Nancy Guthrie’s abduction from her home in the upscale Catalina Foothills north of Tucson, Arizona, shocked the nation.
She's the 84-year-old mother of "Today" show co-host Savannah Guthrie. She's lived in the neighborhood for decades. And it's not known for crime.
Tucson is, however, even as Pima County crime is on the decline.
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Violence is widespread in the city proper, with large encampments where meth and other drugs are readily available and criminals reportedly exploit the city’s free bus system to carry out offenses. These revelations are gaining scrutiny as the search for Guthrie nears the end of its second week, and after surveillance video of a masked suspect on her front steps has led to thousands of tips but no arrests.
Fox News Digital spoke with local business owner Josh Jacobson, who works with the nonprofit Tucson Crime Free Coalition, which advocates for adequate law enforcement staffing and resources, treatment for the needy and prosecution for criminals. Tucson is located in Pima County, and while he describes the county as "a relatively lower crime area," he points to Tucson as the problem.
"It's really the city of Tucson that's where crime spins out of control, and our deputies are really involved trying to push crime back," he said.
Encampments containing drug and criminal activity, according to Jacobson, are located about three miles from Guthrie’s home in the Catalina Foothills.
Fox News Digital took photos of the nearby camps — which contain piles of junk, such as clothes, open containers, boxes, bags and trash.
At the dump site on Thursday, just about three miles from Guthrie's home, Pima County deputies told Fox News Digital they were investigating property theft in the area. They said their work was not connected to her disappearance.
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And with large tracts of government land outside town, there's plenty of room for more camps. One site, near South San Joaquin Road about 14 miles west of the city, is populated with people living out of cars, vans and old RVs.
As a 2020 COVID relief measure, the city of Tucson implemented fare-free transit, as reported in the Arizona Daily Star. While it sounds like a good idea to its supporters, according to Jacobson, it’s contributed to the spread of crime across Tucson and the county.
"It's not just drugs, but it's also organized retail theft. It's burglaries. It's theft. It’s assaults," he said. "There's been a lot of issues that have come because there's no accountability on our bus system."Criminals use the free buses to their advantage, using them as getaway vehicles after robbing a store in the midst of understaffed and under-resourced law enforcement, he told Fox News Digital.
"Folks will actually time the bus so that they can go into a big box store, steal a bunch of merchandise, run out and jump on the bus right as it's pulling up," he said.
The nearest stop to Guthrie's home is about 2.4 miles away, however, and there's speculation among experts that she was forced into a vehicle against her will, making the bus routes unlikely in her case.
While Tucson overall continues to report crime rates above the national average, residents in the Catalina Foothills say their neighborhood has long stood apart.
According to the most recent FBI data, Tucson’s violent crime rate is roughly 589 incidents per 100,000 residents, higher than the U.S. average. The city recorded more than 3,200 violent crimes last year, including aggravated assaults, robberies, rapes and homicides. Property crime remains a broader concern citywide, with rates significantly above the national average and motor vehicle theft ranking among the most common offenses.
But in the Catalina Foothills — an upscale community on the northern edge of Tucson — longtime residents say serious crime is rare.
Catalina Foothills Association Board and Communications Chair Tom Pugh previously told Fox News he has lived in the area for 50 years and had "never heard of any crime like this" in the neighborhood. He described the Foothills as a friendly, comfortable community where neighbors regularly walk, greet one another and know each other by name, adding that past incidents have typically been limited to minor, opportunistic property crimes.
Pugh also said the area is not heavily equipped with surveillance cameras or streetlights — in part because residents value the Foothills’ dark skies and open desert landscape. Large lots, desert trees and space between homes can also limit camera visibility, he noted.
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However, for many residents, calling 911 might mean not seeing an officer for hours, Jacobson said. Nuisance crimes may not even get reported.
Some bus stops are also used as a hub for the distribution of narcotics, with people buying and selling out in the open, in addition to smoking fentanyl or methamphetamines while riding the bus, according to Jacobson.
Tucson is located about 60 miles north of the Mexico-U.S. border. When drugs come across, they first pass through Pima County, before making their way to other parts of the United States, according to Jacobson.
"Pima County is one of the largest drug trafficking corridors in the state," he said.
Despite the prevalence of narcotics crimes, Jacobson alleges that Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos does not want to work with other agencies, including Border Patrol and ICE.
In Guthrie’s case, federal law enforcement sources have voiced frustration with his alleged lack of cooperation — telling Fox News Digital he waited two days to bring the FBI into the investigation and later sending key evidence for testing at a private lab in Florida instead of the FBI’s state-of-the-art facility in Virginia.
Meanwhile, as the Guthrie family recording a video response to a purported ransom demand last week, Nanos attended an NCAA basketball game.
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