TUCSON, AZ. – It’s just past 7 p.m. In the Catalina Foothills, not far from where authorities say "Today" show co-host Savannah Guthrie’s mother was apparently kidnapped, and already it’s pitch black.
There are no streetlights. Nobody is out walking on darkened residential roads, which wind past the muted lights on adobe walls of the upscale homes tucked among mesquite trees that perfume the desert air. And above the dark silhouettes of giant saguaro, a sky unimpeded by light.
It's a neighborhood whose rural nature in a celebrated dark-sky region may have helped shroud what is suspected to be the abduction for ransom of the octogenarian Nancy Guthrie, 84, on Jan. 31.
Still, the home had multiple security cameras and more than a dozen outdoor light fixtures. Other homes in the area had cameras too. Yet so far, despite ongoing efforts, authorities said on Feb. 5 that no camera footage has yet led police to identify a vehicle or a suspect.
How could a possible kidnapper escape unseen at a time when everything from home surveillance cameras to license-plate reading technology to biometric facial recognition seem to be everywhere in America?
