Savannah Guthrie breaks down describing mother’s disappearance: ‘It’s too much to bear’

PHOENIX — Savannah Guthrie, co-anchor of NBC’s “Today,” said her family has been in “agony” since her mother, Nancy, went missing in late January. This was her first interview since the disappearance.

Guthrie, who stepped away from “Today” to focus on the search for her mother, spoke with fellow anchor Hoda Kotb in an interview released in segments Wednesday through Friday.

“My brother saw very clearly, right away, what this was,” Guthrie told Kotb. “He said, ‘I think she’s been kidnapped for ransom.’”

Nancy Guthrie, 84, was last seen at her Catalina Foothills home on the night of Jan. 31. Guthrie broke down in tears as she said she doesn’t know the kidnapper’s motive.

“I don’t know if it’s because she’s my mom and someone thought, ‘That lady has money. We can make a quick buck,’” she said. “That would make sense … which is too much to bear — to think that I brought this to her doorstep.”

She apologized to her mother and family for the possibility that her public profile attracted the wrong kind of attention. She also urged the public to come forward with any information, noting that the investigation has seen little progress.

Last weekend, the Guthrie family asked neighbors in Arizona to think back on anything they might have seen that could help. They said no detail is too small.

Savannah Guthrie describes when she realized her mother was missing

“We thought that she must have had some kind of medical episode in the night and that, somehow, the paramedics had come because the back doors were propped open, and that didn’t make sense, and we thought, ‘Maybe they came and there was a stretcher and they took her out the back,'” Guthrie said.

However, the scene didn’t match that theory. Nancy’s phone and purse were left in the house.

Within hours, Savannah Guthrie was on a flight to Tucson, reuniting with family and trying to make it clear to investigators that this wasn’t a case of a senior wandering off.

“My mom … was in tremendous pain. Her back was very bad,” Guthrie said. “On a good day she could walk down to the mailbox and get the mail, but most days not. So there was no wander off. And the doors were popped open. And there was blood on the front doorstep. And the Ring camera had been yanked off.”

Savannah Guthrie addresses rumors, ransom notes

Several news outlets have reported receiving ransom notes — and one was found to be fake, resulting in the arrest of a man in California.

“I believe the two notes that we received, that we responded to, I tend to believe those are real,” she said.

She also addressed the public scrutiny on her family, saying she can’t understand those who would cast aspersions on the ones who loved Nancy.

“There are no words. I don’t understand. No one took better care of my mom than my sister and brother-in-law,” she said. “And no one protected my mom more than my brother.”

In fact, on Feb. 16, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department announced that none of Nancy’s relatives were suspects.

A description of an actual suspect was revealed by the FBI’s Phoenix field office. Through forensic analysis of doorbell camera footage, investigators confirmed the suspect is male, has an “average build” and is between 5-foot-9 and 5-foot-10.

“I can’t imagine that that is who she saw standing over her bed. I can’t. That’s too much,” Guthrie said.

Guthrie and her family members have posted several videos to social media asking anyone who kidnapped their mother to come forward.

“It is surreal. How is it possible 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? This little person,” Guthrie said. “And to beg for mercy?”

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