The case of missing 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie continues to grip the nation two
The case of missing 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie continues to grip the nation two months after her abduction, and the return of a girl missing for 32 years could offer a small glimmer of hope for Nancy’s safe return.
There may be a small hope for Nancy Guthrie’s safe return after it was revealed that a missing Arizona girl was found after 32 years.
Christina ‘Tina’ Marie Plante was just 13 when she vanished under “suspicious circumstances” and has been found alive more than three decades, renewing hope in finding Nancy, who’s been missing for more than two months. The Gila County Sheriff’s Office announced this week that Tina, who disappeared from Star Valley in 1994, has been located, closing a decades-long cold case.
Authorities confirm she is alive and her case has now officially been resolved. But beyond that, details remain scarce. It comes after a bombshell Nancy Guthrie update, as a person fled the neighborhood within days of the kidnapping.
According to the original missing persons report, Tina was last seen around 12.30 pm on May 15, after leaving her home on Moonlight Drive on foot. According to others, she said she was heading to a nearby stable where her horse was kept, but sadly never arrived.
At the time, police classified her case as ‘missing/endangered’ under suspicious circumstances, signaling concern that she may have been in danger or the victim of foul play.
She was described as having blue eyes and dark blonde hair, and was last seen wearing black tennis shoes, multicolored shorts, and a white T-shirt.
Despite extensive law enforcement searches involving volunteers and regional sources, no viable leads or suspects
Despite extensive law enforcement searches involving volunteers and regional sources, no viable leads or suspects emerged, and for years the case remained open, preserved in national missing persons databases.
The Sheriff’s office credits the find to the formation of a Cold Case Unit and advances in modern investigative techniques, saying, “Utilizing advances in technology, modern investigative techniques and detailed case review, detectives developed new leads that ultimately led to a breakthrough.”
After more than 30 years, authorities confirmed Tina’s identity and location. She is now around 44-years-old. While the outcome is rare and remarkable, officials aren’t releasing any details about what happened to her or where she was while missing.
Authorities are also refusing to disclose whether her disappearance involved a crime or how she was ultimately found. Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of Today Show host Savannah Guthrie, has been missing since February 1 after she vanished from her home in Tucson, Arizona.
Nancy visited her daughter Annie Guthrie’s house on January 31, according to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, before being driven back to her home in the Catalina Foothills.
She was reported missing around midday the following day, February 1, after she didn’t show up at a friend’s house to watch Sunday morning virtual church services, according to a source close to the family. Since Nancy’s disappearance, at least three news outlets have received ransom notes in reference to the missing woman.
As things currently stand, no law enforcement agency has so far substantiated the notes, and according to a former FBI agent, the absence of direct communication with the possible kidnapper and the lack of a clear ransom demand are highly unusual.
Nancy’s case has gripped the nation, and, according to forensic anthropologist Jesse Goliath at Mississippi
Nancy’s case has gripped the nation, and, according to forensic anthropologist Jesse Goliath at Mississippi State University, it is “quite shocking.”
Nancy Guthrie, 84, was last seen on January 31 after dinner at her daughter’s home(Image: Courtesy NBC Universal)
Goliath explained, “Usually, you hear about smaller children, juveniles that go missing. But having an older woman who’s gone missing and having a daughter that you’ve seen on TV every day is extraordinary.”
Tara Kennedy, media representative for the Doe Network, a volunteer group working to identify missing and unidentified persons, says that although more than 500,000 people were reported missing in the U.S. last year, high-profile kidnappings like this are rare.
Kennedy added, “I can’t remember the last time I heard about a ransom case besides Guthrie. I always associate them with different periods in American history, like the Lindbergh kidnapping, not someone’s mother from the Today show.” Authorities have described the case of Nancy as a possible kidnapping or abduction, but clues and leads have been scarce.
Ten days after she was reported missing, the FBI recovered chilling doorbell camera images of an armed and masked man outside her home on the morning of her disappearance. It comes as the mysterious disappearance of an Air Force general has several chilling similarities to the Nancy case.