Annie Guthrie's house. Annie is Nancy's other daughter, Savannah Guthrie's sister. Now Annie is married
25:03to a man called Tommaso. At that house today, Annie Guthrie's house, just a few hours ago,
25:09around the same time the search was being undertaken at Nancy's, federal agents showed up at Annie
25:15Guthrie's. A group of them went inside the home. Our team there saw a couple of agents at some point
25:23bring something out of the home, put it into their SUV, and then return to the home. And as far as we are
25:30aware, those federal agents are still inside that home tonight. Now, it may be, Jesse, that they are
25:38merely there to give the family an update on what is going on over at Nancy Guthrie's house. We don't
25:45know if it is anything more than that. But it is, again, another potentially very significant
25:52development tonight that the feds are at the home of Nancy Guthrie's other daughter, Annie, a home she
25:59shares with her husband, Tommaso. Yeah, significant. I would agree with that. Thank you so much,
26:04Jonathan. Chris Swecker is a former assistant FBI director. It doesn't seem like the first search of
26:10the house was thorough. And then you don't leave anybody there, and you have reporters walking up
26:15to the door contaminating the scene. That seems like they dropped the ball.
26:21Yeah, Jesse, we saw this in the Idaho case where they probably local sheriff's department processed
26:30the scene the first time around. And then later when they took, they needed to take a second look
26:35with an FBI evidence response team. They have the capabilities and they have regional evidence
26:41response team. So maybe it took a day or two for them to realize that they needed to get back here and
26:47go back over what the sheriff's department already processed. Now, I don't know that for a fact,
26:53but they did release that house way, way too soon. And I was shocked to see a reporter get right up to
27:00the front door and video blood drops coming out of the front door. And these are blood drops that
27:05the sheriff said he knew nothing about. The sheriff had no idea there was blood drops?
27:11Well, he just didn't answer the question. You know, he didn't say yes or no to it. But,
27:19you know, we're confronted with the fact that there's blood drops and a whole blood trail going
27:24right out to the driveway. So he really just didn't pass any information to the public on or confirm or
27:29deny it. All right. So you also have teams now at Annie's house, the sister. I hate to scrutinize that
27:38family in that way. But I mean, questions have to be asked if they're now getting a second look
27:44and they're removing items from the house. That would make me suspicious. Are you suspicious in
27:50any way? I guess everything's on the table. Everything is on the table. I mean, one of two
27:56things could be happening here. One is that the investigative team realized, well, we can't just
28:01take people's word for things. We have to verify and we got to process them as as if they were
28:07suspects. Yeah. Whether they are or aren't by process of elimination. So you have to take their
28:12electronic devices. You have to go through the house. You've got to take anything that's electronic
28:16that has a memory or a communication aspect to it and take a look at it and eliminate them as
28:22suspects. I mean, you can't just take their word for it. Unfortunately, in these circumstances,
28:27I didn't see evidence tape going around their house. So it didn't look like they were actually
28:30physically searching the premises or the house. So they obviously my I suspect the ERT,
28:36the evidence response team was pulling some devices out so they can take them back, hook
28:40them up to their forensic equipment and extract all the data they can out of it. And I suspect
28:47this is a process of elimination more than it is they are suspects. But we'll see how this plays out.
28:52I mean, they haven't lawyered up, we believe, you know, they probably wanted to go in light,
28:56gentle, hopefully just basically crossing T's and dotting eyes. And we would hate to think they had
29:04anything to do with that. But I mean, anything is possible. What does your gut say? You've covered
29:09these cases before. Yeah, I mean, until tonight, I thought they were completely, utterly stumped.
29:16I mean, I just wasn't hearing anything whatsoever that they had. They were on to any good leads.
29:22And, you know, this this flurry of activity could indicate, you know, something really is happening.
29:27We saw that with Brown University. All of a sudden, a flurry of activity here and there
29:31and everybody's scrambling around and, you know, everybody's busy. But in this case,
29:35even after tonight, I don't get the sense that they're on to something hot right now. You know,
29:43this unfortunately, this is an 84 year old woman in an isolated area. And that neighborhood,
29:49I promise you, those those video ring cameras are useless in that neighborhood because there's just
29:54too much distance between the front door and the in the in the street. There's too much foliage.
29:59And there's just I don't think there's any ring cameras are going to be helpful. The cameras that
30:03outside the neighborhood in the commercial areas where these neighborhoods eventually empty out,
30:09that's going to have video. But that's going to be hard eliminating normal traffic and delivery
30:14people and contractors and cars that don't actually belong there. So I don't think they're anywhere
30:19right now, Jesse. And we have video coming in. If you just stick around with us,
30:24Savannah Guthrie is going to put something out and we'll have that to you momentarily. But before we get
30:28to that, she's an 84 year old woman. If it's not a kidnapping and there's no money play, why would
30:37you take an 84 year old woman out of her house? Yeah, there's only, again, two reasons to do that.
30:46One is you need her to empty her bank account, empty an ATM, you know, just get to cash out basically.
30:53Yeah. The other reason is something bad happened inside the house in the middle of another crime,
30:58a home invasion. You know, here's an 84 year old woman alone and easy egress from the back of the
31:06house, easy egress concealed from all the entire perimeter of the house. So an easy target, if you
31:13will, for a home invasion and a robbery and the affluent neighborhood. So it could be just simply
31:21they were taking the evidence with them. But do you know that anything was taken from the home,
31:25jewels, precious heirlooms, nothing? The sheriff has said nothing about that,
31:32hasn't confirmed it or denied it, hasn't even confirmed whether the house was broken into,
31:37nor the things that we've seen on news broadcasts about the blood drops and that sort of thing.
31:42He's just not dealing with it with the public right now. I don't want to hear from him anyway,
31:47unless he has some real information to give us. Just going around and doing the talk show circuit,
31:52I don't think that's productive. I think it's productive when you need to help the public to
31:56help you solve the crime. But just going out and doing interviews, to me, it just doesn't look like
32:01he's out there, you know, shaking the tree and doing the job. But what would be the motivation of
32:05doing a press tour for the last week? That would seem to be counterproductive if you're supposed to be,
32:14you know, pulling every thread.
32:17Well, I'm a cynic, Jesse. Sheriffs are elected people and police chiefs are not. Police chiefs,
32:23police chiefs are engaged in law enforcement activities and they're not elected. But sheriffs,
32:29it's hard to pass up the possibility of getting more free publicity. But again, I'm a cynic.
32:34I understand that. The FBI now and Border Patrol. So the feds are locking in on this. Thank goodness.
32:43What kind of assets are they going to be bringing to bear here? Because it seems like upon their arrival,
32:48stuff started to move. The FBI's evidence response team is renowned. I mean, they have
32:55the absolute best in the business. There's an art to collecting evidence. You have to collect it
32:59properly, store it properly, or it's not worth anything. We saw that with the O.J. Simpson trial.
33:06The case was destroyed because of poor collection of evidence. So they're the best at collecting
33:10evidence. They're the best at analyzing forensically that electronic evidence. That's the hard part in
33:16law enforcement today is to extract electronic evidence from devices, getting subpoenas sent out
33:21to all the carriers, various carriers. Even knowing who they are and where to send the subpoena is an art.
33:26So they bring that to the table. The Border Patrol are the searchers. They can get out into the desert
33:33terrain and find people and things and track. So that's what they're set up to do. And this is
33:38Tucson. They're about, what, 60, 70 miles from the border. So they're set up to track people.
33:45They're, you know, every agency brings their unique capabilities to the table here. We haven't seen ATF.
33:53We haven't seen DEA because they're not necessarily, they're not in that, you know,
33:58in that skill set in terms of what they need for this particular investigation. But the Border Patrol
34:04definitely brings something to the table, as does the FBI.
34:06And we are right now awaiting a video statement from Savannah Guthrie. So we'll have that to you guys
34:11very, very shortly. You mentioned the border. How far away is it from the border? And do you have a
34:18hunch that this could be border related? You know, wait one second. We're actually just getting,
34:25excuse me, we're just getting this video in right now from Savannah Guthrie. Let's watch it together. Go.
34:30On behalf of our family. We want to thank all of you for the prayers for our beloved mom, Nancy.
34:44We feel them. And we continue to believe that she feels them too.
34:50Our mom is a kind, faithful, loyal, fiercely loving woman of goodness and light.
35:03She's funny, spunky, and clever. She has grandchildren that adore her
35:11and crowd around her and cover her with kisses. She loves fun and adventure.
35:17She is a devoted friend. She is full of kindness and knowledge. Talk to her and you'll see.
35:29The light is missing from our lives.
35:33Nancy is our mother. We are her children. She is our beacon.
35:40She holds fast to joy in all of life's circumstances. She chooses joy day after day,
35:52despite having already passed through great trials of pain and grief.
35:59We are always going to be merely human, just normal human people who need our mom.
36:07Mama. Mama. Mama. If you're listening, we need you to come home. We miss you.
36:19Our mom is our heart and our home. She is 84 years old. Her health, her heart is fragile.
36:34She lives in constant pain. She is without any medicine. She needs it to survive. She needs it not to suffer.
36:49We too have heard the reports about a ransom letter in the media.
36:52But as a family, we are doing everything that we can. We are ready to talk.
37:04However, we live in a world where voices and images are easily manipulated.
37:11We need to know without a doubt that she is alive and that you have her.
37:22We want to hear from you and we are ready to listen. Please reach out to us.
37:29Mommy, if you are hearing this, you are a strong woman. You are God's precious daughter, Nancy.
37:47We believe and know that even in this valley, he is with you.
37:52Everyone is looking for you, Mommy, everywhere. We will not rest. Your children will not rest until we are together again.
38:07We speak to you every moment and we pray without ceasing and we rejoice in advance for the day
38:16that we hold you in our arms again. We love you, Mom.
38:23We love you, Mom. We love you, Mom. Stay strong.
38:24We love you, Mom. We love you, Mom.
38:27Back with Chris Swecker, former assistant FBI director. You just heard from Savannah Guthrie and the family.
38:33It's heartbreaking. And that was an appeal to the American people, to the mother and to
38:41the kidnappers. They believe she's alive. They said they're ready to negotiate.
38:46But they need proof of life.
38:51Well, what we saw, Jesse, just now is extraordinary. I mean, as you say, our heart goes out to them.
38:57You can just feel the anguish. But that appeared to be an outreach to the potential kidnappers.
39:04And it may be that an email did, in fact, go to TMZ or there may be other extortion or ransom demands
39:11that just can't be verified. There's there's not enough detail or there's enough detail in there
39:16to cause them to do this orchestrated outreach here. So that was very dramatic.
39:23They need you know, they need proof of life is basically what they're saying. We don't have
39:26enough information to take this to take this as a credible ransom demand. So there you have it.
39:33I mean, they're sitting in the living room there just just pouring it out to whoever may have their
39:38their mother and asking them, you know, we're willing to talk. Just give us some indication that
39:44this is a credible ransom demand that she's alive and that you are, you know, that you are, in fact,
39:50people holding her. You can just feel the desperation. Very tough to watch. Just very difficult.
39:58I can only imagine what they're going through. They also were speaking to their mom, saying to hang
40:05in there. You got this. Pray to God. And it was it was inspirational, but it was also
40:15one of the saddest things I've ever witnessed covering the news because there's still so much doubt
40:22about whether this kidnapping ransom note actually is real. They don't even know that it's real.
40:30I'm sure that the investigators and those that are running this investigation thought long and hard
40:38about whether to do what they just did. But, you know, that may be why all this flurry of activity
40:45around those both residences, you know, one at the sister's house just to get ready for this.
40:51But this, you know, it's an extraordinary plea and it's for details for some just give us something
41:00so that we can take this seriously, give us some indication. We don't have any other. Apparently,
41:04you don't have any other way to reach back out to whoever sent the this note or notes or emails,
41:11whatever it is. You know, we don't know really know what they're acting on right here with the
41:15other rumors are floating around about the one ransom demand potentially to TMZ and another outlet.
41:21But they obviously have something they're taking seriously, seriously enough to have the family sit
41:26down and do what they just did. Extraordinary. I've never seen that before. Yeah, I don't think
41:31any of us have. Chris, thank you. Carly Shimkus is back. Carly, in a way they were appealing
41:39to the kidnappers humanity. They were trying to say, this is my mother. She needs her medication.
41:46This is what she means to us. Please save her life. They're ready to negotiate.
41:53It was a gut-wrenching video to watch and something that we have never seen before to see those three
42:00siblings, Annie on one side, Savannah in the middle, and then brother Cameron on the other,
42:05say, mommy, mama, we love you. We need you. We can't wait to hug you. And we know that you are feeling
42:14all of our universal prayers. You know, you look at Nancy Guthrie's picture and you know who she is
42:20as a woman, right? You know, she's a church goer so much so that the reason the family knew that she
42:26was missing is because somebody from church recognized that she wasn't at mass. She's a
42:30wonderful mother who raised an incredibly successful daughter. And you just fall in love with the image
42:35of her because people who have wonderful moms just know that love and that connection. And
42:40they have reverted to children in a way saying, I need this woman back. And you know,
42:47in the other part that struck me is, yeah, they were talking to the criminal and it feels like
42:51they are taking this ransom note seriously, which is very unique because 100% of the FBI agents that
42:57I've spoken to say that these ransom notes just do not happen. And real criminals and real cannibals
43:03certainly don't give notes to TMZ because they don't want the media attention because then it will be
43:09very difficult for them to collect. But clearly we are dealing with a very unique set of circumstances
43:15here. And to see this family come together and plea for their mother's life is truly remarkable.
43:23It also suggests they don't have a lot to go on because there was a direct appeal to the alleged
43:28kidnappers. But there was an uncertainty that there was a kidnapping because at one point they're saying,
43:34Nancy, come home. Yeah, if you can come home, like if she had wandered off or if she had gotten into an
43:41accident or if she was somehow freed, but also appealing to the country and telling the country
43:47about her. And it sounds like there's no leads in this case at all.
43:56Yeah. And you know, I think that your mind immediately goes to on Monday when we all learned
44:00about this was could there have been an Alzheimer's element? Could she have wandered away?
44:05And then that was immediately struck down by no, she's a clear, sharp as attack woman.
44:10Yeah. And then to learn about the blood trail, you know that something really went wrong. But
44:14you also do wonder, could this have been a crime of opportunity where somebody local knew that a woman
44:21of means was living in a home in a street with no lights. And then it was a planned and coordinated
44:28effort to get her. And for what other than money? You just don't know. But man, this is something
44:37like the likes of we've never seen. No, that was that was an incredible moment that we just witnessed
44:42the pain on the faces of those family members was really hard to stomach. Carly, thank you.
44:48Chief National Correspondent Jonathan Hunt joins us. Jonathan.
44:51Jesse, that really was an extraordinary thing to watch. The Instagram posted statement from Savannah
45:01Guthrie, her sister Annie and her brother Cameron. It's interesting to note as well, Jesse, that just
45:09today during our reporting throughout the afternoon and into the early evening here, we've been pointing
45:15out on air that it that so often in these kind of circumstances, when there is a missing family
45:21member, you see other family members alongside law enforcement in a press conference making a direct
45:27appeal. Whomever has our loved one, please bring that person back. And and we noted that we hadn't seen
45:34that as yet. And it seemed to me unusual that we hadn't in fact heard directly from the family. But now we
45:43have in the most heartbreaking, gut wrenching way. And I think it's worth all our viewers here watching
45:51this once again with us. Here it is of our family. We want to thank all of you for the prayers for our beloved
46:02mom, Nancy. We feel them. And we continue to believe that she feels them too.
46:13Our mom is a kind, faithful, loyal, fiercely loving woman of goodness and light.
46:24She's funny, spunky and clever. She has grandchildren that adore her and crowd around her and cover her with
46:34kisses. She loves fun and adventure. She is a devoted friend. She is full of kindness and knowledge. Talk to her and you'll see.
46:47The light is missing from our lives. Nancy is our mother. We are her children. She is our beacon.
47:01She holds fast to joy in all of life's circumstances. She chooses joy day after day despite having already
47:14passed through great trials of pain and grief. We are always going to be merely human, just normal human people
47:26who need our mom. Mama. Mama. Mama. If you're listening, we need you to come home. We miss you.
47:40Our mom is our heart and our home. She's 84 years old. Her health, her heart is fragile.
47:55She lives in constant pain. She is without any medicine. She needs it to survive. She needs it not to suffer.
48:06We too have heard the reports about a ransom letter in the media. As a family, we are doing
48:18everything that we can. We are ready to talk. However, we live in a world where voices and images are easily
48:31manipulated. We need to know without a doubt that she is alive and that you have her. We want to hear from
48:44you and we are ready to listen. Please reach out to us.
48:50Mommy, if you are hearing this, you are a strong woman. You are God's precious daughter, Nancy.
49:08We believe and know that even in this valley, he is with you. Everyone is looking for you, Mommy, everywhere.
49:18We will not rest. Your children will not rest until we are together again.
49:28We speak to you every moment and we pray without ceasing and we rejoice in advance for the day
49:37that we hold you in our arms again. We love you, Mom.
49:42We love you, Mom. We love you, Mom. Stay strong. We love you, Mom.
49:48An extraordinary statement from the children of Nancy Guthrie. Savannah Guthrie, of course,
49:56the NBC Today show anchor in the middle there. To her right screen left was Annie. On her left screen
50:03right, her brother Cameron. All of them ending that statement simply with the words,
50:09we love you, Mom. You could feel the pain coming through there. And it's so interesting when you
50:16hear from an investigative point of view, Savannah Guthrie saying, we too have heard the reports of a
50:24ransom note, but then seeming to directly address a kidnapper. If indeed there is a kidnapper, she said,
50:32we are ready to talk. And then she said, we need to know without a doubt that she is alive and you
50:42have her. So the family wants proof of life, they are saying there. And extraordinary. And obviously,
50:50we've had a lot of activity tonight, Jesse. Prior to us seeing that Instagram post from Savannah Guthrie
50:57and family, we saw the intense law enforcement activity at Nancy Guthrie's home. FBI agents joined
51:06by Border Patrol agents and canine units and sheriff's deputies all seemingly meticulously for a couple of
51:13hours going through the house, the garage and the surrounding area. Once again, we don't know
51:18why they suddenly decided to do that. 24 hours after the sheriff's department had declared the crime scene
51:25cleared and said they were handing it back to the Guthrie family. But clearly something changed
51:30today that sent all of those law enforcement personnel back here, back there. And now we have
51:35this extraordinary family statement. And as we understand it at this point, federal agents,
51:42by the way, are still at the home of Annie Guthrie, Savannah's sister, Nancy Guthrie's other daughter.
51:49We believe that that might be where that video was shot. That might be why federal agents have been
51:56there all day helping them to get through that. We don't know that for a fact, but the federal agents
52:01have been there for several hours now. We believe they arrived there around 4 p.m. local time. That would
52:08be 6 p.m. Eastern. And at this hour, they are still in Annie Guthrie's home, Jesse.
52:15Jonathan, thank you. Bernard Zappor is a former special agent in charge. The strategic value
52:23of that video. Tell us about that. You know, although it's completely heartfelt and everybody
52:30can feel the pain that this family is enduring right now, you know, you can guess for an investigative
52:35purpose that it's intentional and they're working in cooperation with law enforcement to shape the tree.
52:40I'll see you soon.
52:50Bye bye.
52:54Bye bye.
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