‘They are not on the same page’: Why crime scene expert believes Nancy Guthrie probe is ‘botched’?

Nancy Guthrie Case Update: Calling the Nancy Guthrie disappearance investigation "botched," a crime scene investigator criticized the Guthrie family and the investigators, saying that Savannah and her family are not on the same page as the FBI and the Pima County Sheriff. On July 1, Sheryl McCollum, an active crime scene investigator from metro Atlanta, offered her perspective on Nancy’s case during her appearance on Jesse Weber Live on NewsNation. “This investigation is so botched,” McCollum said.

“You have not seen Savannah and her family on the same podium as the FBI and the Pima County Sheriff. They should have been standing together, making statements, from day one. And we haven’t seen that yet.” She added, “They’re not on the same page. It’s really sad to see this.”

McCollum’s remarks come as Nancy, Savannah Guthrie‘s 84-year-old mother, remains missing more than five months after she was abducted from her home in Tucson, Arizona. She was last seen on January 31, 2026, and was reported missing by her family on February 1, 2026.


Recently, FBI Phoenix shared a statement on X acknowledging that it had received “several” ransom notes, some of which it “deemed to be extortion attempts without legitimacy,” while others “may potentially be legitimate and are still being investigated as such." The federal investigative agency further stated that it “continues to be investigated as a kidnapping-for-ransom case.”

Ransom Notes and FBI clarification

The FBI issued its statement shortly after a June 30, 2026, Reuters report in which a bureau source asserted that none of the ransom notes connected to Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance were authentic. The report referred to two ransom notes received in February soon after Nancy’s disappearance, along with a more recent note claiming to know the identities of Nancy’s kidnappers.

According to the Reuters report, an FBI official said the first two ransom notes were traced to the same sender. The first note was sent to TMZ and demanded millions of dollars in cryptocurrency. The second note, received by other outlets and later reported on by NBC News, alleged that Nancy had died shortly after being abducted.

What did the expert say on mixed reporting?

Addressing the impact of such conflicting reports on Savannah Guthrie and her siblings, crime scene investigator Sheryl McCollum did not mince words.

“Can you imagine?” she replied. “Nobody has told them the straight-up truth. Nobody has shown them, ‘Hey, this is the playbook we’re using.' This is how we’re going after these people, or this single person.’ Which, I still believe it’s a single individual.”

“[Savannah] is still left with, is it one person or three? Is she alive? Is she not alive? If she died, when did she die? Is she buried? Where is she buried? I mean, they know nothing. There’s no comfort. There’s no answers. And the reality for everybody: There is somebody out there that took an 84-year-old woman, while she was bleeding, from her home,” McCollum continued.