A volunteer search group from Mexico has uncovered 25 unmarked graves while searching for Nancy Guthrie, 84, who went missing from her home in Tucson more than four months ago.
However, none of the graves are connected to the mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie.
Buscando Corazones Nogales, the group in Nogales that is leading the search, started looking again on Wednesday after searching for days in a remote area about 70 miles from Guthrie’s home.
The group once again came up empty. Nancy Guthrie has been missing for 136 days.
Finding more than twenty graves in the Mariposa area is a sad reminder of how lawless things are just across the border.
It also makes us wonder why U.S. and Mexican police have taken so long to work together on a case that has gotten national attention and more than $1 million in reward money.
A tip from a stranger on May 10 led to the search near Nogales, Sonora.
According to the caller, a body that matched Guthrie’s description had been buried in a shallow grave near a stream in the Mariposa area, which is northwest of Nogales.
The group’s leader, Ramona Guadalupe Ayala Ortiz, told the New York Post what the tipster said: “We received an anonymous call telling us that the woman’s [Guthrie’s] remains were in the Mariposa area, in a grave over a stream.”
Volunteers searched on May 16 and found nothing. A second call from the same tipster pointed to another nearby location. That search also came up empty.
The operation, the third prompted by the same source, produced the same result.
But the group told TMZ they are not discouraged and plan to search two new locations in the same general area on Thursday.
The terrain is vast and difficult to travel, and the 25 unmarked graves the volunteers have uncovered between April and May in the Mariposa region indicate the area has been used as a dumping ground for some time.
Earlier, we reported the original anonymous tip sparked a flurry of activity, but no confirmed lead has developed on Guthrie’s whereabouts.
The most disturbing thing about the case right now is the distance between the volunteer effort in Mexico and the official U.S. investigators.
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said his office and the FBI learned of the Buscando Corazones Nogales is sifting through the media reports, not any communication from the Mexican authorities.
“We are aware of reports regarding an anonymous tip related to the Nancy Guthrie investigation that was provided to a group in Mexico. At this time, we have not been contacted by Mexican authorities,” the sheriff said.
Nanos added that the investigation “remains active and ongoing” and that his office would “continue to follow up on any credible information.”
Both the sheriff’s office and the FBI have attempted to make contact with Mexican authorities, but the communication has apparently been one-directional.
Nancy Guthrie was last seen Jan. 31 when family members dropped her off at her home in Tucson after dinner.
She was reported missing the next day.
Authorities say she was kidnapped or removed by force. There was blood on her front porch step.
The FBI released a still photo of a video that shows an armed person at Guthrie’s front door on the morning of her disappearance.
The suspect appeared masked and with a camera. The image has been widely circulated, but no arrest has been made.
The investigation has been marred by questions about early coordination failures.
FBI Director Kash Patel publicly said the bureau was shut out of the probe for four days.
Fox News reported that during that window, the crime scene was briefly released, and that the front porch – where blood spatter was present – was accessed by journalists and delivery drivers.
Key DNA evidence was sent to a Florida private lab rather than the FBI’s own lab.
Retired Arizona DPS Lieutenant Dave Smith told Fox News that the proximity to the border, Tucson sits roughly 60 miles from Nogales, should have made a Mexico connection an immediate investigative priority.
Conservative Brief
