Elizabeth Smart said Tuesday that Nancy Guthrie could still be alive more than three months after the 84-year-old disappeared from her Arizona home. Smart made the remarks during a interview on Tuesday, May 5, as the search for Savannah Guthrie’s mother neared the 100-day mark.
Smart did not sugarcoat the uncertainty. She said there are cases that last far longer than her own and end with missing people coming back alive, adding, “Of course there is the alternative, but until we know, we have to keep looking.” She also said Guthrie deserves, “either way, to be brought home.”
The comments carried weight because they came from someone who has lived through one of the country’s most followed abductions. Smart was 14 when she was taken from her Salt Lake City, Utah, home in June 2002 and spent nine months in captivity before she was rescued. Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee were captured by law enforcement shortly after her rescue, a case that remains one of the clearest reminders that missing-persons stories can end in multiple ways.
Nancy Guthrie was reported missing from her Arizona home on Feb. 1, and authorities have continued searching for her since then. The case has also drawn public scrutiny after FBI Director Kash Patel criticized Arizona law enforcement’s handling of it. Guthrie is the mother of Savannah Guthrie, the Today show host, which has kept the disappearance in the public eye as the days stretch on.
Smart’s point was not that there is certainty, but that there is still reason to search. She said there are cases that span many more years than hers and still end with the missing person alive. That is the hard truth at the center of this case now: the window has been open for nearly 100 days, but it has not closed.
For Guthrie’s family, that means the practical question is no longer whether the story has faded. It has not. The question is whether the next lead, including a separate report about two notes claiming Sonora sightings, can finally tell investigators where to look next.
