Savannah Guthrie made a raw and emotional appeal on Tuesday, asking viewers to come forward with any information about her missing mother, Nancy Guthrie, after reports surfaced that a ransom note had suggested she was dead.
The “Today” show host stood at the desk in New York with a tissue in her left hand and spoke with visible pain, making it clear that the search has not ended for her family.
“We are in agony, and we cannot be at peace. … We love our mom. We’ll never stop looking for her,” Guthrie said on air.
Nancy Guthrie, 84, lived alone and was reported missing from her Tucson-area home on Feb. 1. The FBI later released video from a camera outside her front door showing a masked stranger, and investigators also found her blood on the porch. Even with those details, the case remains unsolved.
Reports about ransom notes had been held back early in the investigation. Some media outlets said they received them soon after Nancy Guthrie disappeared, but they did not publish the details while authorities were still building the case. Savannah Guthrie said the family knew about the notes.
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What the Notes Reportedly Said
On Monday, Tucson TV station KOLD reported that it had received two notes. One demanded millions in Bitcoin in exchange for Nancy Guthrie’s return. The second said she had died.
CNN separately cited law enforcement sources and reported on the contents of the notes. According to CNN, one note suggested that the kidnappers did not mean to kill her, but that she died shortly after she went missing.
Savannah Guthrie did not address NBC News coverage directly, but she did speak plainly about the pain of waiting. “I don’t have any comment on this story. I’m not involved in our coverage,” she said Tuesday. “But I can’t pretend I’m not here. And since I am, I want to just take the opportunity to ask people — really to beg people — to come forward. Somebody knows something.”
An Open Investigation
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department sent questions about the ransom notes to the FBI, which declined to comment.
Tom Morrissey, a retired chief U.S. marshal in Arizona who is not part of the investigation, said authorities sometimes release ransom note details if they think the information may help identify a suspect. Still, he noted that investigators often keep some facts private because the case is still active.
Instagram | @todayshow | Search teams and volunteers continue looking for answers as Savannah Guthrie’s family holds on to hope.
“It’s still an open investigation,” Morrissey said. “These things can go into directions you wouldn’t believe to be possible.”
Bob Krygier, who retired as a lieutenant with the Pima County Sheriff’s Department in January, said investigators usually avoid saying a missing person has died unless a body has been found or many years have passed.
“Once you start making statements from the law enforcement side that has speculation, you lose so much credibility,” Krygier said.
Search Efforts Continue
Volunteers and search teams have already covered the desert terrain near Tucson, a rugged stretch dotted with cacti, bushes, and boulders. They also searched the area near the Arizona-Mexico border but found no sign of Nancy Guthrie.
Savannah Guthrie and her siblings previously appeared in social media videos during the search and urged anyone with information to come forward. She also asked the public to “raise your prayers with us” and said they could imagine their mother in heaven, dancing “with our daddy.”
The disappearance of Nancy Guthrie remains a painful and unresolved case, while investigators continue to search for answers. Moreover, the video, the blood on the porch, the ransom notes, and the searches have added layers of mystery to the case. Despite these developments, the story has yet to reach a clear conclusion.
For now, Savannah Guthrie’s message remains direct: someone may know something, and even one tip could matter.
