A group of Mexican mothers with years of experience searching for missing persons in the state of Sonora, Mexico, has arrived in Arizona to assist in the search for Nancy Guthrie.
The Searching Mothers of Sonora initially requested a permit to conduct a field search in the Arizona desert. They hoped to begin on Tuesday, but the local sheriff denied the request, arguing that it could interfere with the official investigation.
However, the Mothers—a national network comprised of volunteers, mothers, and wives—have not been deterred. Some traveled to Arizona to distribute flyers with Guthrie’s picture, while others remained in Mexico to search in the border city of Nogales.
The group’s presence in Arizona comes as the search for Guthrie—the 84-year-old mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie—enters its fourth week. Guthrie was last seen on January 31 before she was apparently abducted from her home in Catalina Foothills, Arizona, just outside Tucson, about 60 miles from the Mexican border.
On Tuesday, Savannah Guthrie announced in an Instagram video that the family is offering up to $1 million for information leading to her mother’s safe return. The video was the Guthrie family’s first statement in over a week.
Although the case continues to attract significant attention, updates on the investigation from authorities have dwindled.
“We are here to help in any way we can,” the organization’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 says a friend of the Guthrie family reached out to them for help. However, their presence has not been welcomed by some locals, especially after some of them conducted a limited search in a creek bed near Guthrie’s home.
“The neighbors came out yelling at us and telling us to leave, that it was private property,” said Lupita Tello, one of the Mothers.
“We want to explore the surrounding area, the exits, everything, even the main exits off the main streets,” she said, but added that they haven’t been able to conduct a “proper search because of local regulations.”
“I respect the laws and the rules, but I don’t know where we could search without running into trouble with people, because people just aren’t cooperating,” Tello added.
When asked about the Mothers, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department told CNN, “We appreciate your concern… and we all want to find Nancy, but this work is best left to the professionals.”
“We have volunteer opportunities if you would like to get involved with the department,” they added. “Private property laws apply. It’s up to each owner to grant permission for someone to be on their property.”
Flores founded Madres Buscadoras de Sonora (Searching Mothers of Sonora) after her three children disappeared in 2015 and 2019. All three are believed to have been kidnapped by organized crime groups, which have fueled a growing crisis in Mexico.
Since its founding in 2019, the group has grown into a nationwide network that has helped locate more than 5,000 people across the country, both alive and dead.
The group has extensive experience conducting field searches in remote areas, where drug cartels often dispose of their victims, though Flores emphasizes that many searches ultimately prove unsuccessful, leaving families with agonizing uncertainty, as she herself has experienced.
Flores said that one of her children was eventually returned by his kidnappers, and she still holds out hope of finding her other two missing children.
She told CNN that the pain and uncertainty are often what keep the searchers going, despite the toll on their health.
“Every day, hope fades a little more,” Flores said. “The body gets tired. And the truth is, this desperation is so great that we are getting sick day by day.” While Flores’s group is also looking for signs that Guthrie may have been taken to Mexico, Mexican authorities have dismissed that possibility.
“The FBI informed us that they currently have no leads to suggest that this woman might be in Mexico,” Carlos Flores, commissioner general of the Sonora State Criminal Investigation Agency, told reporters on February 19.
Sonora Attorney General Gustavo Rómulo Salas added that he has not received any request from the FBI to search for her in Mexican territory.
Officials on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border had already been instructed to be on the lookout for leads that could help in the case as part of standard investigative procedures, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the matter.
Source: abc17news
