FBI has been in contact with Mexico about Nancy Guthrie

The FBI has been in contact with the Mexican government and Mexican authorities regarding the disappearance of Nancy Guthriethe mother of “Today” show co-host Savannah Guthrie, law enforcement sources told News themezone.

Authorities believe Nancy Guthrie, 84, was forcibly taken from her home in Tucson, Arizona, in the middle of the night before she was reported missing on February 1. Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos told News themezone sister network BBC News this week that he believes Guthrie was the target of the apparent kidnapping.

The FBI maintains dedicated border liaison agents stationed along the border who work directly with their Mexican law enforcement counterparts in these types of situations.

The FBI legal attaché office in Mexico City serves as a bridge between FBI headquarters, the United States embassy, ​​and the office of the federal attorney general of Mexico.

A source told News themezone that the FBI suboffice most relevant to the Guthrie case is in Hermosillo, Sonora, the Mexican state that shares a border with Arizona. Tucson is about 60 miles from the Nogales crossing.

The U.S. State Department has issued a Level 3 travel warning for Sonora, which is one level below its most severe warning. The State Department urges Americans to reconsider travel to the area, noting the risk of violence from terrorist groups, cartels, gangs and criminal organizations.

Hermosillo is approximately 170 miles away Mexico on the other side of the border. When something happens in this geographic corridor, that is the sub-office that receives the call.

Nanos has said there is no indication that Guthrie was taken to Mexico, but that does not necessarily mean that an investigation has not been launched in the area.

A source said border protocols are already in place for situations like this, whether or not there is a confirmed lead.

Meanwhile, the local organization Searching Mothers of Sonora told News themezone that they were contacted by a member of the Guthrie family and asked for help in the search. The organization, well known in Sonora, published a message on social networks asking for information about Guthrie’s whereabouts.

An 88-CRIME tip line reward was increased Wednesday to $102,500 (thanks to a $100,000 anonymous donation, the organization said) for information leading to the arrest of the person or persons involved in Guthrie’s disappearance. That reward is in addition to the $100,000 reward offered by the FBI.

According to Nanos, the researchers have not ruled out that an accomplice helped the alleged kidnapper seen on doorbell camera video outside Nancy Guthrie’s home the night of her disappearance.

The video recovered from Guthrie’s Google Nest doorbell camerawhich was shared by the FBI last week, is the only footage Google has been able to recover from Guthrie’s home cameras, according to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department. There are additional cameras on the property that engineers are still working on as they try to recover usable video. Researchers are hopeful that the technology companies working on the videos will discover more.

Savannah Guthrie, her two brothers and their spouses were all acquitted as suspects in the case, the sheriff’s department announced Monday as the high-profile investigation entered its third week.

Nanos told BBC News that the Guthrie family has cooperated with investigators.

“We really put them to the test,” Nanos said. “We take their cars, we take their houses, we take their phones, all these things, and we are not going to take them. They are giving them to us voluntarily. They have cooperated with us 100% in everything we have asked of them. They are victims. They are not suspects.”