Police in Phoenix have identified the woman found dead near a canal on Friday as 42-year-old Alex Fleming, ruling out speculation that the victim was Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of Today presenter Savannah Guthrie, who vanished from her Tucson home on 1 February and has now been missing for 37 days. Phoenix police said Fleming had signs of trauma and was pronounced dead at the scene, while homicide detectives opened a separate investigation into her death.
Questions about the Phoenix discovery surfaced because it was made more than 100 miles from Tucson, where Nancy Guthrie is believed to have been abducted in the early hours of 1 February. The Pima County Sheriff's Department, which is leading the Nancy Guthrie inquiry, said it had not been alerted to any connection between the two cases, a point worth underlining given how quickly rumour has filled the gaps left by a slow and often uneasy investigation.
As of March 9, 2026. Phoenix Canal update: Alex Fleming, 42-year-old woman. Still no suspects. No cause. Homicide team on it. If you saw anything Friday AM near 28th & Oak, contact Phoenix Police. Cameras caught nothing… yet. #PhoenixCanal” pic.twitter.com/jJ3bEA9qKL
— Vijay Singh (@vijsingh_USA) March 9, 2026
Nancy Guthrie Case Draws Another Hard Line Between Fact And Speculation
Fleming's death is being investigated in Phoenix, and Nancy Guthrie remains a missing person in a separate Tucson case involving the Pima County Sheriff's Department, the FBI and a flood of tips that, so far, have not produced a named suspect.
That distinction matters because the Guthrie investigation has attracted intense scrutiny and no shortage of online conjecture. Authorities have said Nancy Guthrie has not been seen or heard from since she is believed to have been taken from her home, and investigators have worked through doorbell footage showing a masked man on her porch as well as thousands of leads generated over the past five weeks. None of that, at least on the record, ties the Phoenix canal death to her disappearance.
The longer the case runs, the more every fresh fragment starts to look like an answer. That is understandable, but it is not the same thing as evidence. On the information now in public, nothing confirms that Nancy Guthrie is dead, and nothing confirms that the woman found in Phoenix had any link to her case at all, so claims beyond that should be treated with a good deal of caution.
Nancy Guthrie Search Grinds On As Investigators Chase Forensic Leads
What has kept the case alive, and frustratingly unresolved, is the amount of material investigators say they are still processing. Sheriff Chris Nanos said in February that some DNA evidence collected from Nancy Guthrie's home could take up to 'a year' to analyse, describing a forensic backlog and complications with mixed or incomplete samples. That is a striking timeline in any missing person inquiry, not least one this visible.
Even so, Nanos has argued that the investigation is moving forward. In an interview aired on 3 March, he said investigators were 'definitely closer' to identifying and locating a suspect or suspects, adding that they had accumulated 'a lot of intel' and 'a lot of leads'. It was the sort of assurance families cling to and outsiders learn to read carefully.
Another thread now under review is a damaged utility box near Nancy Guthrie's home. Investigators have said they are examining whether it may be connected to an internet disruption in the area around the time she disappeared, which in turn may have affected nearby surveillance and video recordings. If that line of inquiry produces anything useful, it could help explain why a case awash with public attention has yielded so little certainty.
The family's response has also reflected that harsh shift from hope to endurance. Nancy Guthrie's relatives have offered up to $1 million for information leading to her recovery, while authorities continue to insist they are pursuing leads with specialist investigators and federal support. For now, though, the most important update is also the simplest one. The woman found near the Phoenix canal was Alex Fleming, not Nancy Guthrie, and the question hanging over Savannah Guthrie's mother has still not been answered.
