Geofencing is a tool now in the toolbelt of North Carolina Missing Persons to help drill down and alert a small geographic area quickly to a person's disappearance.
As Savannah Guthrie shares her heartbreak this evening in an emotional interview, there are still so many questions around Nancy Guthrie’s apparent abduction. She still has not been found since her family reported her missing Feb. 1.
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In North Carolina, advocates hope the use of geofencing technology could help spare other families from the pain of losing a loved one.
On a Friday afternoon, Keva Lynch is about to hit the road with her mother and is picking up a few snacks for their trip. Like many of us, she has followed Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance.
"I know if it was my mom right now, I probably wouldn't be in a good state of mind. Because one, you know, you're home, and then all of a sudden, you're gone," she said empathizing with the Guthrie family.
We told her about new technology in North Carolina that is helping find seniors and other vulnerable people like autistic kids faster by sending emergency alerts only to those nearby.
"Now we have the ability to geo-fence within a one mile radius. So if we have a feeling that they're somewhere inside a house or apartment complex, we can put it just in that apartment complex," said Morrissa Ahl-Moyer.
She is the clearing manager behind North Carolina Missing persons – responsible for sending alerts to our phones. Drilling down to alerting just a neighborhood or community has expedited finding missing people, she said.
"What it does is it kind of issues a call to action, instead of just seeing it and going, this is a disruption. We know they can be disruptive, but it gives them something to where it's like, this is not only in your area, this is in your neighborhood. This is right next door to you," she said of the alert's effect.
It makes sense to Lynch that as technology improves, so too can the systems we use to find those we love.
"If you have something more direct than you know, you tend to hopefully find them more quickly than versus Mrs. Guthrie, who's been missing for what now weeks," she said.
It is technology we'll likely see used more frequently as it is used and improved with trial and error.
Guthrie's presumed abduction and disappearance has had a ripple effect on missing persons cases nationwide. In July 2025, North Carolina became one of a few states that opted to join a national network created after Ashanti Billie’s abduction.
"She was kidnapped in Virginia. She was taken to to North Carolina, outside of Charlotte, and she was murdered, and the family realized then that we don't have anything that brings awareness to adult abductions," Ahl-Moyer said.
The Ashanti Act allows law enforcement to share case details with other states relevant to the investigation, like suspect descriptions.
"So an adult abduction between 18-64, if we have suspect or abductor information, we put it out almost as almost to the point that we do in an AMBER [alert,] but we have a lot more alerting options now, and if nothing else, just to get the word out that the adult has been abducted," Ahl-Moyer said.
Comparatively, she said North Carolina has more tools in its belt to help recover missing people quickly than some other states.
