Savannah Guthrie's Mom Nancy, 84, Was 'Vulnerable' to Attack, Says Ex-FBI Agent in Chilling Update

The search for Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of Savannah Guthrie, continues as the case enters its fifth week. Now, a former FBI agent is pointing to a troubling detail that may have left Nancy especially exposed the night she disappeared.

During a Sunday, March 8, episode of “Brian Entin Investigates,” reporter Brian Entin spoke with former FBI special agents Maureen O'Connell and Jim Clemente about the ongoing mystery. While discussing several possibilities surrounding Nancy’s disappearance — including the potential for elder abuse — Jim highlighted one detail he believes could have made her more helpless.

“I think she also had hearing issues and pretty powerful hearing aids that she probably removed at night,” he pointed out. “Which makes her even more vulnerable.”

Maureen then shared her own theory about what might have happened during the suspected encounter.

“I think also, the altercation, quote unquote, could have happened if she obviously had her hearing aids out, and they [the suspects] were giving her commands, and she could respond. Because she didn’t know what they were saying,” she suggested.

She added, “It’s so sad.”

Another expert also raised concerns about what Nancy may have experienced that night. Sleep expert Pat Byrne recently warned that the sudden shock of an overnight disturbance could have posed serious health risks for the elderly woman.

Nancy is known to have a heart condition and uses a pacemaker, which experts said may have made the situation even more dangerous.

“So what I started to think about was what’s going on in her brain? What sleep stage was she at? And how did that affect her emotions and her thought process once she woke up? So our human brains do not go from fully asleep to fully awake,” he told former prosecutor Nancy Grace on the “Crime Stories” podcast.

“There’s this process, and it’s called sleep inertia. There’s this process of waking up. And that depends partly on how you’re woken up and what sleep stage you’re at. So, at 2 a.m., [Nancy Guthrie] was probably either in a very deep sleep or in what’s called REM sleep, which is rapid-eyed movement sleep, which is where we dream. And the interesting thing about that is if she were in a deep sleep, then she would be incredibly confused," Pat explained.

According to Pat, the intense confusion caused by sleep inertia — combined with the strain on Nancy’s heart and pacemaker — may have dramatically increased the risk of a medical emergency during the encounter.

“That concerned me immediately,” he said.

“The research just shows that elderly people who, even without heart conditions, are at a high risk of heart attacks and being violently woken up from a deep sleep. So that’s what the scientific research shows. And so you add on the fact that she has a pacemaker, which means she has a heart condition, makes it worse," Pat speculated.