PHOENIX, Arizona - Authorities in Arizona are searching for Ms Nancy Guthrie, 84, the mother of Today show anchor Savannah Guthrie, who has been missing since Feb 1 and whose disappearance is being investigated as a possible kidnapping.
The elder Guthrie was last seen at her home near Tucson on Jan 31 at around 9.30pm, according to Mr Chris Nanos, the Pima County sheriff. At a news conference on Feb 3, he described her disappearance as an abduction.`
“We do believe that Nancy was taken from her home against her will,” Mr Nanos said.
Here’s what we know.
When Ms Guthrie did not show up at her regular Sunday church service, a friend notified her family, Mr Nanos said. When family members went to her home and did not find her there, they called 911.
Authorities responded at noon on Feb 1 and brought in a search-and-rescue team, volunteers, dogs, drones and a helicopter to help find her.
Mr Nanos described Ms Guthrie’s home as “a crime scene” at a news briefing on Feb 2, adding that “we saw some things at the home that were concerning to us”, without offering more details.
He added that Ms Guthrie has limited mobility and requires medication every 24 hours, and could die without it.
Ms Guthrie was described in a missing person’s notice as 165cm tall with brown hair and blue eyes, and “vulnerable”. Authorities described her as mentally sharp and said it was not a dementia-related case.
The search for Ms Guthrie was growing more urgent as it entered its fourth day on Feb 4. The Pima County Sheriff’s Department said it did not yet have a strong lead, and pleaded for help from the public.
“Time is not on our side,” Mr Nanos said in an interview on Feb 3.
Late on Feb 4, Ms Savannah Guthrie said in an emotional video posted online that she and her siblings were ready to listen to ransom offers from whomever might have abducted their mother over the weekend – but that the family would first need proof that she was still alive.
In the video, Ms Savannah Guthrie tried to hold back tears as she sat between her older siblings, Annie and Camron, and read from notes. She said her family had heard about possible ransom letters that had been sent to news outlets.
”We are ready to talk,” she said. “However, we live in a world where voices and images are easily manipulated. We need to know, without a doubt, that she is alive, and that you have her.”
The sheriff’s department said on Feb 3 that it was “aware of reports circulating about possible ransom note(s)” after the celebrity news site TMZ said it had received one on Feb 3 demanding a Bitcoin payment. An anchor for KOLD, the CBS affiliate in Tucson, said the station had also received a ransom note. It was not clear if those messages were sent by anyone believed to be involved in the abduction.
The sheriff’s department emphasised on Feb 4 that “investigators have not identified a suspect or person of interest” in the case. “Detectives continue to speak with anyone who may have had contact” with the elder Guthrie, it said in a statement.
Mr Nanos said on Feb 3 that investigators had taken DNA samples from Ms Guthrie’s home, but that it could be several days before the samples produce conclusive evidence.
Investigators said they had not ruled out the possibility that Ms Guthrie was targeted.
Ms Guthrie has periodically appeared on Today show segments alongside her daughter Savannah. In 2022, Ms Savannah Guthrie marked her mother’s 80th birthday on a Today broadcast, praising her “grit” and resilience.
“She’s quick, and she’s smart; she’s well-read; she’s curious about everything,” Ms Savannah Guthrie said of her mother during the 2022 tribute.
Ms Savannah Guthrie’s father died of a heart attack when she was 16. When she and her sister Annie began college, they both opted to live at home. “One of us would always stay home on one of the weekend nights so that my mom wouldn’t be alone,” she wrote in 2021.
When Ms Nancy Guthrie turned 70, the Today anchors surprised her with a phone call during the live broadcast. And last fall, Ms Savannah Guthrie toured Tucson, her hometown, for a Today segment in which she says that her mother moved there in the 1970s.
Ms Nancy Guthrie lives in Catalina Foothills, an unincorporated community just north of Tucson that is nestled against the Santa Catalina Mountains. Homes there tend to be more expensive than others in the area because of the views. Many houses are on large lots surrounded by desert, including vegetation like saguaro, prickly pear cactuses and thick desert shrubs.
Ms Savannah Guthrie, 54, is best known as one of the anchors of the NBC morning show Today, a job she has held since 2012.
After working in local news and as a lawyer, she joined NBC News in 2007. She worked for the network as a White House correspondent, filled in on Meet the Press and anchored NBC Nightly News.
She was born in Australia and moved with her family to Tucson, where she grew up and attended college. She lives in New York with her husband, communications consultant Michael Feldman, and their two children. She has also written children’s books.
NBC Sports announced on Feb 3 that she would not travel to Italy, where she had been expected to play a key role in the coverage of the Milan-Cortina Olympics. Ms Mary Carillo will take Ms Guthrie’s place alongside Mr Terry Gannon as a host of the network’s coverage of the opening ceremonies on Feb 6, NBC Sports said on Feb 5.
Mr Tom Llamas, the NBC Nightly News anchor, said in a special report that President Donald Trump spoke with Ms Guthrie by phone on Feb 4, and that Mr Trump offered “words of support for her and her family as they search for her mother”.
Ms Guthrie, who has been absent from the Today show this week, has asked for prayers from her followers on Instagram. “Bring her home,” she wrote on Feb 3.
Additional reporting by Neil Vigdor. NYTIMES
