Savannah Guthrie feared her mother may have been targeted because of her fame

Savannah Guthrie feared her mother may have been targeted because of her fame

Savannah Guthrie has been grappling with deep anxiety and sorrow since her mother, Nancy Guthrie, vanished from her home near Tucson, Arizona. In her first interview since the disappearance, she expressed concerns that her mother’s fame as a co-anchor on “TODAY” might have made her a target. “I don’t know that it’s because she’s my mom and somebody thought, ‘Oh, that girl— that lady has money. We can … make a quick buck,’ I mean, that would make sense,” she told Hoda Kotb. “But we don’t know. Which is too much to bear, to think that I brought this to her bedside. That it’s because of me.”

Disappearance and Initial Concerns

Nancy Guthrie, 84, was reported missing on February 1 after she missed a virtual church service at a friend’s home. She was last seen the previous night, around 9:45 p.m., following dinner at her daughter Annie Guthrie’s residence. The Guthrie family quickly realized something alarming had occurred. Savannah Guthrie reflected on her brother’s early insight, describing him as “brilliant” with a military career background. “Even on the phone when I called him, he knew,” she said. “He said, ‘I think she’s been kidnapped for ransom.’ And I said, ‘What? Well, why? What?’”

Savannah questioned whether her mother’s disappearance was tied to her public profile. “It sounds so, like, how dumb could I be? But I just — I didn’t wanna believe. I just said, ‘Do you think because of me?’ And he said, ‘I’m sorry, sweetie, but yeah, maybe.’ But I knew that,” she added. Investigators have yet to publicly name a suspect or explain the motive behind the incident.

Ransom Notes and Family’s Response

The family received multiple ransom notes, but Savannah Guthrie believes two are genuine. “There are a lot of different notes, I think, that came. And I think most of them, it’s my understanding, are not real. And I didn’t see them. But, you know, a person that would send a fake ransom note really has to look deeply at themselves, to a family in pain. But I believe the two notes that we received that we responded to, I tend to believe those are real,” she explained.

Savannah recounted the moment she learned of her mother’s absence—a harrowing phone call that marked the start of a national mystery. “My sister called me … I said, ‘Is everything OK?’ And she said, ‘No.’ She said, ‘Mom’s missing.’ And I said, ‘What? What are you talking about?’ She said, ‘She’s gone,’” she shared. “She was in a panic. I was in a panic.”

Her sister and brother-in-law immediately ruled out a simple absence. “From the very early moments, you know, Annie and Tommy were saying, ‘This isn’t — this isn’t that case that you are used to where someone wanders off. She can’t wander off,’” Savannah noted. She highlighted her mother’s physical challenges, including a “bad back” and “tremendous pain,” which made independent movement difficult. “On a good day, she could walk down to the mailbox and get the mail, but most days not,” she said. “So, there wasn’t a wander-off. And the doors were propped open, and there was blood on the front doorstep, and the Ring camera had been yanked off.”

Initially, the family suspected a medical emergency, thinking paramedics might have taken Nancy out the back. “The back doors were propped open, you know, and that didn’t make sense,” Savannah said. “We thought maybe they 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.”

Within hours, Savannah boarded a plane to Tucson, where the search for her mother intensified. State and federal agencies have joined the effort, conducting land searches, gathering video footage from neighbors, and investigating ransom notes. Despite weeks of searching, the case remains unresolved, with the family continuing to seek answers. Recently, Savannah and her siblings released a heartfelt video on Instagram, urging anyone with information to come forward. “We’re ready to talk,” they said, offering a $1 million reward for her safe return.