Savannah Guthrie’s NBC Colleague Proposes Theory on Mother’s Suspected Kidnapping

Nancy Guthrie’s suspected abductor may have disconnected her doorbell camera to see if it would trigger a response from law enforcement, a colleague of Today Show host Savannah Guthrie’s has suggested.

Someone disconnected the doorbell camera to the $1 million Tucson, Arizona, home at 1:47 a.m. Sunday, which NBC’s law enforcement and intelligence correspondent Tom Winter told viewers was a “critical moment” in the kidnapping of the host’s 84-year-old mother.

The correspondent came up with the theory by dissecting the police’s most recent timeline in the case on the Today Show Friday morning. His analysis was also reported in the Daily Mail.

That timeline showed that software data recorded movement at the home at 2:12 a.m., which authorities speculated could have come from a person or animal outside the entrance.

However, Guthrie did not have a subscription with the security doorbell so its manufacturer was unable to recover any footage, authorities have said.

Then at 2:28 a.m. the app on Guthrie’s pacemaker was disconnected from her phone. Winter said that is evidence that she was away from her home and phone sometime before the disconnect.

“What’s with that 20-minute time gap?’ Winter asked. “The camera gets ripped off the doorbell, but then there’s motion seen on the camera outside, you know, 20 minutes later. What’s that about?”

Winter then cited unnamed sources who reported investigators were exploring the theory that Guthrie’s kidnapper ”took the doorbell camera off and waited to see if police arrived.”

“And then perhaps thinking the coast was clear, goes back to the house. We don’t know,” he continued. “We don’t know the specifics of what camera detected the motion either.”

Such a test would indicate the perpetrator was what profilers call “well organized” and the abduction was well thought out.

Winter unveiled the theory on NBC’s flagship morning show, which Savannah Guthrie has hosted for more than a decade.

Today has opened with the case of her mother’s disappearance five days in a row.

Understandably, Guthrie has not worked since her mother’s abduction and joined her two siblings in Arizona for an emotional plea on social media Wednesday.

In it, she asked whoever sent purported ransom notes to TMZ and at least one local TV station communicate with the family.

“We need to know without a doubt that she is alive and that you have her,” Guthrie said in a tearful plea. ”We want to hear from you and we are ready to listen. Please reach out to us.”

As of Friday morning, progress on the case, which has also brought in the expertise of the FBI and other federal resources, appears — at least publicly — to be at a standstill.

Veteran crime writer Lowell Cauffiel is the author of the New York Times true crime best seller House of Secrets and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more