While Nancy Guthrie has been missing for more than three months, kidnapping survivor Elizabeth Smart believes there is still reason for hope.
During an interview with CNN on Tuesday, May 5, Elizabeth was asked to share her thoughts on Nancy’s kidnapping and if she could have survived the abduction.
“Absolutely. She could absolutely still be alive,” Elizabeth said. The 38-year-old, who survived her own kidnapping, cited other missing-person cases in which the victims were found alive years after they were taken, saying: “We’re talking years and years, so she could absolutely still be alive. Of course there is the alternative, but until we know, we have to keep looking.”
Regardless of the outcome, Elizabeth noted: “Either way, [Nancy] deserves to be brought home.”
How long has Nancy Guthrie been missing?
The 84-year-old mother of Today co-host Savannah Guthrie has been missing for over three months. She was last seen on January 31, 2026 and is believed to have been kidnapped from her Tucson, Arizona, home by a masked man in the middle of the night on February 1, 2206. At this time, no suspects have been identified in the case
© Getty ImagesInside Elizabeth Smart’s kidnapping
On June 5, 2002, when she was just 14, Elizabeth was abducted from her bed, and shortly after, her kidnapper declared to her that he was going to make her his wife.
“I was in shock,” she told People in January 2026. “I thought, ‘He can’t be serious.’ You can’t just kidnap a child and then say, you’re my wife now. It’s not legal. It’s not okay. I never said yes. I never said I do. None of this is okay.”
© Getty ImagesIntimate details of Elizabeth’s kidnapping were shared in the documentary, Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart, which was released at the beginning of this year. The film includes interviews with witnesses who saw Elizabeth wearing a veil with her head covered, but didn’t realize she was the teen authorities had been searching for.
During her nine months in captivity, she was raped up to four times a day, kept in a dark hole, and fed garbage. Nine months after she was taken, Elizabeth was rescued by police on March 12, 2003, in Sandy, Utah.
© Getty ImagesElizabeth’s life after surviving a kidnapping
20 years after being taken from her home, Elizabeth works as a child safety activist, advocating for the AMBER Alert System, supporting recovery programs, and in 2011, she founded the Elizabeth Smart Foundation, which hopes to put an end to sexual assault and victimization.
Around 2009, Elizabeth met her husband, Matthew Gilmour, in Paris, where she was a missionary for the Church of Latter-Day Saints. The couple tied the knot in 2012, and have since welcomed three children, daughters Chloe and Olivia, and son James.