Nancy Guthrie likely targeted by local worker who assumed family was wealthy, says veteran investigator

LAS VEGAS — A leading forensic scientist who spent decades with one of the country's largest medical examiner's offices told Fox News Digital over the weekend that she believes Nancy Guthrie may have been targeted by a local worker who assumed the victim's family had money.

"I find it flabbergasting that anyone would take a woman her age, but what I think is probably the case is that someone in the area, maybe a handyman, maybe a service person, had known, had found out that Mrs. Guthrie was the mother of Savannah Guthrie and said, 'Oh, she must be rich,'" Barbara Butcher said Saturday, speaking on the sidelines of CrimeCon Las Vegas. "So this person is not well."

Butcher, a longtime medicolegal death investigator and the host of Oxygen's "The Death Investigator," also said the lack of a credible ransom demand raises concerns that Guthrie may have died shortly after the alleged abduction due to shock or an underlying medical condition, leading the suspect to hide evidence and vanish before the case could be resolved.

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"My second thought was that after time, when there was no valid ransom demand or any information forthcoming that it's probably likely that Mrs. Guthrie died of shock, fright, heart disease, whatever it was, very soon after being taken from her home," she added.

"And that's just horrifying to me...and so now this kidnapper had nothing and probably, unfortunately, took her body into the desert and buried her there."

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Guthrie is believed to have been taken from her home in Tucson, Arizona, in the early hours of Feb. 1.

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She is the 84-year-old mother of "Today" co-host Savannah Guthrie, whose family offered to meet ransom demands sent to TMZ in February.

Despite that, Guthrie's whereabouts remain unknown.

The family is urging anyone with information to dial 1-800-CALL-FBI. There is a combined reward of more than $1.2 million for information that breaks the case.

Anonymous tips can also be sent to Tucson's Crime Stoppers affiliate, 88-Crime, at 1-520-882-7463.