Olivia Hayes
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Federal, state and local law enforcement in Arizona are intensifying their search for Nancy Guthrie, mother of NBC’s “Today” host Savannah Guthrie, who has now been missing for 11 days.
On Wednesday, agents were seen searching multiple roadways near Nancy Guthrie’s home in the Catalina Foothills. Investigators are still looking for other evidence tied to doorbell camera video released Tuesday from the night of her abduction and the person in it.
Authorities released a person early Wednesday morning who was detained for questioning in the case.
In Mid-Missouri, there are currently 619 active adult missing persons cases, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol database. Five are being investigated by the Jefferson City Police Department and the Columbia Police department is investigating 17 active cases.
The Fulton Police Department currently has no active missing persons investigation, but Chief Bill Ladwig told ABC 17 News that regardless of the person’s status or publicity around the case, FPD treats all missing persons investigations the same.
“We would ask for the help of the FBI, the Missouri State Highway Patrol, anybody that could come in and assist us with things, especially electronic data, that we don’t have the capability to do in-house,” Ladwig said of the agency’s process. “That would happen for anybody, whether it is Miss Guthrie or Mr. Smith down the street that went missing.”
Ladwig explained in the missing person cases FPD handles, the person often tends to show back up on their own.
“They’ve just wanted to be gone for a few days and come back and they’re found,” Ladwig said.
He also said typically in missing persons cases, there is not a lot of evidence for law enforcement to go off of, initially.
“You’re looking at their cellphone data, their computers or tablets looking for history,” Ladwig said. “Little breadcrumbs that’ll lead you down the right path in a situation like that.”
Investigators in Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance did not release stills of the suspect in the doorbell camera video or the video itself until 10 days into her disappearance. Ladwig said while the doorbell cameras can be helpful, sometimes they can cause problems in an investigation.
“It can complicate things if there’s not a cloud storage or a DVR that it goes to,” Ladwig said.
Ladwig called multi-agency joint investigations, like the one into Guthrie’s disappearance, a team effort.
“The FBI could come in to Fulton, but they’re still going to need to know things about this municipality and our people that only we are going to know,” Ladwig said. “It’s not so much taken out of somebody’s hands. It just becomes a much larger, more diverse team that’s going to make this work.”
Sgt. Kyle Green, with the Missouri State Highway Patrol, said all missing persons cases are handled by the local jurisdiction unless it asks for assistance. He explained that if MSHP was asked to assist, the Division of Drug and Crime Control for that area would help.
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