The family of Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of Today host Savannah Guthrie, is no longer in direct contact with the Pima County sheriff leading the investigation into her disappearance from her Tucson, Arizona, home more than 100 days ago.
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos told PEOPLE that he is not personally communicating with Savannah Guthrie or her siblings, Annie Guthrie and Camron Guthrie. That marks a shift from the early days of the case, when Nanos and the Today anchor regularly exchanged texts and spoke by phone.
Nancy Guthrie was last seen on the night of January 31, 2026. She was taken from her residence in the Catalina Foothills area of Tucson in the early morning hours of that same date. No arrest has been made. No suspect has been publicly named. And the sheriff's reassurances, while steady, have produced no visible result.
When asked whether he was still in touch with the Guthrie children, Nanos told PEOPLE plainly:
"I personally am not."
Communication with the family now runs through other investigators on the case, local police detectives and FBI agents. Nanos framed the arrangement as routine.
"If they need the family for anything, they get in touch with them and the family. It works both ways."
In the investigation's early weeks, Nanos said, he and Savannah Guthrie had texted and spoken on the phone "every now and then." That direct line has apparently gone quiet. Whether the family chose to step back, or whether Nanos shifted his focus, the source material does not make clear. But the gap is notable, and for a case with this profile, it raises questions about how aggressively the investigation is being managed at the top.
As the case passed the 100-day mark last week, Nanos spoke to KOLD News 13, the local Tucson station, and offered measured optimism.
"I think every day they get closer."
He pointed to ongoing forensic work as the reason the case remains active.
"There's way too much work to be done, that is ongoing, with some of the physical evidence we have. And we're not going to give up on it just because it's been 100 days."
Nanos went further, telling KOLD News 13 he believes an arrest will eventually come.
"I believe, at some point in time, we will make an arrest on this case."
He added a careful qualifier, one that sounded more like a lawyer than a lawman chasing down a lead.
"And whoever that individual is, that individual will have a right to a fair and impartial trial."
That language suggests investigators may have a person of interest but are not yet ready to act. Or it may simply be boilerplate caution from a sheriff who knows the cameras are watching. Either way, the public has been given no concrete indication of who took an 84-year-old woman from her home in the middle of the night, or why.
Lauren Serpa, who has known Nancy Guthrie for more than 12 years, voiced a concern that families in these situations know too well: the world moves on. Serpa told Page Six that even in the city where the disappearance occurred, interest is slipping.
"Even in Tucson, where it happened, it's starting to fizzle out, and I don't want that to happen."
Serpa described the creeping indifference that settles in when a case drags past the headlines.
"It's been 100 days, and people are starting not to forget, but not to think about it as much... That's what happens when it doesn't affect their lives."
She is right. And that fading attention is precisely what makes sustained pressure from law enforcement leadership so important. When the sheriff himself is no longer personally engaging with the victim's family, the signal it sends, intentional or not, is one of distance.
The list of unknowns in this case is long and troubling. No suspect has been identified publicly. No motive has been disclosed. The nature of the physical evidence Nanos referenced remains undisclosed. The timeline itself contains an unresolved wrinkle: Nancy Guthrie was described as having been last seen on the night of January 31 and also as having been taken from her residence in the early morning hours of that same date.
The FBI's involvement suggests the case has crossed jurisdictional lines or involves circumstances that exceed local capacity. But neither Nanos nor federal authorities have offered public detail on what role the bureau is playing or what it has found.
Meanwhile, Savannah Guthrie, one of the most visible figures in American morning television, has shared family photos on Instagram but has not spoken publicly about the investigation's progress in the material available. She recently announced a new game show hosting role at NBC, a professional step that underscores the impossible position families face: life continues, even when a loved one has vanished without explanation.
One hundred days is not an eternity in a complex criminal investigation. Cold cases have been solved years or decades later. But the early momentum of a case matters enormously, and the public signals from Pima County suggest that momentum may be stalling. A sheriff who was once texting with the victim's daughter is now routing communication through intermediaries. A community that rallied early is losing focus. Physical evidence exists, but no one will say what it shows.
Nancy Guthrie was taken from her home. She was 84 years old. She deserves better than vague assurances and bureaucratic distance. Her family deserves answers, not a chain of custody for phone calls.
When law enforcement tells a family "it works both ways," what they're really saying is that nobody is picking up the phone first. That is not how you solve a case. That is how you let one go cold.
