A group of Mexican mothers with years of experience searching for missing persons in the Mexican state of Sonora arrive in Arizona to help search for Nancy Guthrie.
Initially, Madres Buscadoras de Sonora (Sonora Mother Search Group) applied for permission to conduct field searches in the Arizona desert. They had hoped to start on Tuesday, but the local sheriff rejected the application on the grounds that it could obstruct the official investigation.
But the Madres Tribe, a national network of volunteers, mothers and wives, is undeterred. Some of them traveled to Arizona to hand out fliers with Guthrie’s likeness, while others remained in Mexico to search in the border town of Nogales.
The group’s presence in Arizona comes as the search for Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of Today host Savannah Guthrie, enters its fourth week. Guthrie was last seen on January 31 and is believed to have been abducted from her remote home in the Catalina Foothills outside Tucson, Arizona, about 90 miles from the Mexican border.
On Tuesday, Savannah Guthrie announced in an Instagram video that her family is offering up to $1 million for information that can lead to her mother’s recovery. The video was the first statement from the Guthrie family in more than a week.
The case continues to attract significant attention, but authorities have been slow to update on the status of the investigation.
“We are here to help in any way we can,” the group’s leader, Cecilia Flores, told CNN. “We will do everything in our power to help this family. Nancy is a mother who deserves to be reunited with her family.”
The group said it was approached by friends of the Guthrie family for help. But their presence is not welcomed by some local residents – especially after some of them conducted a limited search of the riverbed near Guthrie’s home.
“My neighbor came out and yelled at me, this is private property, to get out,” said Lupita Tero, one of the Madres.
“We want to explore the surrounding area, the exits, everything, including the main exits on the main thoroughfares,” she said, but added that due to the regulations here, they couldn’t do a “proper exploration.”
“I respect the laws and rules, but I don’t know where to look without running into problems with people, because people don’t cooperate,” Tello added.
Asked about the Madres, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department told CNN, “We appreciate their concern…and while we all want to find Nancy, this task is best left to the professionals.”
“If they want to get involved in the sector, there are volunteer opportunities,” he added. “Private property laws apply. It is up to individual property owners to decide whether to allow anyone onto their property.”
Flores started Madres Buscadoras de Sonora after her three sons disappeared in 2015 and 2019. All three are believed to have been abducted by organized crime groups, creating a deepening crisis in Mexico.
Since its founding in 2019, the group has grown into a national network that has helped locate more than 5,000 people, living and dead, across the country.
The group has extensive experience conducting field searches in remote areas where drug cartels often dispose of their victims, but Flores stresses that, as he himself has experienced, many searches end in failure, leaving families in dire straits.
Flores said one of her sons was eventually returned by the kidnappers and she still held out hope that the other two missing children would be found.
She told CNN that pain and anxiety are often the driving force behind searches despite the negative effects on their health.
“Every day, hope slowly disappears,” Flores said. “Our bodies are tired, and to tell you the truth, this feeling of hopelessness is so great that we are getting sicker and sicker every day.”
Flores’ group is also searching for signs that Guthrie might have been taken to Mexico, but Mexican authorities deny that possibility.
“The FBI has reported that there are no leads at this time indicating that this woman may be in Mexico,” Sonora state Bureau of Criminal Investigation Director Carlos Flores told reporters on February 19.
Sonora state Attorney General Gustavo Romulo Salas added that the FBI had not received a request to search for her in Mexico.
Law enforcement officials familiar with the matter said officials on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border had previously been told they were looking for clues that could help in the case as part of standard investigative procedures. Investigators briefed U.S. Border Patrol agents and Mexican law enforcement officials, the official said.
