“Frustrating” Delays in Nancy Guthrie Case Strike a Nerve With Gabby Petito’s Father

The father of Gabby Petito has said Nancy Guthrie’s family is dealing with the same “frustrating” false leads and dead ends that he had to deal with when his tragic daughter vanished.

Father Joe Petito recounted how encouraging it was when his family received the public’s support during the hunt for Gabby, but how quickly false information could spread.

“It’s humbling to see so many people try and help your family … but it’s also frustrating because a lot of times the information that’s out there, if someone does a bad report and doesn’t give accurate information, a lot of the times, other people just copy and paste it, and next thing you know, something is out there that is not true at all,” Joe Petito empathized on Fox & Friends on Thursday morning.

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Gabby Petito’s father said Nancy Guthrie’s family is dealing with the same “frustrating” false leads and dead ends that he had to deal with when his late daughter went missing.Courtesy Petito Family

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Long Island travel vlogger Gabby was 22 when she disappeared in August 2021 in Wyoming, where she was living in a van with her fiancé, Brian Laundrie.

Laundrie was discovered to have murdered Gabby before taking his own life in September 2021.

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Joe offered his advice to Nancy’s family, including her daughter, “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie, as the search for the missing 84-year-old enters its 12th day.

“I just hope that they’re taking their time and listening to each other,” he said. “Because a lot of outside influence will try to give an opinion or something along those lines, and they’re [the family] are the only ones who have all the information, or as much as possible.”

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Joe Petito offered his advice to Savannah Guthrie and her family as the search for the missing 84-year-old enters its 12th day.©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection

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Savannah Guthrie with her mother, Nancy Guthrie, on the set of the Today show.Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images
Other crime experts have also drawn parallels between Gabby’s case and Nancy’s disappearance, particularly with regard to the flood of social media posts, which can both help and hinder investigations.

“More people are aware; it keeps people alert. If they know she hasn’t been found yet, perhaps people will remember that and if they see something, they might say something,” former NYPD detective and adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Michael Alcazar, told the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

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“I think it’s just something that we have to adapt to as far as law enforcement. The true crime community is growing,” he added. “There’s a lot of people out there that want to help.”

It comes as the FBI revealed it is using Next Generation Identification (NGI) software to help crack the case.

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Nancy Guthrie, mother of “Today” show anchor Savannah Guthrie, disappeared from her Arizona home on Feb. 1, 2026.Courtesy NBC Universal

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FBI search North Campbell Ave, close to Nancy Guthrie’s home in Tucson, AZ, on Wednesday, February 11th.
Andy Johnstone for NY Post
Although no estimated height or weight has yet been offered for the suspect seen on surveillance footage outside Nancy’s house on the night of her disappearance, NGI software allows law enforcement to build astonishingly accurate profiles of any individual they want.

Authorities can use a captured image of a suspect and “run it through a large database to find a potential match,” cybersecurity expert Eric O’Neill told Fox News on Thursday.

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Factors such as the distance between the suspect’s eyes, their nose shape under the ski mask, as well as the depth and width of their face can all be used by NGI to compile a profile, O’Neill explained.