Nancy Guthrie disappearance fuels rise of ‘mom detectives’ swapping tips and losing sleep

In the hunt for missing parent Nancy Guthrie, instrumentality enforcement isn’t the lone unit chasing answers.

Across Facebook groups, Instagram threads and vicinity camera apps, a increasing web of self-described "mom detectives" has mobilized — dissecting timelines, swapping Ring footage and organizing shared online files successful an effort to portion unneurotic what happened.

"I’m brainsick astir Nancy Guthrie… I’m not adjacent trying to fell it anymore," Melinda Long, a wellness and fittingness coach, contented creator and parent of three, wrote connected Instagram, describing "wake-up-at-2am, what-is-the-truth benignant of obsessed" heavy dives into a lawsuit she says has pieces that "don’t rather adhd up." She past asked her followers: "Anyone other wholly locked into this close now?"

The effect was immediate.

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Within minutes, Long said, women flooded the comments echoing the aforesaid sentiment — anxious, invested and incapable to look away.

"I’m waking up successful the mediate of the night, and I’m putting connected Fox News, and I americium not a miss who watches TV astatine night," Long told Fox News Digital. "A batch of women are writing, ‘Same, aforesaid girl, same.’ You conscionable said precisely what I’m feeling but acrophobic to accidental retired loud."

Long has nary idiosyncratic transportation to the Guthrie family. Yet the lawsuit feels intensely personal.

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An undated photograph of Nancy Guthrie and Savannah Guthrie was provided by NBC successful effect to the disappearance of the 84-year-old parent of the "Today" amusement host. (Courtesy of NBC)

"Why bash I consciousness truthful idiosyncratic astir it?" she said. "Savannah is similar America’s sweetheart, right? So her ma feels similar your mom. It feels similar it could beryllium my mom. I person a 75-year-old mom. I deliberation a batch of moms consciousness that transportation to it."

She said caller true-crime documentaries person besides shaped her perspective. After watching a Netflix bid connected Elizabeth Smart’s abduction, Long said she was reminded that aboriginal assumptions successful missing persons cases tin beryllium wrong.

"We each thought she was dead. We conscionable thought she was gone," Long said. "And she wasn’t."

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That memory, she explained, reinforces hope, adjacent erstwhile details look limited.

"There has to beryllium more," she said. "There has to beryllium much accusation that we don’t know."

Long says her online assemblage includes "regular moms," professionals and followers from arsenic acold distant arsenic the United Kingdom and Austria — underscoring however societal media has erased geographic boundaries successful modern transgression cases.

"Social media truly crosses that borderline of being conscionable a U.S. quality thing," she said.

A integer routine

The strength Long describes is not isolated.

On a Facebook leafage called "True Crime Mama," 1 caller station asked followers: "Curious wherever everyone stands… Do you deliberation she volition beryllium recovered oregon bash you deliberation she volition ne'er beryllium found?"

In different group, a idiosyncratic named Lori Sparks wrote that she had been pursuing the lawsuit "from the beginning," adding that she was monitoring updates connected "2 abstracted laptops that mode I don’t miss anything," on with hashtags calling for justness and Nancy’s harmless return.

On Instagram, Michele McNaughton posted a reel of herself scrolling connected her telephone with substance overlay that read: "The 1 caller measurement I ne'er skip successful my greeting routine: checking societal media to spot if they recovered Nancy Guthrie yet." In the caption, she asked: "Why successful the satellite is this taking truthful agelong to solve?"

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"I truly bash anticipation they find this woman. This full happening conscionable feels Mickey Mouse and botched. It’s sad," McNaughton told Fox News Digital. "None of it makes sense." 

McNaughton added that she was "hooked connected the communicative from the start."

"I felt this could beryllium my neighbour oregon ma who’s gone missing," she said. "And I’m beauteous definite we each thought the cops would’ve had it wrapped up successful nary time."

But arsenic the lawsuit unfolded, she said her assurance began to fade.

"As the days dragged connected and the communicative got weirder, I started to deliberation they were bumbling this case," she said, describing what she viewed arsenic a bid of confusing developments — including mentions of ransom notes, speech of payment, suspects being detained and aboriginal released. "It’s a rollercoaster ride."

The absorption successful her remark conception reflected akin frustration.

"The Moms of the World would’ve solved this by Tuesday," 1 follower wrote.

"And the mode this is going," she added, "I’m starting to wonderment if we could have."

For immoderate women, checking for developments has go portion of their greeting regular — alongside coffee, workouts and schoolhouse drop-offs.

At the bosom of the online engagement, Long insists, is interest not cruelty.

"I privation them to cognize that everybody’s interest is genuine and real," she said, referring to Guthrie’s family. "Any concerns are lone due to the fact that everybody wants her to beryllium found. There are a batch of prayers and a batch of bully intentions."

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A motion of solidarity from neighbors astatine Nancy Guthrie's location Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026, successful Tucson, Ariz. (AP Photo/Caitlin O'Hara)

A increasing trend

The improvement extends beyond the Guthrie case.

In caller years, mothers and online communities person mobilized astir high-profile investigations including the 2022 University of Idaho murders and the disappearance of Gabby Petito — cases that unfolded successful existent clip crossed TikTok, Reddit and Facebook, with civilians analyzing bodycam footage, societal media posts and integer timelines.

Petito’s lawsuit successful peculiar demonstrated the powerfulness of online attraction to amplify a missing persons probe nationally, but it besides highlighted the risks of speculation spreading rapidly crossed platforms.

Now, integer tools that erstwhile served chiefly for societal connection, similar vicinity camera apps, shared drives and radical chats, are being repurposed into informal investigative hubs.

What erstwhile mightiness person been passive depletion of existent transgression has, for some, evolved into progressive participation.

When moms lick acold cases

The thought of mothers stepping into investigative roles is not wholly new.

In his caller book, "The Carpool Detectives: A True Story of Four Moms, Two Bodies and One Mysterious Cold Case," author Chuck Hogan details however a radical of suburban mothers helped revive a 15-year-old treble homicide that had agelong eluded investigators.

As archetypal reported by the New York Post, the lawsuit centered connected a 2005 incidental involving a suburban businessman and his woman whose bodies were discovered adjacent their wrecked SUV successful a Los Angeles County canyon aft they vanished without a trace. The household concern had collapsed, millions of dollars were unaccounted for, and leads had dried up.

The effort was spearheaded by Marissa Pianko, who learned astir the lawsuit portion taking a broadcast journalism people astatine UCLA successful 2020. What began arsenic an world workout evolved into a years-long civilian propulsion to reexamine grounds and property for renewed attention.

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Fox News Digital reached retired to the radical for comment.

The communicative has fueled treatment astir whether organized civilian engagement tin sometimes aboveground overlooked details oregon whether it risks complicating authoritative investigations.

For Long, the changeless scrolling and late-night updates aren’t astir playing detective — they’re astir hope.

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"There has to beryllium more," she said. "There has to beryllium much accusation that we don’t know."

Watching nationalist appearances by household members has lone deepened her affectional investment.

"She looks similar hell," Long said candidly. "And I’m thinking, I would look similar hellhole too. I can’t adjacent ideate if I’m getting up successful the mediate of the nighttime and not sleeping…imagine the sickness and fearfulness that she feels."

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That identification, girl to mother, parent to mother, whitethorn assistance explicate wherefore truthful galore women are gathering successful integer spaces to travel cases truthful closely.

Until determination are clearer answers, she and thousands of different mothers accidental they’ll support watching, refreshing feeds, sharing posts and waiting for the update they’re hoping to see.

Stepheny Price covers crime, including missing persons, homicides and migrant crime. Send communicative tips to [email protected].