The Disappearance of Nancy Guthrie

"The grim news out of Tucson is that, thirteen days into the search for Nancy Guthrie, the odds of finding her alive have been dropping by the hour. She is the eighty-four-year-old mother of Savannah Guthrie, the longtime co-anchor of the "Today" show. Not long after midnight on February 1st, she vanished from her home in an affluent neighborhood in the Catalina Foothills, on the north end of town."

"The investigation seemed to inch along until Tuesday, when the Pima County Sheriff's Department and the F.B.I., working jointly on the case, got a break: footage from Guthrie's doorbell camera, which showed what the veteran journalist and former F.B.I. official John Miller described, on CNN, as "the bogeyman we've all feared since we were kids." An armed intruder stood on Guthrie's doorstep in the dead of night, wearing a balaclava, a bulky backpack, and what appeared to be black neoprene gloves."

"By Thursday, investigators were looking for a man who's about five feet nine or five feet ten, of average build. He was said to have been carrying a twenty-five-litre backpack made by Ozark Trail, a brand sold primarily at Walmart. There was talk of a white, unmarked van. Investigators erected a tent around Guthrie's front door to create a blackout environment that may have allowed them to see how certain materials compared to what showed up in the video;"

Thirteen days into the search, the odds of finding Nancy Guthrie alive have been declining. She is an eighty-four-year-old woman who disappeared from her Catalina Foothills home shortly after midnight on February 1. Doorbell-camera footage captured an armed intruder wearing a balaclava, bulky backpack, and black neoprene gloves. Within 24 hours investigators received over five thousand leads. Authorities sought a man about 5'9"–5'10" carrying a twenty-five-litre Ozark Trail backpack and investigated reports of a white unmarked van. Investigators erected a tent around the front door and requested neighbors' security-camera footage dating back to January 1. Unverified bitcoin ransom demands were reported to media outlets.

Read at The New Yorker