Topline
“Today” show host Savannah Guthrie released a new video addressing her mother’s kidnappers Monday and begged they share information with her family about “where to look” for the missing 84-year-old woman who was taken from her home more than six months ago.
Key Facts
In a new video posted to Instagram, Guthrie said her family remains in “agony” over not knowing what happened to her mother and said she is “begging” the alleged kidnappers to “make the right choice.”
“Help us find her. Tell us where to look for her. I truly believe it is never too late to do the right thing,” Guthrie said.
Guthrie said “we’ve done our part” to find her mother and pleaded for her location, telling the kidnappers, “For all of us, no matter where we’ve been and what we’ve done, I believe there is always a way home.”
Key background
Savannah Guthrie and her siblings have made repeated pleas to the public for information and directly addressed their mother’s kidnappers in multiple videos since she disappeared on Feb. 1. Investigators quickly concluded she’d been abducted from her home near Tucson, Arizona, and doorbell camera images showed an armed, masked person outside her front door. The FBI and local authorities launched a major investigation involving forensic evidence, surveillance footage and thousands of leads. Several apparent breakthroughs, including DNA found on gloves near the scene and the arrest of a person of interest, ultimately failed to identify a suspect. Almost six months after her disappearance, no arrests have been made and Nancy Guthrie has not been found.
WHAT DID THE NANCY GUTHRIE RANSOM NOTES SAY?
In late June, media outlets reported several ransom notes had been sent to the Guthrie family early on in Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance. Reports said investigators received a message from the kidnappers on Feb. 2 demanding $4 million for her return. By Feb. 6, they were reportedly sent a second note claiming Nancy was dead. One reporter who claimed to have seen the notes said the kidnappers told the Gutheries they did not mean for her to die, but misunderstood the seriousness of her medical conditions. The note reportedly said she had been “buried with nature” and the kidnappers did not offer to release her body in exchange for payment. Savannah and her siblings shared a video on Feb. 7 in which they appeared to address the kidnappers by saying: “We received your message, and we understand,” and asked they “return our mother to us so that we can celebrate with her.” Months later, on June 30, Reuters reported the kidnapping-related messages that surfaced in news reports were all deemed by federal investigators to be fake communications. An FBI official told Reuters “none of the ransom notes are believed to be genuine.”