Phoenix police are investigating the death of an unidentified woman found Friday morning along the Grand Canal Trail, while authorities in Southern Arizona say they have no public evidence tying the case to the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie near Tucson.
The discovery quickly drew attention because Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of NBC “Today” co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, has been missing since Feb. 1 in what investigators describe as an abduction. The two scenes are more than 100 miles apart, but the Phoenix death revived public speculation at a tense stage in the case, with no named suspects, no arrests and key forensic tests still pending. Police in Phoenix have released few details, and the Pima County Sheriff’s Department has said it has not been advised that the canal case is connected to the Guthrie investigation.
Phoenix police said officers were called about 7:40 a.m. Friday to the area of 27th Place and Grand Canal Trail in central Phoenix after a report that an adult woman was lying unresponsive on a canal bank. By the time officers arrived, police said, she was dead at the scene. Local television crews later reported a mobile command post nearby and investigators placing evidence markers around a bicycle and other belongings close to the trail. The woman’s name had not been released by Sunday, and police had not said how long she had been there or whether foul play was suspected. The location is several blocks north of McDowell Road, along a stretch of canal path used by cyclists and walkers. The finding landed as the Guthrie search entered its sixth week, turning a routine stream of online case chatter into a fresh round of questions about whether the Phoenix scene could somehow intersect with the older Tucson case.
So far, officials have publicly drawn a line between the two matters. Phoenix police have described the canal scene only as a death investigation and have not identified the woman. In Tucson, sheriff’s officials have kept the Guthrie case active but tightly controlled, releasing only selected pieces of evidence and warning that many details remain undisclosed to protect the investigation. Early records in the missing-person case show why Guthrie’s disappearance was treated as urgent from the start. A state Safe Alert said family members became concerned about 12:15 p.m. on Feb. 1, after Guthrie did not appear for church. When relatives went to her home, her wallet, cellphone and vehicle were still there. The alert also said Guthrie had limited mobility and that medication she needed daily remained inside the house. Sheriff Chris Nanos later said the condition of the home was “concerning,” and investigators began treating the case as an abduction rather than a wandering incident or voluntary disappearance.
The known timeline in Tucson has hardened over the past month, even as the main mystery has not. Guthrie was last seen by family members late on Jan. 31 after spending the evening with her daughter Annie Guthrie and son-in-law, Tommaso Cioni. Authorities say a doorbell camera at Nancy Guthrie’s home then captured a man in a ski mask, backpack, gloves and a holstered gun tampering with the device during the early hours of Feb. 1. About a half-hour later, Guthrie’s pacemaker app lost contact with her phone line. By noon, after she failed to appear for church services, relatives notified authorities that she was missing. On Feb. 5, investigators said blood found on her porch belonged to Guthrie, deepening fears that she had been taken by force. Ransom notes later surfaced through media outlets, but officials have not said those messages led to meaningful contact with the family or moved the case closer to resolution.
Several leads that once seemed promising have narrowed or stalled. On Feb. 10, the sheriff’s department and the FBI publicly released doorbell footage of the masked man, calling it the strongest clue in the case. That same day, authorities searched a home in Rio Rico, about 60 miles south of Tucson, and detained a man for questioning, but no charges followed and no arrest was announced. A black glove found about 2 miles from Guthrie’s home became another focus. The FBI said the glove looked similar to the pair worn by the person on the doorbell video. Investigators submitted DNA from the glove to the national CODIS database, but that produced no hit. On March 4, sheriff’s officials said further analysis traced the glove to a restaurant employee who works near the neighborhood and is not considered part of the case. Other gloves and DNA samples are still being tested, including material sent to a private laboratory in Florida. No suspect has been publicly named, and the sheriff’s department has said Guthrie’s entire family has been cleared.
Even with that setback, authorities say the investigation remains large, though now more focused. Nanos said the case began with close to 400 officers and FBI agents involved at one point, then narrowed to a core task force of about 10 to 20 detectives and agents handling the investigative work day to day. He has said labs are still processing fingerprints and DNA, and that evidence analysts still have more to review. Investigators have also asked residents within about a 2-mile radius of Guthrie’s Catalina Foothills home to submit surveillance footage from the period around her disappearance. In recent days, officers were reported going door to door again in the neighborhood, an indication that detectives are still trying to build out the route in and out of the area. The family has increased its own reward to as much as $1 million for information leading to Guthrie’s recovery, while the FBI’s reward remains in place. For now, the next concrete steps are forensic: identify the woman found in Phoenix, complete pending lab work in Tucson and determine whether any overlooked video, trace evidence or witness account finally links a suspect to Guthrie’s home.
The two scenes now sit in public view as different kinds of unknowns. In Phoenix, the canal bank where the woman was found became a sealed work area beside a well-used trail, with a bicycle and personal items visible near the evidence markers. In Tucson, Guthrie’s home has become a place of quiet vigil, with yellow flowers, cards and handwritten messages gathering outside as neighbors and friends wait for news. Savannah Guthrie and other family members visited the memorial this past week, thanking supporters and saying the family still feels the prayers of the community. In one of the family’s video appeals, Savannah Guthrie said, “Someone out there knows something that can bring her home.” Nanos has put the request even more plainly, saying the kind of tip investigators still need is one from a person who can say, “I know this. I saw this. I heard this.” Until that happens, the Phoenix death remains its own unresolved case, and Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance remains an abduction inquiry with more questions than answers.
As of Sunday, Phoenix police had not released the dead woman’s identity or cause of death, and Tucson investigators were still treating Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance as an active abduction case. The next public milestones are likely to be the woman’s identification in Phoenix and any new forensic results or case updates from Pima County.
Author note: Last updated March 8, 2026.