Tucson residents have been visiting the makeshift tribute site in front of the home of Nancy Guthrie, who has been missing for two weeks, leaving flowers, notes and even a cherub as they hope for her safe return.
Eduardo Ortiz, a local resident, said he felt compelled to pay his respects. “We’ve been following the story on the news and we feel bad, our hearts are really, really down,” Ortiz told CNN. “We see (Savannah Guthrie) every day on the ‘Today’ show and she’s part of our family on the show, so we felt that we had to come out here.”
Ortiz expressed anger and sorrow over Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance: “I don’t understand it. Why would somebody want to hurt somebody like that?”
“I hope they find her alive, and I hope they find her healthy and they get the guy that did this to her,” he said.
Susie Gray, who lives just four miles from Guthrie’s home, was seen placing a cherub from her garden at the tribute site. “It’s supposed to bring peace and protection,” she told CNN. “I know how Savannah and Nancy have so much faith in their God … I just want them to know how much we all love them and how Tucson has pulled together for them.”
Gray described the pain of watching the case unfold so close to home and said she has “felt so hopeless.”
On Saturday, a neighbor who says her mother played mahjong with Nancy Guthrie lit candles and laid mahjong tiles at the tribute site by Nancy’s mailbox.
“It’s just kind of an unfathomable horror, I just can’t imagine what the family is going through,” the neighbor said. “It’s pretty shocking, this is a really quiet neighborhood.”
Residents like Ortiz and Gray continue to plead for answers, their frustration mounting as the search stretches into its 14th day, describing the wait as emotionally devastating.
“We want her home,” Gray said. “I wish we could get some sign of what’s going on, some clue, some big clue.”