Nancy Guthrie
Savannah Guthrie/Facebook

Nancy Guthrie's search has taken another unsettling turn, with volunteers in Mexico this month scouring land near Nogales after an anonymous tip claimed the missing Tucson woman might be buried in a clandestine grave close to the border.

But the latest searches turned up nothing, and investigators are still asking Guthrie's family for a DNA sample as the case drags on without an arrest.

Nancy Guthrie Search Moves South Of The Border

The most recent push in Mexico came on 9 June 2026, when more than 50 people joined what was the third major search for Nancy Guthrie in the Mariposa area. The operation brought together volunteer searchers, the National Guard, State Police, AMIC agents, the state Search Commission, Municipal Civil Protection, Municipal Police and criminology students from a local university.

They were acting on a third anonymous phone call to Buscando Corazones Nogales, a missing persons collective that has become grimly familiar with mass burial sites along this stretch of the border.

Its leader, Ramona Guadalupe Ayala Ortiz, said the caller insisted searchers had come 'very close' in an earlier sweep and claimed Guthrie's grave lay beneath a cluster of trees near one of several streams that cut through the desert.

The Mariposa sector is a broad, unforgiving landscape of scrub, arroyos and dry riverbeds. It is also an active crime scene. Between April and May this year, Buscando Corazones uncovered 25 clandestine graves there containing the remains of more than 30 people.

Forensic checks have confirmed that none of those remains belongs to Nancy Guthrie.

Anonymous Tips Steer The Nancy Guthrie Search In Nogales

The collective's involvement in the Nancy Guthrie search began when an anonymous tipster first claimed she was buried in an unmarked grave over one of the Mariposa streams. Acting quickly, the group deployed to the coordinates provided and carried out a physical search.

They found nothing.

The caller rang back, this time with adjusted directions. Searchers returned and again combed the designated patch of desert. Still nothing. A third call followed, with more detailed landmarks and the assurance that the teams had previously been 'close.'

With four times as many people in the field and more specific instructions, volunteers and officials searched for eight straight hours. They checked tree groves, creek beds and dry channels that matched the caller's description. The alleged grave could not be found.

'Because it is such a large area of land with several streams, we need to survey and inspect each location that matches the characteristics described by the anonymous source. We are gathering more information and hope to resume the search soon,' Ayala Ortiz told El Imparcial.

Meanwhile, a federal law enforcement source separately told Fox News that the location described to Mexican searchers had also been checked from the US side and that 'Nancy was not found.'

DNA Push Opens New Front In Nancy Guthrie Case

Faced with the limits of chasing unverified calls in the desert, Ayala Ortiz has turned to something more concrete. She is publicly urging relatives of US citizen Nancy Guthrie to provide a DNA sample to the Sonora State Attorney General's Office.

The plan is simple and blunt: build a profile for Guthrie that can be tested directly against the many unidentified remains already exhumed in the Mariposa area and beyond.

Buscando Corazones has recovered more than 30 sets of human remains in recent months, all from shallow, unmarked graves. Many have not yet been identified.

Without DNA from Guthrie's close family, Mexican forensic teams cannot rule her in or out as a match. With it, they might quietly solve at least one part of this case.

As of this writing, Mexican officials have not publicly confirmed whether they have received any samples from the Guthrie family, and no matches have been announced.

On the US side, the Pima County Sheriff's Office has said it is monitoring developments in Nogales but is constrained by jurisdiction. In a statement quoted by US media, the office noted it was 'aware' of the anonymous reports in Mexico and added: 'The investigation remains active and ongoing, and we will continue to follow up on credible information.'

Ransom Messages, Forensics And Frayed Nerves

In March, a new layer of strangeness appeared when the family and several media outlets began receiving ransom messages demanding bitcoin in exchange for Nancy's safe return.

The Guthries refused to pay without proof of life. None was provided, and investigators have not been able to verify the authenticity of the messages.

There have been harder clues. In early April, FBI agents collected 'potentially critical' DNA samples from inside Guthrie's home. Hair strands were among the items sent to a private lab in Florida for analysis. Any results from that testing have not been made public.

Around the home, investigators reportedly gathered gloves and other forensic traces. Drops of blood on the porch, the torn-down doorbell camera, the masked figure on surveillance footage but none has yet led to a suspect.

Only a few people have been questioned. No one has been arrested over the kidnapping. When 54-year-old Alexander Zabel Jr was arrested recently outside Guthrie's house on unrelated charges.

The Mexico strand of the Nancy Guthrie search only exploded into view after an anonymous caller claimed the missing American grandmother had been buried in a shallow grave in the Mariposa sector, just south of the US–Mexico border.

The Pima County Sheriff's Department, which is leading the kidnapping investigation alongside the FBI, has said it is aware of the reports from Nogales, but stressed that Mexican authorities have not sent over any confirmed findings.

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