The fact that more than $1.2 million in combined reward money remains unclaimed nearly six months after the suspected abduction of Nancy Guthrie suggests that whoever was involved likely came from a small, tightly bound group, according to a retired FBI negotiator closely following the case.

Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of “Today” show co-host Savannah Guthrie, disappeared from her home in Tucson, Arizona’s Catalina Foothills neighborhood on the morning of Feb. 1. Jason Pack, a retired FBI supervisory agent and negotiator who spent 21 years with the bureau, 11 of them as a negotiator, said the untouched reward money speaks directly to the nature of whoever may have been involved. “That tells me the circle who knows is very small, and whoever is in it is bound by something stronger than money: blood, fear, shared exposure,” Pack said. “Those bonds hold. Until they don’t.”

Pack said the psychology behind unclaimed reward money in cases like this is well established. The more people who possess knowledge of a crime, he explained, the more likely it becomes that someone eventually comes forward to claim the payout. With 179 days having passed since Guthrie’s suspected abduction without a single claim on the reward, Pack said that absence itself functions as a meaningful investigative clue rather than a dead end. “Money like that usually pulls somebody loose from almost any group,” Pack told Fox News Digital. “It hasn’t.”

Rather than viewing the lack of a claim as discouraging, Pack said his experience investigating similar cases suggests these situations often eventually break open unexpectedly. “In my experience, a meaningful share of cases like this break sideways,” he said. “Somebody gets arrested for something unrelated and starts talking. A relationship ends badly. Somebody’s conscience finally outruns their fear. Six months is a long time to hold something this heavy, and the people around whoever did this have had six months to notice the change in them.”

Pack also offered an assessment of how the crime itself appears to have unfolded based on publicly known details. At least one suspect is believed to have cased Guthrie’s home in advance of the abduction. Whoever entered the property wore a ski mask, long sleeves and gloves, and deliberately covered the lens of Guthrie’s Nest doorbell camera, which investigators found missing when they arrived at the scene the following day. Pack said the overall pattern of evidence suggests an operation that went wrong quickly and was never adequately planned for that possibility. “When it went wrong, and I believe it went wrong fast, they had no plan for that either,” he said. “Everything since reads to me like improvising around a failure, not professionals executing a plan.”

Guthrie relies on heart medication and has a pacemaker, along with limited mobility, according to details about her health that have been shared publicly since her disappearance. Pack emphasized the human stakes behind the ongoing investigation. “She had dinner with her family on a Saturday night, went home, and never made it to church the next morning,” Pack said. “That’s who we’re talking about. Not a case number. A mother who was supposed to be at church.”

Despite the mistakes Pack believes the suspects made during the crime, he said that does not mean the broader investigation has stalled. Pack offered specific guidance for residents in the neighborhoods surrounding Guthrie’s home who may hold relevant, unreviewed evidence. “Go back and check your own cameras from that time period. Doorbell, security, dashcam,” he said. “A lot of systems archive further back than people realize. If you drove through the area that night, pull your dashcam files.” He added that people who witnessed something suspicious but lack video evidence should still come forward. “And think about the people in your own life. Somebody who left town. Somebody whose behavior turned in February and never turned back,” he said. “You don’t have to be sure. That’s not your job. Sorting it out is [the investigators’ job].”

A source with knowledge of the investigation told Fox News Digital in May that the FBI was incorporating new technology into its ongoing work on the case. Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos, whose department remains the lead agency on the investigation, reiterated his confidence that the case will ultimately be resolved during a recent interview that aired on “Today.” “We have so much DNA to sort through,” Nanos said. “We have so much, in terms of video evidence, to look at.”

Pack noted that investigators have likely developed significant insight from forensic evidence gathered over the past six months that has not yet been made public. Drawing on his own experience with long-running cases, he said extended timelines do not necessarily signal that a case will remain unsolved. “I’ve watched cases break in month eight, month 14, month 30,” Pack said. “Most every one of those families had stopped believing it was ever coming.”

Authorities continue to ask anyone with information related to Guthrie’s disappearance to contact the FBI directly at 1-800-CALL-FBI. A separate anonymous tip line, reachable at 520-88-CRIME, remains active for residents who wish to provide information that could lead to an arrest in the case while maintaining their anonymity.

The parent company of Taco Bell released its quarterly earnings report on Thursday and said that Taco Bell sales fell amid the cyclospora outbreak, though there were early signs of recovery in the last week.

Yum Brands – which operates fast-food chains like KFC and Pizza Hut as well as Taco Bell – said the Mexican-style chain’s sales were down 2% quarter to date through July 27.

“Since the U.S. food safety industry issue became front and center only two weeks ago, we saw maximum impact to sales over the weekend of July 18,” Yum Brands CFO Ranjith Roy said on the company’s quarterly earnings call.

“It is early days, but in the subsequent week, sales declines have moderated materially, and we are seeing steady improvement in day-over-day sales trends,” Roy added.

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Taco Bell’s sales dipped following the cyclospora outbreak, but have shown signs of recovery in the last week. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Roy went on to say in response to an analyst’s question that “if you take the average sales for the last four days, which includes the weekend and the first two days of this week, we are halfway back to sales levels of the prior year.”

The cyclospora outbreak is under investigation by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), along with state and local partners. It has been linked to iceberg lettuce that was sourced from central Mexico through Taylor Farms de Mexico.

Taylor Farms’ U.S. business initiated a voluntary recall that also included iceberg lettuce sold under the Taylor Fresh Foods and Marketside brands. The company has noted that the FDA hasn’t identified a single positive product test result for cyclospora after a false positive was reported by the agency.

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Cyclospora cases with exposure to Taco Bell have been reported in nine states, including Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

Yum Brands CEO Christopher Turner said that “our top priority is, and always will be, the safety and well-being of our consumers. With respect to the consumer sentiment, though, we’ve seen real improvement as consumers have understood better the nature of the issue and they understand that it is not a Taco Bell-specific issue.”

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Taco Bell removed potentially affected lettuce from a supplier after the FDA linked it to a multistate cyclosporiasis outbreak. (Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Turner added that there’s “been no change in our measures of brand love” and that some of those metrics have seen growth in positivity, while Taco Bell’s share of the conversation around food safety has declined.

“The best proof point is that consumers are coming back to the restaurants on a steady basis. We’ve seen steady improvement in those sales trends,” he said, noting that the chain’s Tuesday release of a Mexican pizza special drove the most transactions and loyalty acquisitions of any Taco Bell Tuesday drop.

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“There is no brand and no team better equipped to drive a recovery in this temporary sales impact than Taco Bell,” he added.

Publix is recalling all lots of its GreenWise Organic Whole Blueberries and Whole Mixed Berries sold across eight states over concerns they may be contaminated with E. coli, expanding an earlier recall tied to a single lot of frozen blueberries.

The Lakeland, Florida-based grocery chain said Wednesday it is voluntarily recalling all lots of the frozen fruit products “out of an abundance of caution” after public health officials’ trace back and epidemiological investigation linked them to a multistate E. coli O145 outbreak.

The recalled products were distributed to Publix stores in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. 

The company said it implemented an internal stop sale at the end of June, and the products remain unavailable for purchase.

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A package of Publix GreenWise Organic Whole Blueberries is shown. Publix recalled all lots of its GreenWise Organic Whole Blueberries and Whole Mixed Berries over potential E. coli O145 contamination. (FDA / Unknown)

The expanded recall follows a July 3 recall by Chilean supplier Frutas y Hortalizas del Sur S.A. involving a single lot of GreenWise Organic Blueberries. Publix said it broadened the recall to include all lots of GreenWise Organic Whole Blueberries and Whole Mixed Berries based on information gathered during the ongoing public health investigation.

Customers are being urged not to consume the recalled products and should either throw them away or return them to any Publix store for a full refund. The affected products are GreenWise Organic Whole Blueberries in 10-ounce packages (UPC 41415-06453) and 48-ounce packages (UPC 41415-12053), along with GreenWise Organic Whole Mixed Berries in 10-ounce packages (UPC 41415-06753) and 48-ounce packages (UPC 41415-12153).

According to the Food and Drug Administration, Escherichia coli O145:H28 is a Shiga toxin-producing strain of E. coli that can cause severe stomach cramps, diarrhea that may be bloody and vomiting. While most healthy people recover within about a week, some infections can lead to hemolytic uremic syndrome, a potentially serious complication that is more likely to affect young children, older adults and people with weakened immune systems.

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A package of Publix GreenWise Organic Whole Mixed Berries is shown. The retailer expanded its recall to all lots of the frozen berry products following a public health investigation into a multistate E. coli outbreak. (FDA / Unknown)

FOX Business reached out to Publix for additional comment, including whether any illnesses have been linked to products sold at its stores and what prompted the company to expand the recall to all lots. Publix did not immediately respond.

The entrance to a Publix Super Market on July 30, 2024 in Miami, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images / Getty Images)

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Customers with questions can contact Publix Customer Care at (800) 242-1227 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday. Additional information about the outbreak investigation is available through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Publix, the largest employee-owned company in the U.S., operates more than 1,400 stores across Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

Ocoopa Direct is recalling about 1.5 million rechargeable hand warmers following hundreds of burn injuries and one reported death.

The lithium-ion batteries in the recalled products can overheat and catch fire, posing a risk of “serious injury or death from fire and burn hazards,” according to a notice Thursday from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

Ocoopa Direct has received 1,480 reports of the hand warmers overheating, including 15 fires and 350 burn injuries, the CPSC said.

POPULAR GROCERY CHAIN RECALLS COOKIES IN 9 STATES AND DC AFTER LABELING ERROR

Ocoopa Direct has received 1,480 reports of the hand warmers overheating, including 15 fires and 350 burn injuries, the CPSC said. (U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission)

An 83-year-old consumer in San Diego died in February after an incident involving one of the hand warmers, according to the agency.

The recall covers Ocoopa rechargeable hand warmers with model numbers UT3053, UT3056, ZLS-118, ZLS-118S, ZLS-118D, H01 and H01(PD). 

The hand warmers were sold in various colors and designs, according to the CPSC.

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The lithium-ion batteries in the hand warmers can overheat and catch fire, posing a risk of “serious injury or death from fire and burn hazards.” (U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission)

“The dual-sided, rechargeable hand warmers were sold in varying colors and designs, in packs of two warmers that can magnetically be joined and with a charging cable,” the announcement noted.

The products were sold online through Amazon, Ocoopa and Walmart between September 2018 and May 2026 for $15 to $60.

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The products were sold online through Amazon, Ocoopa.net and Walmart.com between September 2018 and May 2026 for $15 to $60. (U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission)

“Consumers should stop using the recalled hand warmers immediately and contact OCOOPA Direct for a full refund in the form of an Ocoopa gift card or the original form of payment,” the announcement said.

The CPSC also warned consumers not to throw the recalled products in the trash or place them in regular recycling or battery collection bins.

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For more information about the recalled products, visit the CPSC’s website.

FOX Business reached out to Ocoopa Direct for comment.