For more than three weeks, in broadcaster Bill Buckmaster’s words, Tucson, Arizona, has been in a “living nightmare.” After 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie was reported missing from her Catalina Foothills home on February 1, she was believed to have been abducted.
Her daughter, Savannah Guthrie, is the co-host of the Today show and has often spoken about the city that shaped her. Now, that same city is helping her family in a way that Buckmaster hasn’t seen since the 2011 assassination attempt on Gabrielle Giffords.
Buckmaster, on the other hand, is an Arizona and Nevada Hall of Fame broadcaster. He has reported in Tucson for nearly four decades, and in an interview with NBC News, he said, “It’s been a living nightmare for this community (…) We’ve all just been shocked to the core.”
Before Savannah joined an NBC affiliate, she worked alongside him on a local Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) program as a student. Buckmaster remembers taking her out to the mall at the University of Arizona to teach the basics of field reporting and to think on one’s feet.
“She was a very fast learner,” he said, adding, “She was very special. She is very special.”
Now, as Savannah’s mother is still missing, Buckmaster says the anxiety is all over the city. If you drive through the Catalina Foothills, you’ll see yellow roses, yellow ribbons tied around trees and neighbors wearing yellow bands. They all want Nancy home, he added.
On the ground in Tucson: Flowers, notes, and signs now decorate Nancy Guthrie’s home as the community waits for answers 🙏 pic.twitter.com/V0HbNENjch
— The Faulkner Focus (@FaulknerFocus) February 19, 2026
Buckmaster compared the situation to that of January 2011. A shooting that wounded Giffords drew national attention to the city at that time. “We hoped we would never have to live through something like that again,” he said.
Yet, here they are. After Nancy’s disappearance, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos told reporters, “We have someone whose life is in jeopardy.” Nancy, he noted, has limited mobility and needs lifesaving medication.
Fox News obtained 911 dispatch audio, which hinted that she also has a pacemaker and high blood pressure. Additionally, some other (unconfirmed) reports said her pacemaker stopped syncing with her Apple devices recently. This does not mean the pacemaker has stopped functioning, as implanted devices can regulate heart rhythm with batteries that last for years.
Clinical geropsychologist Regina Koepp told The Arizona Republic that older adults often have better emotional regulation and problem-solving skills than younger people. She explained to AZ Central, “Just because they are older and medically vulnerable, we shouldn’t discount their troubleshooting and sophistication in navigating a traumatic situation.”
A March 2023 paper by the University of Arizona Center on Aging also found that resilience in older adults is often underestimated. Older adults have higher levels of subjective well-being than any other age group, it said.
A statement from Sheriff Chris Nanos on the Nancy Guthrie Investigation: pic.twitter.com/YfhQSPkrFJ
— Pima County Sheriff’s Department (@PimaSheriff) February 16, 2026
Still, stress and lack of medication can lead to delirium, which is a condition in older adults characterized by confusion and mood swings. But as trauma responses vary wildly, no amount of resilience can actually guarantee safety.
Buckmaster said the case has become a “political football.” Despite there being several questions about how the Pima County Sheriff’s Office is handling the investigation, the broadcaster has interviewed Nanos many times over the years.
But in this case, Buckmaster wants to “let the authorities do what they do [and] hold off on the social media.”
