TUCSON, AZ. — A missing octogenarian. A ransom demand. A frantic race against time.
Those elements of the high-profile search for “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie’s 84-year-old mother in Arizona are familiar echoes for former FBI agent Katherine Schweit.
Almost exactly 23 years ago, she was investigating the case of an 88-year-old Wisconsin grandmother Hedwig Braun, who had been taken in the middle of the night. Schweit said Braun was thrown in the trunk of a car and later kept chained in a snowmobile trailer.
Five days later, she was found alive – and authorities arrested a local suspect who was familiar with the family and her grandson’s construction company, abducting her to get $3 million ransom.
Now, as investigators searching for Nancy Guthrie focus on possible leads, Schweit and several other former FBI agents say the details released so far suggest the perpetrator likely had prior knowledge of the home or family, and a financial rather than ideological motivation for the crime. At the same time, investigators face challenges including verifying ransom demands in the digital age.
