Former FBI agent says Nancy Guthrie’s Apple Watch holds clues to what happened before her abduction

A former FBI agent says Nancy Guthrie’s Apple Watch data could show possible distress, movement, or a struggle before investigators say her pacemaker app disconnected overnight.

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ON FEBRUARY 11TH. WE ARE AT AN HOUR OF DESPERATION. AND WE NEED YOUR HELP RIGHT NOW. THE SEARCH FOR NANCY GUTHRIE IS WELL INTO A SECOND WEEK, AS HER DAUGHTER TODAY SHOW HOST SAVANNAH GUTHRIE SHARED A NEW MESSAGE ON SOCIAL MEDIA PLEADING FOR ANYONE WITH INFORMATION TO PLEASE COME FORWARD. THE 84 YEAR OLD NANCY GUTHRIE WAS FORCIBLY TAKEN FROM HER HOME IN TUCSON. THEY HAVE NO NAMED SUSPECTS IN THIS CASE. COMES AS AN APPARENT DEADLINE TO PAY LAID OUT AN ALLEGED RANSOM MESSAGE, SET TO EXPIRE IN ABOUT AN HOUR, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER TERRI PARKER IS JOINING US NOW IN THE STUDIO. TERRY, YOU SPOKE TO A LOCAL RETIRED FBI AGENT ABOUT THIS CASE. HE SAYS NANCY GUTHRIE’S APPLE WATCH CAN TELL INVESTIGATORS A LOT MORE THAN JUST WHAT IT DISCONNECTED FROM HER PACEMAKER. RIGHT. THIS IS REALLY INTERESTING TO ME BECAUSE I NEVER EVEN THOUGHT ABOUT THIS PART OF IT. IF YOU HAVE AN APPLE WATCH, YOU KNOW THAT IT TRACKS ALL KINDS OF THINGS ABOUT YOU THROUGHOUT THE DAY AND NIGHT AS YOU SLEEP, AND THEN IT GOES TO YOUR HEALTH APP ON YOUR IPHONE. THIS KIND OF INFORMATION COULD GIVE INVESTIGATORS A LOT OF INFORMATION ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED LEADING UP TO NANCY GUTHRIE’S DISAPPEARANCE. NANCY GUTHRIE WAS KNOWN TO WEAR HER APPLE WATCH, AND SHE ALSO USED AN APP CONNECTED TO HER PACEMAKER, GUTHRIE’S WATCH AND PHONE WERE FOUND LEFT BEHIND IN HER TUCSON HOME. POLICE SAY THAT APP SHOWED HER PACEMAKER DISCONNECTED FROM HER PHONE AROUND 230 IN THE MORNING. SHE WAS ABDUCTED, GIVING A SIGNIFICANT TIMELINE CLUE. BUT RETIRED FBI AGENT JOHN MCVEIGH TELLS ME THE WATCH ALSO WOULD HAVE SHOWN IF GUTHRIE’S HEART RATE SPED UP, OR IF SHE WERE RUNNING OR FIGHTING, OR OTHERWISE AGITATED, EVEN TAKING A HARD FALL EARLIER IN THE EVENING WHEN SHE WAS WEARING IT. WHAT DID SHE DO FROM THAT 930 10:00 TIME UNTIL 2:00, WHEN THE PACEMAKER STOPPED, YOU KNOW, WAS THERE, YOU KNOW, WAS THERE SOME KIND OF. INCREASED HEART RATE, YOU KNOW, DO YOU SEE HER MAKING, YOU KNOW, 30 OR 40 STEPS RUNNING OR IS THERE SOMETHING ELSE GOING ON OR, YOU KNOW, DID SHE JUST GO TO BED? AND THEN SOMEONE WOKE HER UP. MCVEIGH ALSO DOES NOT BELIEVE THE RANSOM NOTES ARE LEGITIMATE. HE SAYS HE’S SEEN IT HAPPEN MANY TIMES IN MISSING PERSONS CASES. SOMEONE TRYING TO PROFIT FROM THE FAMILY’S HEARTBREAK, BUT WHO REALLY HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE CASE. YOU KNOW, THIS IS PROBABLY SOMEBODY SITTING IN INDIA OR RUSSIA OR PAKISTAN OR OR SOME OTHER CHINA THAT ARE SENDING THESE OUT, YOU KNOW, LOOKING TO THINK THAT, WELL, MAYBE THEY’LL THEY’LL SEND US SOME MONEY. MCVEIGH SAYS INVESTIGATORS HAVE TO TAKE IT SERIOUSLY, THOUGH, JUST IN CASE. HE SAYS THE FBI LIKELY HAS ONE TEAM WORKING THE ALLEGED RANSOM DEMANDS AND ANOTHER TEAM DOING THE INVESTIGATION INTO THE ACTUAL ABDUCTION. AND HE STILL BELIEVES THE MAIN CLUES MUST BE IN GUTHRIE’S HOUSE, WHICH THE SHERIFF IMMEDIATELY CALLED A CRIME SCENE. LIKE WHAT? WHAT CRIME SCENE IS IT? BLOOD ALL OVER THE PLACE. DID THEY DO LUMINOL, YOU KNOW, IS THERE WAS THE PLACE RANSACKED? YOU KNOW, OR IS IT JUST IN ONE SPOT IN THE HOUSE WHERE THERE APPEARS TO BE SOME KIND OF STRUGGLE? OR THERE’S, YOU KNOW, IF YOU’RE A PERSON WHO, YOU KNOW, YOU’RE THE BURGLAR AND YOU COME UPON HER AND THERE’S A FIGHT, YOU’RE NOT GOING TO TAKE HER AFTER YOU KILL HER OR AFTER YOU HARM HER, YOU’RE GOING TO LEAVE. YOU’RE GOING TO GET OUT OF THERE. SO YOU KNOW, THE PROBABILITY OF THIS JUST BEING SOME RANDOM BURGLARY, I DON’T BELIEVE. I THINK THERE’S SOMETHING ELSE MORE TO IT. AND MCVEIGH ALSO SAYS THAT INVESTIGATORS LIKELY HAVE A WHOLE LOT OF INFORMATION THEY ARE NOT SHARING WITH US. FOR EXAMPLE, THEY PROBABLY DO HAVE RING CAMERA VIDEO FROM NEIGHBORS AT BOTH SCENES. NOT ONLY NANCY GUTHRIE’S, BUT HER DAUGHTER ANNIE’S HOUSE. THEY’VE GOT RING CAMERAS FROM NEIGHBORS ALL AROUND THERE. THEY MAY BE TRACKING SUSPECT CARS. THEY’RE PUTTING TOGETHER A LOT OF INFORMATION. AND AS WE KNOW, ANNIE’S HOUSE HAS BEEN SEARCHED AT LEAST TWICE NOW BY INVESTIGATORS. SO A LOT GOING ON, A LOT OF MOVING PIECES. AN

A clue saying a lot more than it seems may have been sitting right in Nancy Guthrie’s bedroom.Investigators have said Guthrie’s pacemaker app showed a key moment in the hours surrounding her disappearance: the pacemaker connection to her phone disconnected around 2:30 a.m., a timeline detail law enforcement has pointed to in the abduction investigation.But a retired FBI agent told sister station WPBF the Apple Watch Guthrie was known to wear could offer investigators even more, including signs of distress, movement, or a fight long before that 2:30 a.m. disconnect.Authorities say Guthrie’s watch and phone were found left behind inside her Tucson home. Retired FBI agent John McVeigh said that matters because the watch can capture health and activity signals even when someone is not actively using it and transmit them directly to the iPhone Health app.McVeigh said investigators would want to know what the watch reveals in the hours before the pacemaker connection dropped.“What does she do from that 9:30 to 10 o’clock time until two when the pacemaker stopped,” McVeigh said. “Was there some kind of increased heart rate? Do you see her making 30 or 40 steps, or does she just go to bed and somebody woke her up?”’I believe the ransom notes are bogus’McVeigh also questioned the legitimacy of ransom notes tied to the case, saying missing person investigations often attract scammers trying to exploit families desperate for answers.“This is probably somebody sitting in India or Russia or Pakistan or some other China that are sending these out,” McVeigh said, “looking to think that, well, maybe they’ll send us some money.”He said investigators still have to take any threat or demand seriously until it is fully vetted, and he believes the FBI would likely split the workload with one team tracking the alleged ransom demands and another focused on the abduction itself.The crime scene is key McVeigh said he still believes the most important answers are likely inside Guthrie’s home, which the sheriff quickly treated as a crime scene.“Like what? What crime scene is it? Blood all over the place. Did they do luminol?” McVeigh said. “Is there a place ransacked? Or is it just in one spot in the house where there appears to be some kind of struggle?”McVeigh said he does not believe a random burglary explains what happened.“If you’re the burglar and you come upon her and there’s a fight, you’re not going to take her,” he said. “The probability of this just being some random burglary, I don’t believe. I think there’s something else more to it.”Investigators have not publicly said what, if anything, they have recovered from Guthrie’s Apple Watch data. McVeigh said if the watch recorded a spike in heart rate, unusual movement, or signs of agitation, it could help narrow the window of when something went wrong and whether there was a struggle inside the house.

A clue saying a lot more than it seems may have been sitting right in Nancy Guthrie’s bedroom.

Investigators have said Guthrie’s pacemaker app showed a key moment in the hours surrounding her disappearance: the pacemaker connection to her phone disconnected around 2:30 a.m., a timeline detail law enforcement has pointed to in the abduction investigation.

But a retired FBI agent told sister station WPBF the Apple Watch Guthrie was known to wear could offer investigators even more, including signs of distress, movement, or a fight long before that 2:30 a.m. disconnect.

Authorities say Guthrie’s watch and phone were found left behind inside her Tucson home. Retired FBI agent John McVeigh said that matters because the watch can capture health and activity signals even when someone is not actively using it and transmit them directly to the iPhone Health app.

McVeigh said investigators would want to know what the watch reveals in the hours before the pacemaker connection dropped.

“What does she do from that 9:30 to 10 o’clock time until two when the pacemaker stopped,” McVeigh said. “Was there some kind of increased heart rate? Do you see her making 30 or 40 steps, or does she just go to bed and somebody woke her up?”

‘I believe the ransom notes are bogus’

McVeigh also questioned the legitimacy of ransom notes tied to the case, saying missing person investigations often attract scammers trying to exploit families desperate for answers.

“This is probably somebody sitting in India or Russia or Pakistan or some other China that are sending these out,” McVeigh said, “looking to think that, well, maybe they’ll send us some money.”

He said investigators still have to take any threat or demand seriously until it is fully vetted, and he believes the FBI would likely split the workload with one team tracking the alleged ransom demands and another focused on the abduction itself.

The crime scene is key

McVeigh said he still believes the most important answers are likely inside Guthrie’s home, which the sheriff quickly treated as a crime scene.

“Like what? What crime scene is it? Blood all over the place. Did they do luminol?” McVeigh said. “Is there a place ransacked? Or is it just in one spot in the house where there appears to be some kind of struggle?”

McVeigh said he does not believe a random burglary explains what happened.

“If you’re the burglar and you come upon her and there’s a fight, you’re not going to take her,” he said. “The probability of this just being some random burglary, I don’t believe. I think there’s something else more to it.”

Investigators have not publicly said what, if anything, they have recovered from Guthrie’s Apple Watch data. McVeigh said if the watch recorded a spike in heart rate, unusual movement, or signs of agitation, it could help narrow the window of when something went wrong and whether there was a struggle inside the house.