A neighbor in Arizona's Catalina Foothills says she saw a "strange man" near the home of Nancy Guthrie weeks before the 84-year-old mother of Today show host Savannah Guthrie disappeared, adding a new but unconfirmed detail to a case that has drawn national attention and remains unsolved.
The witness account surfaced during the March 9 broadcast of Brian Entin Investigates, where Aldine Meister, a longtime resident of the Catalina Foothills area outside Tucson, described a sighting she believes may be connected to the disappearance. Meister said the encounter occurred around Jan. 11-roughly three weeks before Nancy Guthrie vanished from her home.
Meister said she initially shared the observation only with family members but later decided to report it to authorities after Guthrie went missing.
According to Meister, she noticed the individual while looking out a bathroom window. The sighting immediately struck her as unusual given the neighborhood's routines and the man's appearance.
Her reaction, she said, was immediate. "That guy doesn't fit."
Meister told the program that the man appeared young and had his hat pulled down low enough that she could not clearly see his face. She said the individual's posture and clothing stood out against what she normally sees in the area.
"He was kinda hunched over," Meister said, adding that the person was wearing what she described as street clothing rather than the hiking attire commonly worn by people walking in the foothills.
The detail that unsettled her most, she said, was the direction the man traveled and the way he appeared to observe a nearby property. Meister said the individual walked slowly down the street toward Guthrie's home and appeared to take "a long look at it."
The encounter stayed with her, she said, even though she initially dismissed it as a minor oddity. "So I thought that was weird because that's not normal," Meister recalled.
The neighbor's account has not been confirmed as connected to the disappearance, and investigators have not identified the individual she described. Law-enforcement officials have not publicly named any suspect in the case.
Authorities say the investigation into Nancy Guthrie's disappearance remains active and continues to expand as detectives pursue new leads and examine witness statements.
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has previously indicated that investigators believe the missing woman may still be somewhere in the local area, though he acknowledged the theory is not backed by concrete evidence.
"I don't know why. I don't have any evidence to prove that, but I just believe she's somewhere here locally," Nanos said in comments to the BBC on Feb. 18.
The sheriff has also addressed speculation about possible involvement by family members, stating that Guthrie's relatives have cooperated fully with investigators.
According to reports cited in coverage of the case, the family has been described as "100%" cooperative with law enforcement. Authorities have said they have cleared several relatives, including Annie Guthrie's husband Tommaso Cioni, of suspicion.
For investigators, accounts like Meister's may help refine the timeline of events surrounding Guthrie's disappearance, even if they do not immediately identify a suspect. Witness recollections often provide fragments that detectives compare against other evidence, including surveillance footage, phone data and additional testimony.
