Authorities are looking for the 84-year-old mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie after they say she was taken from her home in Tucson, Arizona, against her will over the weekend.
It’s imperative that Nancy Guthrie, who was last seen Saturday night, is found soon because she could die without her medication, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said.
The sheriff held a news conference Tuesday and urged the public to offer tips, but revealed few new details about the investigation. Officials have finished combing through Nancy Guthrie’s home and turned it back over to family, Nanos said.
He declined to say whether Guthrie’s disappearance was thought to be random or targeted or to describe the evidence found at her home.
There were signs of forced entry at Nancy Guthrie’s home, according to a person familiar with the investigation, who was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the case and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of an anonymity.
Here’s what to know about the case:
Nancy Guthrie reported missing after she didn’t go to church
Nancy Guthrie was last seen Saturday night at the affluent Catalina Foothills area home where she lived alone. She was reported missing Sunday. Someone at a church called a family member to say Guthrie wasn’t there, leading family to search her home and then call 911, Nanos said.
Initially, searchers used drones and dogs and were supported by volunteers and Border Patrol, Nanos said. But by Monday morning, he said search crews were pulled back.
“We don’t see this as a search mission so much as it is a crime scene,” the sheriff said.
There were signs of forced entry at the home and several personal items, including Guthrie’s cellphone, wallet and car, were all still at the home, the person familiar with the investigation said. Investigators were reviewing surveillance video from nearby homes and information from area license plate cameras and analyzing local cellphone towers data, according to the person. The motive remains a mystery. Investigators do not believe the abduction was part of a robbery, home invasion or kidnapping-for-ransom plot, the person said.
Savannah Guthrie asks for prayers to help bring her mom home
This week, Savannah Guthrie has been in Arizona and hasn’t appeared at the anchor’s desk. In a social media post late Monday, she asked supporters to “raise your prayers with us and believe with us that she will be lifted by them in this very moment. Bring her home.”
Savannah Guthrie grew up in Tucson, the youngest of three siblings and her father died of a heart attack when she was just 16. She graduated from the University of Arizona and previously worked as a reporter and anchor at KVOA-TV in Tucson. She joined “Today” in 2011 and became co-anchor the following year.
Nancy Guthrie held her family together after husband’s death
Before the woman’s disappearance, viewers got to know Nancy Guthrie through her daughter’s show. Savannah Guthrie credited her mom with holding their family together after her father’s death.
“When my dad died, our family just hung onto each other for dear life because it was such a shock. We were just trying to figure out how to become a family of four when we’d always been a family of five,” she said on “Today” in 2017.
During an appearance in a story Savannah Guthrie did about her hometown late last year, she was asked what made the family want to plant roots in Tucson in the 1970s.
“It’s so wonderful. Just the air, the quality of life,” Nancy Guthrie said. “It’s laid back and gentle.”
By SARAH BRUMFIELD
Associated Press
