'America’s Most Wanted' co-host Callahan Walsh reveals what 'sticks out' to him in Nancy Guthrie case
TUCSON, Ariz. — ‘America’s Most Wanted' co-host Callahan Walsh, who works closely on many missing persons cases, told Fox News Digital there’s "a lot that sticks out" in the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie.
He said that the fact that investigators haven’t found her yet makes it "very much a unique case." He also stated that not many seniors go missing and that they usually wander off or get in the car and aren’t able to navigate back home.
"The way this investigation has ebbed and flowed, it’s gone from hot, to cold, to hot [and] back to cold again," Walsh said. "Our hope is that Nancy is found alive [and] that she is brought home and reunited with her family."
Walsh’s brother, Adam Walsh, was kidnapped and brutally murdered in 1981 at 6 years old. Callahan Walsh now co-hosts ‘America’s Most Wanted', the well-known, true-crime television show, with his father, John Walsh. He said his parents felt that "not knowing was the hardest part" after his brother vanished.
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"The two weeks that we looked for Adam, my parents couldn’t sleep. They would do anything to get Adam back, and we know what the Guthrie family is going through," Walsh said.
Walsh also serves as the executive director of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and said he's thankful that, amid her family's pain, Savannah Guthrie is willing to help others. The NBC "Today" co-host pledged $500,000 to the NCMEC, a donation that Walsh said "means everything" to the nonprofit.
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"Children are our most vulnerable population, but they’re our most important population. They’re our future," Walsh said. "Thanks to the generous donation… we can stand by more families."
Savannah Guthrie announced she was making the pledge in an Instagram video posted on Tuesday, Feb. 24.
"We also know that we are not alone in our loss," she said in the video. "We know there are millions of families that have suffered with this kind of uncertainty."
Walsh said that as a nonprofit, this donation allows them to "better serve the families and the children that [their] mission is out there to do."
He added: "Not only will this money go directly to the programs that help bring these kids home, but will also go to raise awareness on other cases that aren’t getting the attention they deserve."
Savannah Guthrie also offered a family reward of up to $1 million for the recovery of her mother Nancy, after consultation with law enforcement.
Walsh said that this reward may be "the motivating factor" that gets a person to come forward with new, credible information to law enforcement.
"This amount of money is life-changing. This could really get somebody to second guess why they’ve not been truthful about what they know and could be the reason that they finally come forward with that piece of information that the family is desperate for, that law enforcement is desperate for," Walsh said. "Information that could absolutely lead to not only Nancy’s recovery, but the apprehension of the suspects as well."
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Walsh said sifting through the tips can be a challenge, but they often tip the scales in a case.
"They’ve helped us recover nearly 1,200 fugitives, the worst of the worst… and it’s because of the public tips that have been provided," Walsh said. "I always say, it’s like looking for a needle in a stack of needles."
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He explained that it’s better to have more tips than to have no tips at all.
"As tiny as you might think it is, it might be that little bit of the puzzle that law enforcement has been looking for this whole time," Walsh told Fox News Digital.
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The NCMEC works with victims, their families and law enforcement, among others, to not only find missing children, but to also stop "child sexual exploitation" and "child victimization."
Walsh told Fox News Digital the group has helped recover more than 450,000 children since its inception and has various resources such as support groups and case managers. The group had a 91% recovery rate in 2024 for all cases reported to them, according to its website.
Nancy Guthrie was last seen on Jan. 31 and has since been missing after she vanished from her Catalina Foothills home in Tucson, Ariz.
Police have not identified any person of interest, despite releasing Nest camera footage from her home.
"We know her family will never give up hope," Walsh said. "We will never give up hope and law enforcement won’t either."
Anyone with information in the case is asked to dial 1-800-CALL-FBI.