Mexican authorities said they are not actively looking for Nancy Guthrie because they have not received any formal request for assistance from US law enforcement.
The State Attorney General’s office in the state of Sonora — which borders Arizona — said it has “not received a formal request for collaboration, assistance, or information sharing from U.S. authorities or Mexican federal agencies in relation to this case.”
“Should an official request be received through the appropriate institutional channels,” the agency added, “it will be addressed with full cooperation and within the framework of its legal powers and existing cooperation mechanisms.”
The clarification follows reports that the FBI had reached out to Mexican authorities and extended their search for Guthrie across the border —a little over an hour’s drive from her home in Tucson, Arizona where she vanished Feb. 1.
A Mexican security official told the New York Times Thursday the FBI contacted Mexican authorities in Sonora about a supposed “purchase” made related to Nancy Guthrie’s case.
That lead, however, “has already been ruled out” by the FBI, the official said.
The reports of the search going international came after TMZ received a supposed ransom note claiming that Guthrie is being held “south of the border.”
The FBI has not confirmed it is searching for Guthrie in Mexico and the sheriff of Pima County has said his team hasn’t uncovered any evidence that she was taken out of the state.
The 84-year-old mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie is believed to have been snatched from her home while she slept nearly three weeks ago.
Despite thousands of tips from the public, DNA evidence recovered at the scene and video footage of a masked, armed suspect at her front door the night she disappeared, investigators have come up empty handed in identifying the alleged kidnapper.
The Pima County Sheriff’s Office announced Wednesday that it had uncovered new “biological evidence” that does not belong to Guthrie during a search of her Catalina Foothills house. and DNA profiles are under lab analysis, although it’s not clear what the evidence is.
The Guthrie family, which has repeatedly offered to pay her ransom, is still holding out hope Nancy is alive.
