Videos falsely claim Nancy Guthrie’s body was found in pond near Catalina Foothills

In late February 2026, online users shared videos reporting Arizona police located the body of Nancy Guthrie — the mother of “Today” TV host Savannah Guthrie — floating in a pond in the Tucson-area Catalina Foothills community. Snopes received reader mail asking about the rumor.

After Nancy Guthrie’s family reported her missing on Feb. 1, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department announced she was believed to have been kidnapped, abducted or otherwise taken against her will. 

In short, this rumor was false. Numerous videos, documented later in this article, featured a news-anchor-style voice resembling vocals generated with artificial intelligence, as well as fake news report clips displaying dated, recycled footage of police recovering human remains during unrelated investigations. As of this writing, officials had not located Guthrie.

Snopes contacted the Pima County Sheriff’s Department to ask for a statement officially confirming the false nature of the videos and will update this article if we receive further information.

Debunking the false videos

On Feb. 22, a user managing the Sean Pilant YouTube channel (archived) posted a “breaking news” video (archived) with no visible broadcaster or network identifiers. The clip’s title read, “Nancy Guthrie’s body was found floating in a pond near Catalina Foothills. #arizona #nancyguthrie.”

(Sean Pilant/YouTube)

The video featured footage unrelated to Guthrie’s disappearance, including — at the 4-second mark — officers with uniforms identifying their locale as Hennepin County, Minnesota. A reverse image search found the clip’s very next shot showed a scene from the aftermath of a deadly New Year’s Day fire in Switzerland.

The audio narration, resembling AI-generated, news-anchor-style voices Snopes has previously reported about, contained the following false story:

The body of Nancy Guthrie was found floating in a pond near Catalina Foothills. On Saturday, police received a report of a floating body discovered in an abandoned pond near Sabino Canyon. The body was identified as that of long missing Nancy Guthrie, found just 2 miles from her residential community. Police investigations revealed numerous dragged footprints near the water’s edge. These tracks extended to the shoreline, distinctly different from ordinary walking patterns and appearing to show signs of struggle and forceful movement. Police preliminarily speculate that Nancy may have been forcibly brought to this location and engaged in a violent struggle with the suspect. The body’s state of decomposition indicates it may have been floating in the water for over a week. Further examination of the remains is currently underway. Meanwhile, investigators stated they are tracing clues related to Nancy’s activities prior to her disappearance.

On the following day, TikTok user @caterpillar136588 posted a video (archived) containing the same audio narration but with different visuals. The 11-second mark showed numerous officers near water, matching footage (archived) from an unrelated matter recently occurring in Lake Michigan.

Also on Feb. 23, a user managing the Sassy Paws Facebook page shared a video (archived) containing the same narration with different footage. The beginning of the clip showed officials handling a blue tarp near a body of water. That footage matched (archived) a scene from earlier in February, where officials in an Atlanta suburb recovered the body believed to be rapper Lil Jon’s son, Nathan Smith, known as D.J. Young Slade.

On Feb. 24, a user managing the News 401 Facebook page posted a video (archived), again with the same audio narration and different visuals. The 40-second mark of the clip showed men in a boat at night. That same footage appeared in a Chicago TV affiliate’s video (archived) from July 2025.

A previous post from the Empowering Change Now Facebook page displayed a similar rumor showing a still photo of men appearing to carry a body wrapped in a blue bag or tarp. That picture originated from (archived) an unrelated June 2025 investigation in Portugal.

We privately messaged all of the aforementioned users (with the exception of the YouTube user, whos account did not provide a contact method) to ask about their promotion of false content. We will update this story if we receive more details.

For further reading, we previously reported on false allegations about Savannah Guthrie’s husband, Michael Feldman, being connected to the federal case files on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Sources