Credit: @savannahguthrie/Instagram
Savannah Guthrie Issues Devastating Update After Mom’s Disappearance
Savannah Guthrie has issued a devastating update following the mysterious disappearance of her mom Nancy.
The Today show co-anchor has gone almost a month without knowing whether her mother is alive.
And on February 24, she issued the most heartbreaking update yet, one that stopped the country in its tracks.
A vanishing with no warning
Nancy was last seen entering her home in the Catalina Foothills neighborhood of Tucson, Arizona, at approximately 9:45 p.m. on the evening of January 31.
She was reported missing the following morning, February 1, after she failed to appear at a friend’s house for a virtual church service, something deeply out of character for a woman her loved ones describe as sharp, independent, and deeply devoted to her faith and community.
As NBC News reports, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos described the 84-year-old as being of ‘great sound mind’ but acknowledged she has limited mobility and ‘couldn’t walk 50 yards.’
She relies on daily medication to survive and has a pacemaker that, investigators noted with alarm, had been disconnected shortly after she disappeared.
Authorities have been unequivocal in their assessment: Nancy did not leave on her own.
According to Sheriff Nanos, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department believes she was ‘taken from the home against her will, possibly in the middle of the night,’ and the case is being treated as a kidnapping or abduction.
Nancy left behind her personal belongings. There was no indication she had planned to travel anywhere. Her family has been firm from the beginning: she would never have gone willingly.
Ransom note that shocked the nation
Due to Savannah Guthrie’s prominence as one of America’s most recognizable TV anchors — she reportedly earns upwards of $8 million a year — the case quickly drew national attention and, it seems, the attention of whoever took her mother.
Just days into the search, CNN reported purported ransom notes demanding $6 million in bitcoin for Nancy’s safe return.
The notes included a threat to her life if the deadline was not met. Although officials have not publicly confirmed the authenticity of the notes, they have treated them as credible and serious from the start.
In a video released on February 7 alongside her siblings Annie and Camron, Guthrie addressed whoever had taken her mother directly.
“Our mom is a kind, faithful, loyal, fiercely loving woman of goodness and light,” she said. “She has grandchildren that adore her and crowd around her and cover her with kisses. Her health, her heart is fragile.”
Then came the moment that reduced the country to tears: three hours before the ransom deadline on February 9, Guthrie appeared again with her brother and sister, saying: “We are at an hour of desperation. We received your message and we understand. We beg you now to return our mother to us so that we can celebrate with her. This is the only way we will have peace. This is very valuable to us, and we will pay.”
The deadline came and went. No proof of life arrived.
Chilling footage, a masked suspect, and a near-break
On February 10, FBI Director Kash Patel released footage that sent shockwaves across the country.
As NBC News detailed, the images, retrieved from Google Nest doorbell camera data, showed a masked, armed man approaching Nancy’s front door in the early hours of the morning she disappeared.
In one clip, the man, whose eyes are visible through the holes in his mask, appears to tamper directly with the camera itself.
The FBI later identified him as a suspect of average build, standing between 5 feet 9 inches and 5 feet 10 inches tall, wearing a black 25-liter Ozark Trail Hiker Pack backpack.
As CNN reported at the time, investigators also detained a man south of Tucson near the US-Mexico border for questioning, a delivery driver named Carlos Palazuelos who told Telemundo he had no knowledge of the case and was subsequently released without charges.
Meanwhile, FBI Director Patel confirmed the agency was actively looking at multiple ‘persons of interest.’
Guthrie responded to the footage with a devastating Instagram caption: “We believe she is still alive. Bring her home.”
The following day, officers found a black glove on the roadside approximately two miles from Nancy’s home, raising hopes of a forensic breakthrough.
Yet when the DNA recovered from the glove was submitted to the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, known as CODIS, it returned no match.
A second DNA sample recovered from inside Nancy’s home also came back with no hits, meaning whoever is responsible has no prior criminal DNA on file.
Investigators subsequently turned to investigative genetic genealogy, the same technique that cracked the Golden State Killer case, to try to trace the unknown DNA through family trees and relative matches.
According to NBC News, genetic genealogist CeCe Moore of Parabon, a Virginia lab specializing in forensic genetic genealogy, described the partial DNA mixture found at Nancy’s home as making her ‘extremely hopeful,’ noting that mixed DNA is ‘so common in violent crimes.’
A family under strain
Through it all, Guthrie has continued to show up publicly for her mother, posting video after video to Instagram.
She took a leave of absence from the Today show and, as Page Six reported, will be off the air for the ‘foreseeable future.’
An NBC insider said the ‘entire show and network is rallying together in support of our beloved colleague and friend as we navigate this unimaginable time.’
By February 15, with still no word from whoever had taken her mother, Savannah posted again: “It is never too late to do the right thing. You’re not lost or alone, and it is never too late to do the right thing. We are here. And we believe. And we believe in the essential goodness of every human being.”
Meanwhile, as CNN reported, more than 30,000 tips poured in from the public, with some 400 investigators working the case around the clock.
Sheriff Nanos told CNN: “I believe she will be found. I believe we are working as hard as we can to do that as fast as we can.”
‘She may already be gone’
In an emotional Instagram video that has spread across social media within minutes of being posted, Guthrie spoke directly into the camera, visibly holding herself together.
In the tearful video posted to Instagram last week, the NBC anchor acknowledged what so many had feared, but few had dared to say aloud: her 84-year-old mother, Nancy Guthrie, may already be dead.
“It is day 24 since our mom was taken in the dark of night from her bed, and every hour and minute and second and every long night has been agony since then, of worrying about her and fearing for her, aching for her, and most of all, just missing her, missing her,” she said.
Guthrie asked the public to keep her mother in their prayers.
“We still believe. We still believe in a miracle. We still believe that she can come home, hope against hope. As my sister says, ‘We are blowing on the embers of hope.'”
But then she said the words no daughter should ever have to say. “We also know that she may be lost,” she said. “She may already be gone.”
Guthrie continued, her voice cracking: “She may have already gone home to the Lord that she loves and is dancing in heaven with her mom and her dad and with her beloved brother Pierce and with our daddy. If this is what is to be, then we will accept it. But we need to know where she is.”
As CNBC reported, the Guthrie family simultaneously announced a reward of up to $1 million for any information leading to Nancy’s recovery, a reward that does not hinge on an arrest, only on her being found, and which can be split among multiple claimants.
In a gesture of extraordinary generosity amid unimaginable pain, Guthrie also announced the family would be donating $500,000 to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
“We know there are millions of families that have suffered with this kind of uncertainty,” she said. “We are hoping the attention that has been given to our mom will extend to all families that need prayers and need support.”
The caption accompanying Guthrie’s video read simply: “Someone knows how to find our mom and bring her home.”
As of March 3, Nancy has not been found. Anyone with information is urged to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department at 520-351-4900, or submit tips at tips.fbi.gov.
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