'I Want To Make a Deal': Former FBI Agent Predicts Nancy Guthrie Case Will Crack When One Suspect Flips

As the Nancy Guthrie investigation moves into its seventh month in Tucson, Arizona, a former senior FBI official has said the breakthrough is likely to come from a plea deal, not a crime‑scene clue.

The case centres on 84‑year‑old Nancy, mother of Today host Savannah Guthrie, who vanished from her home on 1 February in what investigators believe was a kidnapping. The Nancy Guthrie case has gripped US true‑crime followers for months, yet there are still no named suspects and no confirmed sightings.

Speaking on retired FBI agent Jennifer Coffindaffer's YouTube channel, former bureau executive Frank Storey argued that 'somewhere along the line, somebody always talks'.

He believes someone involved, if there was more than one kidnapper, could one day tell agents: 'I want to make a deal; I know about the Guthrie case.'

Former FBI Boss Sees Plea Deal as Key to Nancy Guthrie Case

Storey, who spent 30 years in the FBI and rose to run major organised-crime programmes, did not hedge his answer when Coffindaffer asked whether the Nancy Guthrie case would ever be solved.

'I think it will be at some point,' he said, adding that in his experience, if 'several people were involved in the kidnapping, it may come a time when one of them is arrested for something else'.

Faced with a serious charge and a long potential sentence, he suggested, that person might decide to bargain with prosecutors by offering information on what happened to the 84‑year‑old.

In his scenario, that suspect would tell investigators: 'I want to make a deal; I know about the Guthrie case' in exchange for a reduced penalty.

Storey acknowledged that such a twist 'may occur, it may not', but said it was 'possible' and that 'the truth will come out, eventually. It usually does.'

Was Nancy Guthrie Taken in a 'Kidnapping for Ransom Gone Wrong'

Pressed for his professional view of what happened, Storey said he believes the Nancy Guthrie case began as a planned kidnapping for ransom that collapsed almost immediately.

He argued that the abductors appeared to have succeeded in removing Nancy from her home, but that she likely suffered a fatal heart attack 'shortly thereafter', possibly within 'a day or two'.

He linked that theory to one uncomfortable fact that keeps nagging at investigators and viewers alike. There has been no sustained, specific ransom communication that law enforcement regards as authentic.

Storey said there were 'a couple of letters' demanding money, but he does not think they came from the kidnapper, describing them instead as attempts 'to extort money from the family' by opportunists on the sidelines.

In a standard kidnap case, he said, the FBI tells families to insist on proof of life before paying anything. That can be a phone call, a photograph with a particular object, some detail only the victim would know.

In the Nancy Guthrie investigation, Storey's reading is that the abductors never produced such proof because they could not. 'They couldn't produce any sign of life,' he said.

In his view, they buried her after she died, walked away and never came back to the family, leaving the field open for fakes and chancers keen to make a quick buck off an already grim situation.

As of publishing, there has been no official confirmation of Nancy Guthrie's death or any recovery of remains.

FBI and Sheriff Insist Nancy Guthrie Probe Is Still Active

Storey stressed that, despite the public silence, the Nancy Guthrie case remains an active FBI investigation. 'You don't hear anything about it, but they are investigating the case,' he said, adding that the bureau 'never close[s] a case like this' and that it 'always goes on'.

That broadly aligns with Sheriff Nanos' own description of the joint investigation. He said his office was 'working hard every day with all of our partners', including the FBI and outside specialists from big business, and repeated that 'this case is not cold'.

Storey pushed back on the more dramatic narratives, particularly claims that the entire incident was a botched burglary or a staged family cover‑up. 'There was no burglary or anything like that,' he said, noting that 'they didn't take anything from the house. Nothing was missing.'

Nancy Guthrie was reported missing after she apparently disappeared overnight from her Tucson property, with police and the FBI quickly treating it as a suspected abduction. Detectives later released doorbell camera video of a masked figure near the home and said DNA evidence had been submitted to the FBI laboratory at Quantico for analysis.

In July, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos insisted in a media interview that 'this case is not cold' and said his office was working hard every day with federal partners and experts from 'corporate America', which he described as 'some of the brightest minds in this country'.

No person of interest has been publicly identified, and neither investigators nor the Guthrie family has confirmed receiving a credible ransom demand. For now, the official message is that the investigation continues.