Savannah Guthrie Says Mother’s Disappearance Is “Too Much To Bear” In First Interview
It’s been eight weeks since Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of Today Show host Savannah Guthrie, went missing from her home in a suburb of Tucson, Arizona.
Believed by authorities to have been kidnapped, there have been few leads since she was reported missing on Feb. 1.
In her first interview since the disappearance of her mother, Savannah was interviewed by Hoda Kotb, who has returned to the Today Show on an interim basis to fill in for Savannah amid this ongoing incident.
Her interview was separated into three parts, with the first two parts airing on Thursday, March 26, the 54th day since Nancy disappeared.
The third and final part of Savannah’s first interview will air on NBC on the Today Show on Friday, March 27.
For any information that may lead to the locating and return of Nancy Guthrie, the public is asked to call the FBI tip line, which is 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324).
Interview Part One: Savannah Guthrie Recalls That She “Didn’t Want To Believe” Her Success Had A Role In Her Mother’s Disappearance
At the beginning of Part One of Savannah Guthrie’s emotional interview on the disappearance of her mother, Nancy, she recalled the moment when she received the call from her sister, Annie Guthrie.
Savannah remembered asking if everything was OK, to which Annie replied, “‘No … Mom’s missing.'”
Noting that Annie had already called 911 and that authorities were already on the scene of her mother’s home in the Catalina Foothills of Pima County’s Tucson, the initial thought was that Nancy may have had a sudden medical emergency the night before.
“The back doors were propped open, you know?” Savannah stated. “That didn’t make any sense. We thought maybe [the paramedics] came and there was a stretcher and they took her out the back, but her phone was there, and her purse was there, and all her things — and it just didn’t make sense.”
After calling all the hospitals in the Tucson area herself, Savannah traveled from New York to Arizona that day, Feb. 1, to be with family as the search for her mother commenced.
Trying to direct law enforcement in the right direction with their knowledge of their mother, Savannah said, “From the very early moments, Annie and Tommy were saying, ‘This isn’t that case that you are used to where someone wanders off. She can’t wander off.’ My mom, she was in tremendous pain — her back was very bad … On a good day, she could walk down to the mailbox and get the mail, but most days not.”
Clarifying how she and her siblings knew that something was “very wrong” about the situation, Savannah added, “So there was no ‘wander off,’ and the doors were [wide] open, and there was blood on the front doorstep, and the Ring camera had been yanked off.”
One of the most emotional moments in the interview came as Savannah spoke on the chance that her mother had been kidnapped for ransom on account of Savannah’s own fame.
Her brother, Camron Guthrie, first mentioned the possibility, and Savannah, with tears running down her face, said, “How dumb could I be? But, I just, I didn’t want to believe. I said, ‘Do you think because of me?’ And he said, ‘I’m sorry, sweetie, but, yeah, maybe.’ But I knew that.”
Hoda replied, “You did?”
Savannah then said, “I hope not. I mean, we still don’t know. Honestly, we don’t know anything … I don’t know that it’s because she’s my mom, and somebody thought, ‘Oh, that girl, that lady has money. We could make a quick buck.’ That would make sense, but we don’t know.”
She then said:
“I’d just say, ‘I’m so sorry, Mommy. I’m so sorry.’ I’m sorry to my sister and my brother and my kids and my nephew and Tommy, my brother-in-law … If it is me, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Later on in the interview, she recounted her thought process as she sat alongside her siblings and recorded a video to a potential kidnapper, saying, “How is it that we are having to make a video speaking to a kidnapper who took an 84-year-old woman in the dead of night in her pajamas with no shoes, without her medicine … and to beg for mercy?”
While law enforcement has yet to determine a motive, there have been two ransom notes received that Savannah says she believes were credible, saying, “The two notes that we received, that we responded to, I tend to believe those are real.”
Noting that law enforcement and others have “worked tirelessly” to locate her mother, the first part of the interview concludes with Savannah stating, “We cannot be at peace without knowing, and someone can do the right thing — it’s never too late to do the right thing — and our hearts are focused on that.”
Watch Part One of the interview with Savannah Guthrie, here:
RELATED: Savannah Guthrie Shares Tearful Video Announcing $1 Million Reward For Return Of Her Mom, Nancy
Interview Part Two: Savannah Guthrie Speaks On Her Mother’s Faith
Part Two of the three-part interview on the Today Show with Savannah Guthrie finds Savannah turning to the subject of who her mother is, as well as the difficult decision to return to New York as the search continues.
At the end of the second part of her interview, Savannah said, “So whether she is on this earth still, or whether she is in Heaven, I know where she is — I know who she’s with — but we need to know.”
See the plea for prayer that Savannah shared on social media the day after her mother’s disappearance, here:
Watch Part Two of the interview with Savannah Guthrie, here:
For any information that may lead to the locating and return of Nancy Guthrie, the public is asked to call the FBI tip line, which is 1-800-CALL-FBI.
This is a developing story.
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