Savannah Guthrie said on Thursday morning that she believed her mother’s abduction was a kidnapping for ransom and that two notes demanding payment were most likely genuine.
Ms. Guthrie spoke in an interview that aired on the “Today” show, where she is a host, and was conducted by her friend and colleague Hoda Kotb, who has been filling in for her. It was the first interview Ms. Guthrie has given since her 84-year-old mother, Nancy, was taken from her home near Tucson, Ariz., nearly two months ago.
In it, a tearful Ms. Guthrie said the family still did not know for sure what might have motivated the kidnapping of her mother. But she said she believed the two ransom notes that were sent to news outlets and demanded payment in Bitcoin were most likely from her mother’s abductor.
Ms. Guthrie described getting a call from her older sister, Annie, who lives in Tucson, saying their mother was missing.
The back doors of their mother’s home were propped open, Ms. Guthrie said, and her cellphone, purse and other belongings were still in the house. Her doorbell camera had been yanked from beside the front door.
“It just didn’t make any sense,” Ms. Guthrie said.
The family initially believed that Nancy, who had back pain and other medical troubles, might have had an emergency and been taken out of the back doors by paramedics. They frantically called hospitals trying to find her but came up empty. Nancy Guthrie took medication that her family has said she could die without.
Ms. Guthrie said family members had tried, from the start, to make clear to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department that this was not the case of an older person wandering off.
“She can’t wander off,” Ms. Guthrie said of her mother, who has difficulty walking.
Ms. Guthrie has pleaded several times in videos on Instagram for people to provide tips that could lead to her mother’s captor and for the abductor to return her. And on Thursday she reiterated that it was “never too late to do the right thing.”
Still, significant developments in the investigation haven’t emerged for weeks. The Guthrie family is offering a $1 million reward for information that leads to Nancy’s return.
Ms. Guthrie described feeling guilt over the fact that her celebrity status may have, in a way, led to her mother’s abduction.
“To think that I brought this to her bedside, that it’s because of me,” Ms. Guthrie said, frequently dabbing at tears. “I’d just say: ‘I’m so sorry, Mommy. I’m so sorry.’”
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department, which is leading the investigation along with the F.B.I., has faced criticism as the search for Nancy Guthrie drags on. But, asked by Ms. Kotb how her family felt about the investigation, Ms. Guthrie said only that many people had worked “tirelessly” trying to locate her mother.
Nancy Guthrie was taken from her home just north of Tucson early on Feb. 1. The abduction quickly captured the nation’s attention and has stumped investigators.
She was most likely taken around 2:30 a.m., when her pacemaker lost contact with her cellphone, which was left in the house. About 45 minutes earlier, her doorbell camera had captured a man wearing a ski mask approaching her front door with a holstered pistol.
In the following days, the F.B.I. said that two potential ransom notes were sent to local news outlets and TMZ, the celebrity news website. The authorities have not said whether they believe the notes are genuinely from Nancy Guthrie’s abductor.
(In addition to those two notes, there were also other notes sent to TMZ and elsewhere that Ms. Guthrie said were most likely fake.)
As the weeks have worn on, the Guthries have increasingly suggested that they understand Nancy may no longer be alive but have said that they still need to find out what happened to her.
Ms. Guthrie said on Thursday that she was relying on her faith as she and her two older siblings had endured more than 50 days since their mother was taken.
“But we need to know,” she said.
Ms. Guthrie was a retired public relations worker at the University of Arizona who had also taught Bible study classes and, more recently, enjoyed playing mahjong with friends at home.
She was last seen on the night of Jan. 31, when she was dropped off at home after spending dinner and an evening playing games with Annie, her older daughter, and her family.
Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs reports for The Times on national stories across the United States with a focus on criminal justice.
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