Alec Wysopal was making his usual rounds through the hot and dusty trails of Tucson, Ariz., earlier this month, looking for signs of Nancy Guthrie, when something caught his eye.
Mr. Wysopal is one among a small band of livestreamers who have taken it upon themselves to investigate the disappearance of Ms. Guthrie, the mother of the “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie, ever since she went missing in February and set off a nationwide frenzy.
Wearing gaiters to guard against always lurking rattlesnakes and filming with his cellphone, Mr. Wysopal sidled up to a spot on the dry river bank, a few miles from Ms. Guthrie’s home.
“Oh, what is that?” he said to the thousands of people who tune into his YouTube channel. “That’s a bone.”
His heart racing, he called 911.
News of the discovery rocketed across social media, sparking speculation among devotees of true crime that there had finally been a break in the case of the missing 84-year-old.
But after the local authorities arrived on scene, they soon clarified: “This will be a prehistoric anthropological investigation,” a Tucson police spokesman said at the time. “This is not a criminal investigation.”
The bone was more than 750 years old.
James T. Watson, the curator of bioarchaelogy at the Arizona State Museum and an expert on prehistoric remains, confirmed the hunch. He said the bone dated back to a period between 650 and 1250 A.D., when the Hohokam people tended farms and lived in the area.
On camera, Mr. Wysopal, 38, had prodded the bleached piece of skeleton with his hiking pole. Then he began digging and “it kept getting longer and longer,” he said in an interview.
“It got to the point where it was pretty clear it looked like a leg bone,” he said.
In fact, he had unwittingly wandered onto a Native American archaeological site.
The livestreamer did the right thing by calling the police as required by state law, Mr. Watson said. But he warned that the case was a cautionary tale about the consequences of citizen investigators taking matters into their own hands. Mr. Wysopal disturbed a culturally sensitive site and the ensuing media circus jeopardized the security of the remains, Mr. Watson said.
Watching the video of Mr. Wysopal’s discovery “felt icky,” said Mr. Watson, who devotes his days to ensuring all human remains are treated with respect.
“Whether it’s Nancy Guthrie or an ancient individual, you shouldn’t be poking at them with a stick. It’s common decency,” Mr. Watson said. “Would you do that with your grandmother’s remains?”
The Arizona State Museum is now working with the Tohono O’odham tribe, modern descendants of the Hohokam people, to repatriate the remains. The tribe did not respond to a request for comment. Hohokam remains were found in the same riverbank three years ago, Mr. Watson said.
Mr. Wysopal, a Tucson resident, said that if he had known he was walking among burial sites, he would have stayed away. And if the tribe asked him to remove the video of his discovery, which now has more than 40,000 views, he said he would.
Some streamers like Mr. Wysopal, who has named his YouTube channel A.J.DoubleU News, simply film their frequent searches for Ms. Guthrie, often turning up only urban flotsam like rusted cars and discarded clothing. Others engage in more outlandish stunts.
But all seem to agree that the authorities are not doing enough to find Ms. Guthrie, who the police believe was kidnapped from her home in the early hours of Feb. 1. The case has frustrated law enforcement, and there have been no major updates for months.
In a statement, Sheriff Chris Nanos of Pima County, who has been leading the local investigation, said of the streamers and searchers: “We appreciate their concern and we all want to find Nancy — but this work is best left to professionals.”
Some streamers and true crime podcasters have been accused of trying to profit off the pain of the Guthrie family. At times, their wild speculation has had disastrous consequences for innocent people.
“There’s a right way to do it and a wrong way,” said Mr. Wysopal, who said he has tried to be considerate of Ms. Guthrie’s loved ones and has largely avoided streaming from near her home, opting instead to “go out there and look for something.”
He insisted he was trying to help and said he was motivated by fear that the culprit could come for his loved ones, too.
As the case has dragged on, its twists and turns — and false alarms — have become only more bizarre. Even though the bone he found was not connected to the Guthrie case, Mr. Wysopal said it motivated him to keep combing the desert hills.
“It gives you hope you can actually find stuff out there,” he said.
Reis Thebault is a Phoenix-based reporter for The Times, covering the American Southwest.
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