Today show host Savannah Guthrie broke down in tears over the “agony” her family is experiencing in her first sit-down interview since her 84-year-old mother, Nancy, was kidnapped from her Arizona home nearly two months ago.
In a preview of the interview, the 54-year-old NBC anchor became emotional as she spoke with her former morning-show co-host, Hoda Kotb.
“Someone needs to do the right thing,” she said through tears. “We are in agony. It is unbearable. And to think of what she went through.”
“I wake up every night in the middle of the night, every night,” she continued. “And in the darkness, I imagine her terror. And it is unthinkable, but those thoughts demand to be thought. And I will not hide my face.”
“But she needs to come home now,” she added.
The interview — which will air on Thursday and Friday — marks Savannah Guthrie’s first appearance on the Today show since January 30, just two days before her mother was reported missing to the police.
Last week, Savannah Guthrie and her siblings released an emotional plea to their mother’s neighbors in Tucson, Arizona, begging for information that may help the case.
“It’s possible a member of this community has information that they do not even realize is significant,” theToday show host wrote in a statement on Instagram on Sunday. “We hope people search their memories, especially around the key timelines of January 31 and the early morning hours of February 1, as well as the late evening of January 11.”
“We desperately ask this community for renewed attention to our mom’s case — please consult camera footage, journal notes, text messages, observations, or conversations that in retrospect may hold significance,” the statement added. “No detail is too small. It may be the key.”
Nancy Guthrie disappeared from her home in the Catalina Foothills neighborhood outside of Tucson in the early hours of February 1, in what investigators believe was a targeted abduction.
The 84-year-old was in fragile health when she went missing. Her family said she relied on daily medication that could have “fatal” consequences if she doesn’t take it.
911 dispatch audio from when she was reported missing revealed she also has high blood pressure, a pacemaker and cardiac issues.
Drops of Nancy Guthrie’s blood were found on the front porch of her home, and the FBI released surveillance footage on February 10 that showed a masked man at her doorstep the night she went missing.
The Guthrie family has offered a $1 million reward for their mother’s recovery, and the FBI has separately offered a reward of $50,000 for information leading to her recover, or to the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in her disappearance.
