TUCSON, Arizona – The Post retraced Nancy Guthrie’s final route home before she vanished – a path that began under the glow of commercial lights and at least one surveillance camera before plunging into long, unlit stretches of desert road.
Guthrie was a passenger on the roughly 11-minute, 4.3-mile drive back to her Catalina Foothills house around 9:45 p.m. on Jan. 31, according to law enforcement. Her son-in-law, Tommaso Cioni, drove her home after nearly four hours spent with him and his wife, Annie, at their home.
Leaving the couple’s three-bedroom, two-bathroom abode on West Ternero Street, the most direct route would have taken Cioni east just a few hundred yards from the driveway, past four modest homes set back from the road, before veering slightly right onto West Las Lomitas Road.
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As the vehicle approached the busy, six-lane North Oracle Road – where Cioni would have needed to wait for a break in traffic in order to make a left turn – it would have been flanked by a Sherwin-Williams paint store and Salvation Army on the right, and a Circle K gas station on the left.
Six days after Guthrie, 84, was discovered missing from her home – just hours after law enforcement said Cioni dropped her off without a hitch – investigators reportedly obtained security surveillance footage from the Oracle Road Circle K gas station.
Convenience store employees handed over the tape after cops received “a tip regarding a vehicle of interest” in the case, Pima County authorities said – but no more information about the car or the footage had been released as of Friday, which marked the 13th day of the desperate search for Guthrie, who is the mother to “Today” show co-host Savannah Guthrie.
Once Cioni began heading north on the busy freeway, the car would be within just yards of commercial establishments, including a Hampton by Hilton hotel, a Chevron gas station, Chase and Wells Fargo banks, and a myriad of independent restaurants, The Post found.
And despite being set back a little farther from the road, retail storefronts including Dollar Tree and T.J. Maxx would still be within plain sight of the vehicle during that nearly one-mile stretch of North Oracle Road, before Cioni’s car would have taken a right turn onto East Orange Grove Road.
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But almost instantly, any light given off from the businesses and street lights would disappear on the streetlamp-less, windy two-lane street, where the car – flanked by only desert brush and saguaro – would drive for almost two miles before taking a sudden right turn onto East Camino la Zorrela.
There, across from the entrance to the parking lot of the sprawling Catalina Foothills Church, a large, Pima County Sheriff Department-provided sign blares the message, “Warning / Neighborhood Watch / Our community is watching / Suspicious activity is immediately reported to 9-1-1.”
Following another half mile of dark, windy, residential road, Cioni’s car would have made its final turn onto Guthrie’s street: North Camino Escalante.
Cioni dropped his mother-in-law off, making sure she got inside her home safely, Nanos said, before driving away back home through the dark, windy streets, then past the hotels and restaurants and the Circle K.
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Nancy has not been seen since.
The mobile-challenged matriarch was reported missing by noon the next day after she failed to appear at a friend’s house to watch a livestreamed church service – a longtime Sunday ritual for Guthrie.
Since then, authorities have maintained they don’t have a primary suspect nor any viable leads.
On Thursday, Savannah’s NBC colleague Liz Kreutz revealed that Guthrie’s neighbors were asked to hand over footage from their own doorbell cameras during two specific time frames – between 9 p.m. and midnight on Jan. 11, as well as between 9:30 and 11 a.m. on Jan. 31.
Additionally, Kreutz reported that neighbors had been questioned about their vehicles, specifically whether they “have a truck.”
On Thursday, the FBI released a description of the person caught on Guthrie’s Nest camera, armed and lurking at her front door.
The FBI said the suspect is a man, approximately 5 feet 9 inches to 5 feet 10 inches tall and has an average build.
The feds also doubled the reward to $100,000 for information leading to Guthrie or her captor.