Savannah Guthrie has apologised to her family and her missing mother, Nancy Guthrie, because she fears her mom was kidnapped due to her own fame.
Savannah Guthrie has apologised to her missing mother, Nancy Guthrie, because she fears her mom was kidnapped due to her own fame.
The Today host and her siblings, Annie and Camron, reported their 84-year-old mom Nancy Guthrie missing at the end of January and she is devastated to think her own high-profile was a reason for someone to take the matriarch in a bid to make a “quick buck”.
In the first part of a two-part interview with Hoda Kotb being broadcast on Today this week, Savannah cried as she said: I think my brother, my siblings are so amazing, my brother, he spent his career in the military and worked in intelligence and is a fighter pilot and just brilliant and he saw very clearly right away what this was.
“And even on the phone when I called him, he knew. He said, ‘I think she’s been kidnapped for ransom.’ And I said, ‘What?!’
“It sounds so — how dumb could I be — but I said, ‘Do you think because of me?’ He said, ‘I’m sorry, sweetie, but yeah, maybe’.
“I hope not. I mean, we still don’t know. Honestly, we don’t know anything. We don’t know anything.
“So I don’t know that it’s because she’s my mom and somebody thought, ‘Oh, that lady has money we could make a quick buck.’
“That would make sense, but that’s probably… which is too much to bear. To think that I brought this to her bedside, that it’s because of me?”
Devastated Savannah then offered an apology to her mom and wider family.
She said: “Can I just say, I’m so sorry, Mommy. I’m sorry to my sister and my brother and my kids and my nephew and Tommy, my brother-in-law. I’m just so sorry. I’m so sorry. If it is me, I’m so sorry.”
The 54-year-old presenter’s colleagues were upset by her confession.
Craig Melvin said: “The fact that our dear friend would blame herself…”
Carson Daly agreed: “Oh, that was the hardest part.”
Craig added: “That was the hardest part. That she would blame herself for any of this when it was some sicko or sickos out there who would kidnap a woman in the middle of the night.”
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department (PCSD) launched an urgent search for Nancy after she failed to show up for a church service on 1 February, the day after her relatives had dropped her home.
Investigators believe she was kidnapped overnight, and have obtained surveillance footage of a masked man at her door.
Earlier this month, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos admitted that investigators believe they know the motive behind the kidnapping, but didn’t offer any details.
He told NBC News: “We believe we know why [the kidnapper] did this and we believe that it was targeted, but we’re not 100% sure of that.
“I think day one, we had some strong beliefs about what happened, and those beliefs haven’t diminished.”
Savannah Guthrie tearfully says sorry to missing mom Nancy Guthrie
