With the FBI assisting and the White House asking the public to help, the search for “Today” co-anchor Savannah Guthrie’s mother continued with urgency Tuesday, more than 48 hours after she was reported missing from her Tuscon home.
“It is a race against time,” Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos told NBC, “and I hope that window hasn’t closed,” as 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie is possibly without the daily medication she needs.
Nancy was last seen around 9:30 or 9:45 p.m. Saturday when her family dropped her off at home, Nanos said. After she didn’t go to church the next morning, Nancy’s family started searching for her and reported her missing around noon. Her home, where authorities say she lived alone, is being treated as a crime scene.
Nancy “is very limited in her mobility,” Nanos said Monday. “We know she didn’t just walk out of there. … There are other things at the scene that indicate that she did not leave on her own.” The same day, Nanos said, a search-and-rescue team was sent home while homicide and criminal investigators pursue the case.
Nanos separately told CBS News that he believes Nancy was “abducted” while she slept. Investigators took DNA samples from the crime scene, but it could take days before anything conclusive is revealed.
In a Tuesday news conference, the sheriff declined to specify what was found in Nancy’s home, and neither confirmed nor denied news reportsthat blood was found at the crime scene.
“I’m not saying there’s blood inside that house or outside that house,” he said. “Think of any crime scene. We go in, and we process it. We look for things like that — blood, DNA, any kind of physical evidence, fingerprints, anything. And all of that is gathered and submitted to a lab. That lab will report back to us what they find. So far what we’ve found from that lab is nothing that would tell us, ‘This is who did this.’”
At the start of the news conference, Nanos admitted he needed to be more careful with his words as he shared updates on what has turned into a sprawling investigation drawing international headlines.
“This is really, for me, pretty new — all the media attention. So I apologize to you for sometimes I’m speaking in generalities, and I’m not used to everybody hanging on to my words, and then trying to hold me accountable for what I say,” he said.
“We are following all leads we have,” he told reporters, adding that the next news briefing would probably be Thursday unless news breaks.
John Edwards, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI office in Tucson, said Tuesday that the FBI has been “downloading and analyzing cellphones, obtaining cell tower information, conducting interviews and providing any and all investigative support that the sheriff’s department needs.”
Nanos earlier noted that Nancy Guthrie needs daily medication and doesn’t have cognitive issues. She “could not walk 50 yards on her own,” said Nanos. Authorities do not know whether she was targeted because she is the mother of Savannah Guthrie.
The Pima County sheriff asked members of the public to contact law enforcement if they have any information on the case and asked neighbors to look at their security footage. “I need this community to step up and start giving us some calls,” Nanos said.
The White House urged anyone with information on Nancy’s disappearance to call 911 in an X post Tuesday: “Our prayers are with the Guthrie family as we hope for Nancy’s safe return home.”
Savannah Guthrie, 54, has co-anchored NBC’s popular morning show “Today” since 2012, a platform that’s made her one of the most recognizable people on television news. The journalist is now in Arizona and missed Monday morning’s “Today” broadcast.
“On behalf of our family, I want to thank everyone for the thoughts, prayers and messages of support,” Guthrie said in a statement provided by NBC News, which ran a special report on Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance and aired the news conference Monday. “Right now, our focus remains on the safe return of our dear mom. We thank law enforcement for their hard work on this case.”
In a statement Tuesday afternoon, a spokesperson for NBC News said that Guthrie will not travel to Italy to participate in the network’s Winter Olympics coverage “as she focuses on being with her family during this difficult time.”
“Our hearts are with her and the entire Guthrie family as the search continues for their mother,” the statement continued.
Nancy Guthrie appeared on “Today” several times over the years and took evident delight in reminiscing with her daughter.
Nancy was born in Kentucky and gave birth to Savannah in Melbourne, Australia, after her husband — a miner — was transferred there for work. Nancy and Savannah traveled back and visited their old house for an episode in 2015.
Savannah’s father died of a heart attack when she was 16. She often credited Nancy with keeping her and her siblings together through their grief. “The kids and us — we just gravitated towards one another, don’t you think?” Nancy asked her daughter in a 2014 episode.
She and Savannah often sparred playfully on “Today,” where Nancy once described herself as “more the laissez-faire type” type of mom.
Savannah rather thought of her as “tough” — “a no-nonsense mom,” who expected her to do her own SAT studies and catch her own buses. She said Nancy would send the children to play outside all day and “literally ring a cow bell to come home for dinner.”
“She’s also kind and loving and tender, but she can crack that whip, metaphorically,” Savannah recalled when her mother joined her in the studio in 2014.
“Well, what about fun? Didn’t we have fun?” Nancy asked.
“Yes, of course,” Savannah said.
Savannah said her mother encouraged her to leave home and take her first newsroom job when she was 21. “She said, ‘If you can’t leave me, then I didn’t do my job right.’” When Savannah struggled to conceive in her 30s, she told Good Housekeeping, Nancy reassured her: “‘Well, of course you’re going to have your family, Savannah!’ It felt good.”
An overjoyed Nancy appeared on “Today” after Savannah announced her first pregnancy in 2014. She came back again and again, to talk about Savannah’s wannabe Goth phase, or demonstrate her spoon bread recipe. It is unclear when the physical issues referred to by the sheriff’s office reduced her mobility. Nancy did not appear on the show in January 2022 for her 80th birthday but was instead the subject of a video tribute.
“She has met unthinkable challenges in her life, with grit, without self-pity, with determination and always, always with unshakable faith,” Savannah narratedover a montage of photos. “She loves us, her family, fiercely, and her selflessness and sacrifice for us, her steadfastness and her unmovable confidence, is the reason any of us grew up to do anything.”
In an Instagram post late Monday, Savannah called for prayers for “our beloved mom, our dearest Nancy, a woman of deep conviction, a good and faithful servant.”
“Bring her home,” she wrote.
Avi Selk contributed to this report.
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