The Nancy Guthrie investigation is now in its third week, which means it was only a matter of time before the case piqued the interest of online armchair detectives.

Nancy Guthrie, the mother of Today Show anchor Savannah Guthrie, was reported missing on Feb. 1. In the weeks since, the street outside her home in Tucson, Arizona, has become a destination for true-crime livestreamers.

Online sleuths have dissected the publicly available details of the ongoing case while spreading far-fetched conspiracy theories. Some have filmed themselves driving through Guthrie’s neighborhood. The hashtag #nancyguthrie currently has more than 16,000 posts on TikTok, where users analyze Ring doorbell footage and excerpts from Savannah Guthrie’s 2024 memoir, capitalizing on public interest in the case and often drawing hundreds of thousands of views.

These posts across social media platforms have forced law enforcement to repeatedly set the record straight and dispel rampant rumors and misinformation, particularly as it pertains to Guthrie’s family members.

Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos announced Monday that Guthrie’s children and their spouses had been fully cleared from the investigation. “The family has been nothing but cooperative and gracious and are victims in this case,” Sheriff Chris Nanos said in a statement posted on X.

His statement appeared to indirectly address those speculating online and reporting irresponsibly about the case. Influencer content is, by nature, unwieldy, reactionary, and unbeholden to the same standards as traditional news outlets covering ongoing investigations.

Former Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department Lt. Gil Carrillo told 13 News that online speculation has the potential to inadvertently hinder investigations. “With all of these people that are getting on social media rendering their opinions and their thoughts, investigators have to take time from their investigation and assign people to follow those leads up because they all have to be followed,” Carrillo said. “Every one of them has to be vetted out.”

© Fast Company