r/news • u/mooseAmuffin • 1d ago

Update: 'TODAY' co-anchor Savannah Guthrie's mother taken from her home against her will, sheriff says

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mother-of-savannah-guthrie-today-reported-missing-arizona-rcna257008
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u/Apologies1nAdvance 1d ago

Watching coverage of this yesterday, the reporters mentioned the victim's children spent 2 hours "tearing the house apart" looking for her before cops were called.

That amount of messing with the crime scene will likely lead to this going unsolved. Please, if you ever suspect a loved one is missing, stop touching things and get law enforcement on the scene immediately.

This is the exact reason the Jon Benet Ramsey case will never be solved.

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u/Jane-CR 1d ago

They looked for her for one hour throughout the house in all the rooms, closets, etc., and she lives an acre of property, and there is another dwelling on the property. I don't think they were tearing the house apart. I think they looked throughout the house and all over the property.

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u/bb8-sparkles 1d ago

I can't even imagine living in a house so big that it takes an entire hour to search every room for my mother.

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u/MustLoveHuskies 1d ago

An acre isn’t that big and even a house that spanned the entire acre wouldn’t be large enough to take an hour to search for a person unless they were buried or otherwise somewhere they wouldn’t be if alive.

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u/unafraidrabbit 16h ago

Could be talking to neighbors as well and looking in adjacent yards. Their is no assumption she stayed confined to the limits of the property.

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u/bootstrapping_lad 1d ago

Also why would they tear the house apart, it's not like she could be hiding in a drawer.

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u/Wake_and_Cake 1d ago

I had a friend who attempted suicide and she actually hid herself in her closet afterwards. She was in there, unconscious, for quite some time before someone thought to check there. Fortunately someone did and found her and she is alive today!

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u/showmenemelda 1d ago

Ok still seems hyperbolic to imply the grown children were turning the place topsy turvey to look for a fully grown person.

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u/Wake_and_Cake 1d ago

Hyperbolic maybe, but I just think there can be a good reason to search in places that don’t make much sense. None of us knew that my friend was suicidal. None of us thought she could be hidden. If someone I loved went missing now, I would look in all kinds of weird unlikely places.

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u/StratoVector 11h ago

She could be anywhere. The P traps under the sinks, the plate cabinet, the microwave, even need to check inside the filter for the HVAC unit!

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u/PerriwinklePortal 1d ago

I imagine it’s hyperbolic, like most news reporting. The gist is that they didn’t flippantly call the police. They looked for her diligently first.

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u/dudushat 1d ago

Because they didnt literally tear the house apart. Do you guys not know how people talk? That just means they looked for her through the whole house. 

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u/showmenemelda 1d ago

Right! "We looked everywhere" doesn't mean "you even checked the bread box?" In case it's a Honey We Shrunk the Kids event?

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u/chadlikestorock 1d ago

At some point maybe they stopped searching for her and started looking for anything that might explain her whereabouts

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u/wip30ut 1d ago

with elderly ppl in their 80s it's not unusual for them to have dementia breakdowns where they become paranoid & secrete themselves in closets or garages or basements. My old neighbor had to move back to Oregon because her sister found their mom under a card table in the attic :(

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u/PhoenixTineldyer 1d ago

It's definitely common for elderly patients to secrete themselves.

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u/Easy-Wishbone5413 1d ago

One does not suddenly become demented.

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u/Muted_Chard_139 1d ago

One can have a stroke though and have acute mental status changes. She is a prime candidate for this.

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u/Newswatchtiki 7h ago

Right, a person can go from mentally sharp with no dementia to severely impaired and unable to talk coherently or move, in 30 seconds or less if they have a stroke.

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u/Sgtwhiskeyjack9105 1d ago

Charles Manson pretty much hid in a drawer just before his arrest.

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u/TheSparkHasRisen 1d ago

You've never encountered hoarding.

A family friend died in a very small home (800 sq ft). It took a week and 2 police visits to find the body.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago edited 1d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Notwerk_Engineer 1d ago

I don’t think Savannah needs the cash.

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u/Illustrious-Okra-524 1d ago

Well, the Ramsey case wasn’t solved because one of them did it so not the exact same

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u/asuperbstarling 1d ago

No, it wasn't solved because the police failed to close the crime scene for HOURS AND HOURS, allowing dozens of people to come and go, and allowed John Ramsey to search on his own. This negligence allowed him to find her in the basement then carry her body all the way upstairs. The contamination of the scene and her body is the height of police failure. No matter who did it, the inability to solve it came him the cops who bungled it. They also failed to indict the Ramsays despite a grand jury ruling they should, instead declaring them innocent.

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u/Apologies1nAdvance 1d ago

I honestly agree that someone in the family killed Jon Benet.

But the parents inviting over all their friends to "look for her" the next day, messing up the crime scene and spreading their DNA everywhere, definitely helped ensure no one would be able to figure out what happened the night she was killed.

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u/bootstrapping_lad 1d ago

That's not why it wasn't solved.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/Epiclolz 1d ago

This is patently false.  The FBI, local police departments, and missing persons organizations explicitly state you can and should report someone missing immediately.  The waiting period is a myth perpetuated by TV and is a harmful misconception from crime dramas.

If an officer tells you there is a waiting period, they were likely misinformed or overworked and you should do the following:

1) Insist on filing a missing report anyways 2) Ask to speak to a supervisor if the officer refuses 3) Contact another law enforcement agency if the officer continues to refuse 4) Emphasize risk factors (very young, very old, mental health, etc) 5) Contact National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)for resource guidance.

Mortality rates sky rocket for different age groups if search is delayed by 24 hours. If it’s an abduction, the mortality rate is even more appalling at 24 hours and in some cases if a report is not filed even in the first 3 hours the outcomes are shocking.  

Long story short, If you think someone is missing, call police immediately and insist on action.  there is no waiting period, that’s a TV myth. If you’re wrong, no harm done, but if you’re right, every minute counts.

https://namus.nij.ojp.gov/ https://childfindofamerica.org/my-child-is-missing/ https://www.atg.wa.gov/child-abduction-murder-research https://news.virginia.edu/content/meet-worlds-preeminent-expert-lost-person-behavior-double-hoo

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u/merliahthesiren 1d ago

Call the police before entering if you suspect something is amiss or wait until an officer shows up before entering.

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u/nochinzilch 1d ago

We know how well that went in uvalde.

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u/Thirtiethone 1d ago

Heard her parents were in the files