An anthropologist says the skeleton discovered near Savannah Guthrie’s missing mother’s home in early May may be 1,000 years old.

Expert weighs in on human remains found near Nancy Guthrie’s house as search for her continues

An anthropologist says the skeleton discovered near Savannah Guthrie's missing mother's home in early May may be 1,000 years old.

By Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at **. He began writing for EW in 2022.

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May 30, 2026 12:08 p.m. ET

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Nancy Guthrie in New York City on April 17, 2019; Nancy Guthrie's home in Tucson, Ariz., on March 2, 2026. Credit:

Nathan Congleton/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty; Justin Sullivan/Getty

- A human skeleton was discovered around seven miles from Nancy Guthrie's home in Pima County, Ariz.

- Anthropologist James T. Watson says the skeleton may be 1,000 years old.

- The human remains are not related to any criminal investigation in the area.

New information about the human remains found near Nancy Guthrie's home is coming to light.

Three weeks after a human bone was discovered around seven miles from the house of Savannah Guthrie's missing 84-year-old mother in Pima County, Ariz., an anthropologist has offered his perspective on the situation.

James T. Watson, a professor of anthropology at the University of Arizona, told Fox News Digital that when he responded to the scene where the bone was initially found, a human skeleton was discovered, not just a single bone.

Watson estimated that the bones were buried between several hundred and 1,000 years ago. "Whether it is a thousand years old or 50 years old, these are human remains," he said.

Savannah Guthrie/Instagram

The academic also reported that ceramic artifacts were found near the remains, and that the scene was not far from a known archaeological site.

"All of that contextual evidence allowed me to be pretty sure that this individual was in fact Native American," Watson explained. "The ceramics really sort of drove home that point."

He also noted that the ceramics are consistent with previously discovered artifacts found in the area.

Watson was not that surprised to find the human remains. "The desert there is a pretty harsh environment, and obviously it's been settled for hundreds, thousands of years," he said. "There are literally probably hundreds of bodies that are discovered every year out in the desert."

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He told Fox News that the remains have been transferred to the Tohono O'odham Nation, who have a reservation west of Tucson. "There [are] a lot of places [where] an individual could get lost or pass away — or hide a body," Watson said. "I think ... as people start to poke into some of these crevices that don't normally get poked into across the desert, they're likely to find more individuals."

The Tucson Police Department previously said the first bone was found near North Craycroft Road and East River Road, but authorities determined that the remains were part of a "prehistoric anthropological investigation" unrelated to any criminal case.

Watson clarified that the remains were deemed "prehistoric" because "prehistoric" is the designation given to any period before written language emerged.

Savannah Guthrie and her mother, Nancy Guthrie.

Savannah Guthrie/Instagram

Savannah Guthrie's mom was last seen on the evening of Jan. 31 after her family dropped her off at her home near Tucson. She was reported missing the next day after she did not show up at a friend's house for a virtual church service.

On Feb. 2, a public information officer told * *that authorities in Pima County suspected that a crime had been committed. "At this point, investigators believe she was taken from the home against her will, possibly in the middle of the night," they said. "Taken against her will includes possible kidnapping or abduction."

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The Pima County Sheriff's Department and the FBI have revealed their discovery of gloves, surveillance images, and more, but no suspects have been announced as the search for the *Today *host's mother continues.

On May 18, the Pima County sheriff, Chris Nanos, who has spearheaded the investigation, told PEOPLE that he is no longer in contact with Guthrie's family, as he said that her relatives are communicating with other investigators working on the case.

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