Nancy Guthrie once played along in staged childhood ‘kidnapping’ tradition, daughter’s book says

In one of her books, Savannah Guthrie recalled how her cousin annually staged a childhood “kidnapping” game, with her mother, Nancy Guthrie, playing along.

In her book, “Mostly What God Does,” which was released in February 2024, Savannah Guthrie described the tradition where her cousin would stage a “kidnapping” of herself and her sister at their home in Tucson, Arizona. When she was a child, Savannah Guthrie’s cousin would take her and her sister to Phoenix, calling their mother along the way.

“About once a year, in the summertime, Cousin Teri orchestrated a ‘kidnapping’ of my sister and me. It went down like this: The cousins would visit for a few days at our house in Tucson, and then, on the morning they were to leave, Teri would wake us up early, shushing us in the predawn darkness as we made our escape,” Savannah Guthrie wrote in her book. “We would all pile into her rickety station wagon and head north, the sky streaking with bright oranges and pinks as the sun rose over the colorless desert landscape.”

“Somewhere between Phoenix and Tucson, Teri would make a pit stop and let Annie and me call home at a pay phone. ‘Mom! Cousin Teri kidnapped us to take us to her house!’ My mother would feign shock, protest how terribly she would miss us, then assure us she’d drive up to retrieve us in a few days,” she added.

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There is no indication that the passage has any connection to the ongoing investigation into Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance. Nancy Guthrie’s family members and their spouses have been cleared as suspects in the investigation into her disappearance, according to Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos. 

Investigators continue to search for Nancy Guthrie as she has been missing for over two weeks. Guthrie was forcibly taken from her Tucson, Arizona, home in the early morning hours of Feb. 1, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos previously said.

Nanos told Fox News on Tuesday that DNA recovered from Nancy Guthrie’s home, as well as a glove that was found near her house, wasn’t a match for records found in the FBI database known as the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS).

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An FBI official told Fox News Digital that investigative genetic genealogy is underway as investigators try to identify a suspect. Investigative genetic genealogy, known as IGG, is a technique used by the FBI that “combines DNA analysis from crime scenes with searching publicly available commercial genealogy databases and old-fashioned genealogy research,” retired FBI special agent Jason Pack told Fox News Digital.

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The New York Times reported on Wednesday that the FBI contacted Mexican authorities to investigate a “purchase” that was allegedly related to the Nancy Guthrie case. The official said the “purchase” has “already been ruled out” by the FBI.

Investigators told both ABC News and NBC News that they don’t believe Nancy Guthrie was taken across the U.S. and Mexico border after she was abducted from her Tucson home.