One of Nancy Guthrie‘s Arizona neighbors has revealed that she saw a suspicious man walking near the missing 84-year-old’s home around two weeks before her disappearance—revealing that she immediately noticed elements about his demeanor that raised red flags.
Speaking to Fox News Digital, Aldine Meister, who has lived in the same neighborhood has Nancy for nearly three decades, explained that the sighting occurred around 14 days before “Today” host Savannah Guthrie‘s mother is believed to have been abducted from her property in the Catalina Foothills, just outside of Tucson.
Nancy’s neighbor noted that she saw the person walking by an intersection that leads to the mother of three’s $1 million home—adding that, while she did not report it at the time, she has since told the authorities about it.
Meister explained that the man in question did not look like a local or someone who was visiting the area to hike, recalling: “He didn’t have your typical walking gear on, and he had his hat pulled really far over his eyes.
“He was kind of younger, and he just didn’t look like he was going out for a walk. He just didn’t fit.”
While she has since reported the incident to law enforcement, Meister noted that she did not take any video or photos of the man at the time.
Anyone with any information about Nancy Guthrie’s case should call 1-800-CALL-FBI, 520-351-4900, 88-CRIME, or visit https://tips.fbi.gov/.
Meister said she mentioned the incident to her husband at the time, but the couple initially shrugged it off—until two weeks later when Nancy was reported missing from her property, with authorities later revealing that she is believed to have disappeared some time between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. on Feb. 1.
In an interview with Fox News on Feb. 4, Catalina Foothills resident Tom Pew, who lives in Nancy’s neighborhood, described locals’ horror over the alleged crime, noting that he had “never heard of any crime like this” taking place in their community.
“It’s a friendly neighborhood, it’s a very comfortable place to live,” he said. “People walk every day in the streets around the neighborhood. They know one another, greet one another, walk their dogs. By and large, there’s just no crime.
“[Any] crime that does occur is a petty kind of crime, where someone might leave their car unlocked, and kids walk by and take something.”
Pew also shed some light on the lack of security camera footage, noting that many people in the neighborhood feel safe enough that they don’t see a need for installing security systems at their homes.
“It doesn’t shock me [that there is a lack of security camera footage], it’s not really a high security area,” he said. “People don’t really look at things like that.”
He also highlighted media reports about there being no street lights in the neighborhood, stating that they haven’t been installed “because the sky is one of the most perfect skies to be seen in a neighborhood in the country.”
“People like dark skies and aren’t really afraid of the dark,” he said, adding: “I would say the reason you couldn’t see other houses from the Ring cameras that are on other houses … you think of this as a desert, but there are a lot of trees and shrubs and things like that. The houses are not that close together. There’s a lot of space here between the houses.”
Nancy’s daughter, Savannah, revealed on Feb. 24 that her family is now offering a $1 million reward to anyone who is able to provide information that leads to her recovery, while admitting in a heart-rending Instagram video that she knows her mother may already be dead.
“We still believe in a miracle. We still believe that she can come home,” she said. “We also know she may be lost. She may already be gone. She may have already gone home to the Lord that she loves and is dancing in heaven with her mom and her dad and with her beloved brother.
“But we need to know where she is. We need her to come home. For that reason we are offering a family reward of $1 million for any information that leads to her recovery.”
The Guthrie family’s reward will be added to the $100,000 already offered by the FBI, as well as an additional $100,000 that was given by an anonymous donor.
“So please, if you hear this message, if you’ve been waiting and you haven’t been sure, let this be your sign to please come forward, tell what you know and help us bring our beloved mom home so that we can either celebrate a glorious, miraculous homecoming, or celebrate the beautiful, brave, courageous, and noble life that she has lived,” Savannah continued.
“Someone knows how to find our mom and bring her home,” the TV host added in her caption.
The video marked the first time that the “Today” host has addressed the public since Feb. 15, when she posted a clip marking two weeks since her mother had disappeared.
Savannah has been absent from the morning show since her mother was reported missing, having reportedly traveled immediately to Arizona when she learned of Nancy’s disappearance. Her former “Today” costar, Hoda Kotb, who left the show in January 2025, has been filling in for her on-air since Feb. 2.
Her latest post came shortly after it was claimed that the masked intruder who was caught on camera outside of Nancy’s Arizona home may have visited the property prior to her disappearance, it has been claimed, with sources revealing that footage of the suspect outside the dwelling may have been taken on two separate days.
Nest doorbell camera footage and screenshots taken of a masked and armed man outside of Nancy’s Tucson-area home were released to the public on Feb. 10, and it was initially assumed that all of the visuals had been captured on the same day, Feb. 1, which is when authorities believe the 84-year-old was abducted.
However, sources close to the investigation have now told ABC News that one particular photo from that release—which shows the man standing just a few feet away from Nancy’s front door—was actually taken on a different day, suggesting that he may have visited her property prior to her disappearance.
While the majority of videos and images show the man in question carrying a backpack and with a gun holstered around his waist, the photo in question captures him without the backpack, and with no gun visible.
“One theory, according to the sources, is that the suspect approached the door the first time, noticed the camera and was scared off, only to return later, when he is seen tampering with the device and putting branches in front of the lens,” ABC News reported.
However, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department has insisted that there “is no date or timestamp associated with these images,” adding that “any suggestion that the photographs were taken on different days is purely speculative.”
Nancy was last seen outside her home late on Jan. 31. She is believed to have been taken from the property in the early hours of the morning on Feb. 1.
Hundreds of FBI agents have joined the search for the mother of three, while volunteers have been helping to comb the local area around her house in a bid to uncover evidence that might lead to her location or the identity of her captors.
The FBI and the Pima County Sheriff’s Department have issued multiple pleas for help in identifying the person in the video, with several identifying details revealed in the wake of the footage release.
In a post shared to the FBI Phoenix X account on Feb. 12, the agency highlighted several details about the person in the sinister footage, including their estimated height and their gender.
“New identifying details about the suspect in the kidnapping of Nancy Guthrie have been confirmed after a forensic analysis of the doorbell camera footage by the FBI’s Operational Technology Division,” the post reads.
“The suspect is described as a male, approximately 5’9” – 5’10” tall, with an average build. In the video, he is wearing a black, 25-liter ‘Ozark Trail Hiker Pack’ backpack.”
According to CNN, investigators are trying to identify other items being worn by the man, including his gun holster, which Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has previously stated “had some pretty unique characteristics.”
Authorities have asked all residents who live within a two-mile radius of Nancy’s $1 million home to pass over any available footage taken on two days leading up to her disappearance—including one date more than two weeks before she was taken from her Arizona property.
Investigators have asked told residents in the Catalina Foothills neighborhood to submit any and all surveillance footage taken by doorbell cameras between the hours of 9 p.m. and midnight on Jan. 11, as well as videos from 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. on Jan. 31, the morning before the 84-year-old disappeared.
Additionally, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department has asked that residents with any video footage taken between Jan. 1 and Feb. 2 that includes “vehicles, vehicle traffic, people/pedestrians, and anything neighbors deem out of the ordinary or important to our investigation” hand those videos over.
A webpage has been set up where neighbors can upload their video footage—while the sheriff’s department has revealed it will be using the Neighbors App to communicate updates to anyone living within a two-mile radius of Nancy’s home.
The Sheriff’s Department has revealed it has received thousands of tips, noting that they continue to pour in—while urging anyone with information to continue sending it through to the authorities. He noted that the tips are being categorized based on importance, describing the doorbell camera footage of the intruder as a “level one tip.”
“Here’s a level one tip—that video—the doorbell. That would be a great example of a level one tip, or maybe it’s this backpack has been identified as only purchased at Walmart. That’ll be pretty high,” Nanos previously explained.
Investigators are continuing to comb the area surrounding Nancy’s home for evidence—having previously uncovered a pair of blood-stained gloves that were tested for DNA, however no match was found in the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), a database used by the FBI to track convicted criminals.
Additional DNA found inside Nancy’s home is also in the process of being tested, however Nanos has admitted that the analysis has run into some “challenges,” although he neglected to reveal what those were.
“We listen to our lab, and our lab tells us that there’s challenges with it, and we understand those challenges,” he told NBC News.
“But our lab also knows that the technology is moving so fast and in such a frenzy that they think some of this stuff will resolve itself just in a matter of weeks, months or maybe a year, to allow them to do better with, say, a mixture of that kind of thing.”
He added that the DNA is cross-contaminated with others who had been inside Nancy’s home and therefore needed to be separated out before it could be properly processed.
“We believe that we may have some DNA there that may be our suspect, but we won’t know that until that DNA is separated, sorted out, maybe admitted to CODIS, maybe through genetic genealogy,” he said.
Officials have since confirmed that the DNA on the gloves did not match what was found inside Nancy’s home, however they have not ruled out that multiple people may have been involved in the 84-year-old’s disappearance.
What is the full timeline of Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance?
Sheriff Nanos noted during a media briefing on Feb. 5 that, while times are approximate, his team has pieced together several pieces of evidence that indicate Nancy’s movements—and the timeline of her apparent abduction.
Nancy, 84, was reported missing at around 12 p.m. local time on Feb. 1, around 14 hours after she was dropped off at the property following a family dinner. When she failed to turn up at her usual church gathering on Sunday, her friends alerted her family, who found her home was empty.
SATURDAY, JAN. 31
5:32 p.m. Nancy travels to Annie’s house in an Uber for “dinner and playing games with the family.”
9:48 p.m. A garage door at Nancy’s house opens when she was dropped off at the property by her daughter.
9:50 p.m. The garage door closes, indicating that Nancy was inside the home.
SUNDAY, FEB. 1
1:47 a.m. Nancy’s doorbell security camera is disconnected.
2:12 a.m. Movement is detected on a security camera at the home. No footage of this is currently available.
2:28 a.m. Nancy’s pacemaker app indicates that the device has been disconnected from her phone.
11:00 a.m. Nancy fails to arrive at the home of a friend, where she had been due to watch a church service livestream.
11:56 a.m. Nancy’s family travels to her home to check on her and finds the property empty.
12:03 p.m. The family calls 911 to report Nancy missing.
12:14 p.m. Police officers arrive at Nancy’s home.
