TUCSON, Ariz. — A retired FBI agent has laid out a new theory about the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, suggesting the 84-year-old mother of "Today" co-anchor Savannah Guthrie was taken in a kidnapping-for-ransom plot that unraveled within days, possibly ending in her death from natural causes.

Frank Storey outlined the theory during an appearance on "True Crime With Jen Coffindaffer," a podcast hosted by fellow retired FBI special agent Jennifer Coffindaffer, on Sept. 2, seven months after Guthrie vanished from her Catalina Foothills home near Tucson. Storey suggested Guthrie may have suffered a fatal heart attack a day or two after being seized, though he stressed his account remains speculation rather than a confirmed finding, and investigators have not endorsed it. No suspects have been named, and authorities have not said whether Guthrie is alive or dead.

Storey pushed back against suggestions that the case has gone cold, arguing that senior bureau agents remain actively assigned to it and that a resolution is likely given his belief that more than one person was involved in the abduction. He said he expects the case to eventually break through the plea-bargaining system, predicting that if one of the participants is........

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