Nancy Guthrie's neighbors flag camera glitching as experts explain Wi-Fi jamming

TUCSON, Ariz. — The task unit investigating the February abduction of "Today" co-host Savannah Guthrie's parent has reportedly begun asking neighbors astir a imaginable net outage the greeting of her abduction, prompting speculation that the kidnapper whitethorn person utilized a Wi-Fi jamming device.

A determination similar that would adhd a furniture of sophistication for the masked fishy who appeared connected 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie's beforehand steps carrying a Walmart backpack and oddly placed holster.

"It shows an astounding magnitude of readying if they were used," said Joshua Ritter, a Los Angeles defence lawyer and Fox News contributor.

Neighbors told Savannah's network, NBC, that a squad of investigators re-sweeping the vicinity Thursday asked specifically astir net outages.

Savannah Guthrie and her parent Nancy Guthrie. (Courtesy of NBC)

According to NBC News, a mates that lives adjacent to Guthrie's location said they person 4 cameras connected their property, noting the 1 closest to the missing 84-year-old's location was "not available" during the overnight hours of Feb. 1, erstwhile she disappeared.

The neighbour said it seemed "uncanny" that the information video wasn't disposable during that timeframe. "That’s truly weird, isn’t it?" they said.

That prompted speculation astir the alleged Wi-Fi jammers, which are amerciable successful the United States nether Federal Communications Commission guidelines.

They're not peculiarly high-tech. And they tin beryllium obtained online — which is perchance thing investigators could track.

But the information that the FBI and Google were capable to retrieve video from Guthrie's Nest doorbell camera, erstwhile the instrumentality was physically missing, and she did not person a unreality subscription, indicates a Wi-Fi jammer whitethorn not person been deployed astatine her beforehand door.

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A Wi-Fi jammer utilized successful an alleged residential burglary successful February 2025. (West University Place Police)

"If they were utilizing Wi-Fi jammers, past I would expect that we would not beryllium capable to spot immoderate video from the front-door cameras," said Morgan Wright, the CEO and laminitis of the National Center for Open and Unsolved Cases. "I took a look astatine immoderate of the videos with the different gangs that usage Wi-Fi jammers, and had 1 been up and moving and persistent, you wouldn’t person gotten the wide pictures that we did from the front."

Guthrie's router wouldn't observe the beingness of a awesome jammer, either, unless its interior logs recorded the abrupt disconnects of aggregate devices astatine the aforesaid time, similar Guthrie's exterior cameras, Wright said.

"The router won’t spot the jammer arsenic a device," helium told Fox News Digital. "It’s not attempting to connect… All an RF (radio frequency) jammer does is flood a frequence set with sound truthful morganatic signals cannot beryllium decoded."

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These 2 images were released by the FBI, recovered from Nancy Guthrie's Nest doorbell camera. It's unclear whether they amusement the aforesaid person. (FBI)

So unless the router successful Guthrie's location logged the disconnects, which not each marque and exemplary does, the jammer wouldn't person a integer footprint for investigators to uncover, helium said.

"Whether investigators could observe a jammer — the reply is astir surely no," Wright said. "It operates astatine the vigor layer. The router records events astatine the web layer."

Jammers relation by spamming the airwaves connected the aforesaid frequencies arsenic Wi-Fi devices, interrupting their connections to the internet.

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Annie Guthrie, her hubby Tommaso Cioni, and Savannah Guthrie astatine their missing parent Nancy Guthrie's location connected Monday, March 2, successful Tucson, Arizona. (Fox News)

Early adopters to location Wi-Fi whitethorn person seen akin interruptions if they took a telephone connected a wireless landline telephone portion surfing the internet. People who unrecorded successful densely populated flat buildings tin besides look interference from their neighbors. More precocious routers are much resilient to conflicting signals.

Commercial jammers person a scope of astir 10 to 30 yards, Wright said, and they get much effectual the person they are to the victim's router. From a distance, they tin origin lag and glitching — but mightiness not achromatic retired a camera's awesome entirely.

While devices utilized by the subject and U.S. Secret Service person a overmuch greater range, they're larger and usage much power.

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Members of the property enactment extracurricular the location of Nancy Guthrie, the missing parent of "Today" amusement big Savannah Guthrie, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026, successful Tucson, Ariz.  (AP Photo/Caitlin O'Hara)

For that reason, helium said it's improbable that neighbors saw an interaction from a jamming instrumentality deployed astatine Guthrie's home.

"If they say, ‘Well, I had an net outage,’ it’s got thing to bash with an RF jammer," helium said of the neighbors. "That RF jammer would person to beryllium high-powered, military-style worldly to impact a neighbor."

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Wi-Fi jammers person nary effect connected wired information cameras oregon alarm systems. Some wireless cameras tin store video locally and upload erstwhile an interrupted transportation is restored. It depends connected the marque and model.

Jammers person been utilized by organized burglary rings to flooded location information systems successful caller months, including a South America-linked radical busted successful Houston, Texas, past month. The aforesaid pack has ties to akin theft operations successful California, New York, Florida and Wisconsin, according to authorities.

Brightened versions of photos released by the FBI, amusement a "subject" connected Nancy Guthrie's property.  (Provided by FBI)

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"We each cognize the South American theft groups person been utilizing them successful burglaries crossed the country," said Lisa Miller, a retired detective and instrumentality enforcement enforcement astatine the Colorado Attorney General's Office.

"I find it to beryllium a plausible mentation but not arsenic likely," she told Fox News Digital. "Here’s why: The video of the structure monster released by the FBI didn’t look glitchy. At all. I mean, adjacent constabulary car laptops person glitched during postulation stops of idiosyncratic with a jammer."

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Savannah Guthrie visits the Today amusement astatine Rockefeller Plaza successful New York connected Thursday, March 5, 2026. (Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

The evident antenna seen successful the suspect's pouch connected that Nest video could much apt beryllium portion of a handheld radio, she said.

"I deliberation it’s smarter to usage that than a burner phone," she said. "The criminals cognize what the FBI... tin do. Of course, I’m opining, based connected experience, and it fits my theory, that structure monster had an accomplice."

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Other experts are besides skeptical based connected the added level of sophistication a jammer would bring.

"If they were forward-thinking capable to acquisition and usage 1 of those jammers, I deliberation they would person done amended than what we saw astatine the beforehand door," Betsy Brantner Smith, a retired constabulary sergeant and spokesperson for the National Police Association. "It is decidedly a possibility, but that would necessitate truthful overmuch precocious thought and enactment — that brings america backmost to idiosyncratic who knew her and precise specifically targeted her."

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On the different hand, if the fishy knew her good enough, they mightiness person known she didn't person a unreality subscription for the cameras she did have.

The Pima County Sheriff's Department declined to remark connected immoderate imaginable net outage successful Guthrie's vicinity astatine the clip of her abduction.

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