Savannah Guthrie's 84-year-old mother was dragged from her Tucson home in the middle of the night.
One hundred days have passed and the community is starting to move on – and one woman refuses to let that happen.
What Nancy Guthrie's closest friend just said publicly is a gut punch.
Lauren Serpa on Nancy Guthrie Missing After 100 Days
Lauren Serpa met Nancy Guthrie twelve years ago at a Tucson farmers market – not as an acquaintance, but as a lifeline.
Serpa had recently lost her fiancé to a brain aneurysm and was sitting alone under a tree, barely holding it together.
Nancy walked over to a complete stranger and stayed for 25 minutes.
Before she left, she told Serpa something that still holds: "When it becomes overwhelming, you have to remember to breathe."
Twelve years of friendship grew from that afternoon.
Now Serpa is the one doing the staying – and this week she went public with a warning the Guthrie family needs the rest of America to hear.
"Even in Tucson where it happened, it's starting to fizzle out, and I don't want that to happen," Serpa told Page Six.
She knows exactly what that fizzle costs a case with no named suspect and no confirmed sighting.
Nancy Guthrie Abducted From Tucson Home in January 2026
Nancy Guthrie was last seen on January 31 when a family member dropped her off at her Catalina Foothills home after dinner.
She didn't show up for a virtual church service the next morning.
Her blood was found on the front porch.
The FBI released surveillance footage showing a masked, armed male – approximately 5'9" to 5'10", carrying a black Ozark Trail backpack – approaching her front door in the early morning hours.
Ransom notes demanding millions in Bitcoin were sent to media outlets within days of her disappearance.
A California man, Derrick Callella, 42, was charged with sending fraudulent ransom demands to the family after pulling their contact information from a public website – a separate scheme unconnected to the actual abductor.
That abductor has never been identified.
A $1.2 million combined reward sits unclaimed.
A hair sample collected from the home spent eleven weeks sitting in a private Florida lab before the FBI finally received it at Quantico, where analysis is ongoing.
Over 100 days in, there are no arrests, no named suspects, and no confirmed sighting.
The Tip That Could Solve the Nancy Guthrie Kidnapping
Serpa organized a local memorial for Nancy and has been pushing the public to stay engaged ever since.
"People are starting to move on basically," she said. "That's what happens when it doesn't affect their lives."
She gets it – and it terrifies her.
The tip that breaks a case like this doesn't come from a detective running a database query.
It comes from someone in a grocery line who hears something off and picks up the phone.
"Really listen to what people are saying that are standing behind you in line," Serpa said. "Those are the kind of things that are going to make the difference in this case."
That is not a platitude.
That is how cold cases get solved – or don't.
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said this week that an arrest will come "at some point" and that investigators are "getting closer every day."
On Mother's Day, Savannah Guthrie posted a tribute no daughter should ever have to write.
"Mother, daughter, sister, Nonie – we miss you with every breath," she wrote. "We will never stop looking for you. We will never be at peace until we find you."
Serpa read it and is still thinking about it.
"It just breaks my heart," she said. "The family is going through so much. It just doesn't make any sense. None of it does."
Nancy Guthrie once spent 25 minutes with a grieving stranger because she couldn't walk past someone in pain.
One hundred days later, that stranger won't walk away from her.
Sources:
- Leah Bitsky, "Nancy Guthrie's close friend rages about probe, begs for answers as investigation hits 100-day mark," Page Six, May 12, 2026.
- "Pima County Sheriff Nanos gives update on Nancy Guthrie investigation," KOLD, May 12, 2026.
- "The Nancy Guthrie investigation could hang on a strand of DNA," CBS News, May 12, 2026.
- "Nancy Guthrie latest updates," Yahoo News, May 15, 2026.