THE ongoing search for Nancy Guthrie has fueled online theories that the 84-year-old mother was kidnapped and taken to Mexico, a suggestion a former FBI agent has rejected.

The disappearance of Guthrie hit a grim 100-day milestone on Tuesday after the mother of Today co-host Savannah Guthrie was snatched from her affluent home in the Catalina Foothills area of Tucson, Arizona, on February 1.

A smiling woman leaning on a wooden fence with covered wagons and mountains in the background.
Nancy Guthrie was kidnapped from home in the Catalina Foothills neighborhood of Tucson, Arizona, on February 1Credit: Facebook
 

Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of U.S. journalist and television host Savannah Guthrie, smiles while sitting next to her daughter.
The mother of Today co-host Savannah Guthrie has been missing for 100 daysCredit: Instagram
 

An aerial view shows a Pima County Sheriff's truck parked outside a brick house, where people are gathered on a dirt path with desert plants.
An aerial view shows Pima County Sheriff deputies stationed outside Nancy Guthrie’s home
 

Collage of four black and white surveillance camera photos showing a person wearing a ski mask, gloves, and a backpack.
A combo from images provided by the FBI shows surveillance footage at the home of Nancy Guthrie the night she went missing in TucsonCredit: AP
Investigators with the Pima County Sheriff’s Office have said Guthrie was taken from her bed in the dark of night and removed from her home.

The case has sparked unverified claims online that Guthrie was potentially kidnapped and taken across the south border into Mexico, due to its close proximity to Tucson.

Social media sleuths have also gone as far as to launch unproven theories that Guthrie’s family, primarily her son-in-law Tommaso Cioni, was involved – despite the family being cleared by authorities.

Former senior FBI forensic agent Tom Myers, who is not involved in the case, rejected the claims that Guthrie was trafficked into Mexico, telling The U.S. Sun the case does not fit the scope of an international crime ring.

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“That’s what you’re looking at and that’s what investigators look at when they prioritize these leads, but what would be the purpose to doing that?” Myers questioned about the suspect or suspects potentially taking Guthrie to Mexico.

“We’re in an asymmetric kind of, or atypical way of crime just so much because we have the border issues that are happening right now and the electronic things have changed so much.

“That being said, the golden age of kidnapping took place from the 30s out to about maybe 1970. And it really started to slow down.

“J. Paul Getty at the end of it. The Bremerhams in the early days of the 20s, and that time period in between that was it.

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“So, you don’t really get a whole lot of those unless it involves drug trade and it’s an outside economic system of those drugs or kilos back and forth like that.”

Myers continued, “And then that has another wrinkle to it. So, that’s why you’ll get these other kidnappings that take place.

A man with glasses and a beard speaking during a video call.
Former senior FBI forensic agent Tom Myers rejected the claims that Nancy Guthrie was kidnapped and taken to MexicoCredit: The U.S. Sun
 

A memorial for Nancy Guthrie, including a photo and banners with handwritten messages, attached to a black metal fence.
A photograph of Nancy Guthrie is seen on a sign where people have left heart filled messagesCredit: Getty Images
“But Nancy Guthrie doesn’t seem to fit any of those profiles or that anomaly of being in the drug trade at all.

“So, this is very much an anomaly. So something else is going on.”

In the months since, officials with the Pima County Sheriff’s Office and federal investigators have focused on retrieving DNA evidence from a sample recovered from Guthrie’s home.

The DNA sample, which investigators have not publicly disclosed details about, was recovered from inside Guthrie’s home.

Pima County Sheriff officials previously described the DNA as a sample that came from more than one person and therefore needed to be untangled.

Sheriff Chris Nanos and FBI Director Kash Patel recently engaged in a war of words over what Patel claimed was a lack of transparency and cooperation by local officials.

Patel slammed Sheriff Nanos for botching the investigation and claimed he turned down help from the FBI.

“The first 48 hours of anyone’s disappearance are the most critical,” Patel said in an interview with Sean Hannity.

“Here’s how these cases work: it is a state matter, it’s a state and local law enforcement matter. What we, the FBI do is say, ‘Hey, we’re here to help. What do you need? What can we do?’”

Patel said the FBI was kept out of the investigation for four days.

The FBI director went further and said that once the federal agency got involved, they were able to obtain the Nest security camera footage from Guthrie’s front door.

The chilling footage captured a masked man ruffling Guthrie’s plants in an attempt to distort the camera before ultimately removing the device from its mount.