National Police Association spokesperson and retired Chicago-area police officer Betsy Brantner Smith said Saturday she believes the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie may not be connected to the ransom notes at all, suggesting instead it could be "a home invasion or something gone wrong."
Appearing on Newsmax’s "Saturday Report" Brantner Smith reacted to legal analyst Alan Dershowitz’s comments urging Guthrie’s family to open dialogue with the abductors even without proof of life.
"I think that they have been directed by the FBI, you know, from a hostage negotiation standpoint to demand this proof of life," Brantner Smith said. "But we don’t even know… and I’m kind of a realist, like the professor is."
Brantner Smith said she doubts the ransom demands are even tied to whoever took Guthrie.
"I’m not even sure that these ransom demands are even related to the people who have taken Nancy Guthrie," she said. "I think it’s more likely that this was a home invasion or something gone wrong."
She added that someone may now be exploiting the national attention surrounding the case.
"Now someone, because of the great notoriety of this case, decided to take advantage of the situation and start this whole ransom dialogue," Brantner Smith said. "I think there’s a good chance that we may find that they’re not even related."
The segment also focused on a timeline released by investigators showing a critical 41-minute window when authorities believe someone entered and exited the home.
"That is a long time to be in the house," Brantner Smith said, though she noted there may be explanations investigators have not yet shared publicly.
"Clearly, there have been details in this case that we don’t know about," she said.
Addressing questions about why Guthrie entered through the garage rather than the front door, Brantner Smith said that would not be unusual in Tucson.
"In this area, we all tend to enter our homes through our garage because it’s so incredibly dark in the Tucson area because of our light ordinances," she said. "I do the same thing. So that’s not unusual."
However, she said evidence suggests Guthrie later exited through the front.
"It’s obvious that she probably came out through that front door because that’s where her blood was found," Brantner Smith said.
Brantner Smith also raised the possibility that Guthrie may have wandered off, noting that such incidents are not uncommon with older adults.
"It’s not untypical in Tucson for a senior citizen to go wandering," she said. "We call it a silver alert."
Still, she expressed frustration with aspects of the investigation.
"There’s been a lot that has happened in this investigation that as an investigator myself, I find frustrating and I find puzzling," Brantner Smith said.
The case remains under investigation as authorities continue searching and evaluating the credibility of the ransom notes.
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