Local authorities in Arizona remain hopeful in finding “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie’s mother Nancy Guthrie, who has been missing since Sunday.
“We have nothing else to go on but the belief that she is here,” Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said in his latest interview on NBC’s “Today” show Wednesday.
Nanos urged the public to call with tips or leads as he had done in previous days.
Guthrie went missing on Sunday morning. The authorities “believe that Nancy was taken from her home against her will,” Nanos said in a press conference on Tuesday.
Guthrie, 84, lives alone and was last seen Saturday night in her Tucson home.
She missed church service on Sunday morning, prompting a concerned friend to call her family, which led to the discovery that she was missing.
TMZ and CBS affiliate KOLD News reported that their newsrooms received a ransom note allegedly related to Guthrie being missing. Neither the sheriff’s office nor the FBI has verified this note.
Jon Edwards, the assistant special agent in charge overseeing the FBI’s Tucson office, said the FBI is “downloading and analyzing cellphones, obtaining cell tower information, conducting interviews and providing any and all investigative support that the sheriff’s department needs.”
He told the community that his office is “doing everything in our power to bring Nancy Guthrie home to her family.”
On Monday night, Savannah Guthrie shared a message on social media asking people to “please pray.”
“We believe in prayer. We believe in voices raised in unison, in love, in hope. We believe in goodness. We believe in humanity. Above all, we believe in Him,” she wrote in a caption.
A look back at touching moments between Savannah Guthrie and her mother
Savannah Guthrie grew up in Tucson, attended the University of Arizona and worked as a reporter and anchor for several newsrooms, including an NBC affiliate in Montana and later Tucson. Her mother, Nancy, has lived in the Tucson area for over five decades.
In 2022, Savannah Guthrie revealed it wouldn’t have taken much for her to pass up her first job to stay with her mom.
“My father died when I was entering my senior year in high school. I then lived at home all through college. We didn’t have money to afford the dorm. And that was thing one, but the other was that my sister and I really felt like we should stick with my mom and not leave her alone,” Guthrie told her “Today” co-host Jenna Bush Hager. “And that’s when she said, ‘If you can’t leave me, then I didn’t do my job right, Savannah,’” she said of her mom’s unselfish stance. “She just gave me permission to go, you know?”
She confessed, “It was really hard for me to leave her,” adding that her mother would have held on to her and asked her to find an opportunity closer to home.
“It’s not because she didn’t want me to stay. Of course she wanted me to stay,” the “Today” anchor said. “But she’s like, ‘I’m not going to stand in the way of your dreams. I’m going to tell you, go go go go go.’”
The younger Guthrie, a mom to two children — Vale and Charley — reflected that spoon-feeding children doesn’t help.
“You teach them how to eat for themselves,” she told Jenna. “They’re not supposed to be needy. They’re not supposed to need us. And also, we’re not supposed to be the center of their universes.”
Nancy Guthrie and her faith
In May 2023, Savannah Guthrie opened up about how her mother knew she would have children “even as the years ticked by.”
“When I was in my 30s, I really wished to be married and to be a mom, and things just did not happen that fast for me,” Savannah said on the “Today” show. “And my mom’s confidence that I would be a mom — even as the years ticked by and ticked by — meant so much to me.”
She recalled Nancy Guthrie telling her that she was “going to be a wonderful mom.”
“And for her to have that confidence and faith was so meaningful to me. It got me through some really hard times,” the host added.
Nancy Guthrie was a regular churchgoer, attending St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church. She was described by her daughter as “a woman of great faith.”
Her church issued a prayer for Nancy Guthrie after her disappearance.
“Dear God, we pray for our dear friend Nancy and her family in this scary time. God, we know You are with us always. As we wait in the unknown, please be with Nancy and allow her to feel Your presence. Be with Nancy’s family as they gather and wait for news. Guide the search teams, law enforcement and those seeking answers. We lift Nancy up to You, God of all comfort. Amen,” the church said on Facebook.