Savannah Guthrie is speaking out abouther mother's disappearanceas the search stretches on. In her first interview since her mother, Nancy Guthrie, went missing, Guthrie spoke through tears to ask for help.
"Someone needs to do the right thing," she told her formerTODAYco-host Hoda Kotb in the first of a three-part interview that premiered on Thursday. "We are in agony. It is unbearable."
The emotional plea comes as the search extends into months. Nancy, 84, was reported missing on February 1 after she failed to show up at a friend's home to watch a streaming church service.Authorities believe she was abductedfrom her Arizona home.
Here are the key moments from her interview.
Guthrie recalls the moment she learned her mother was missing — and the chaotic days that followed
She told Kotb she got the call on February 1 — a moment she says she'll never forget.
"And my sister called me. I said, 'Is everything OK?' And she said, 'No. Mom's missing,'" Guthrie said. "And I said, 'What? What are you talking about?' She said, 'She's gone.' And she was in a panic. I was in a panic."
Guthrie said the first signs that something unimaginable had happened came when family members arrived at her mother's Arizona home and found the back doors propped open. Inside, there were troubling details: her mother's phone, purse, and medications had been left behind. "How is it possible that we are having to make a video speaking to a kidnapper, who took an 84-year-old woman in the dead of night, in her pajamas, with no shoes, without her medicine?" she said of the attempts to reach the captors via social media posts featuring her and her siblings pleading.
She noted that Nancy had been living with "tremendous pain" that limited her mobility, which initially led the family to wonder if it had been a medical emergency. "We thought maybe paramedics had come because the back doors were open — but her phone was there, her purse was there, all her things. And it just didn't make any sense."
In the weeks that followed, Guthrie remained in Arizona. She said her family was forced to move from one home to another as attention on the case intensified. "We had to move houses many times because people came and not everyone is respectful," she said.
At one point, they had to leave in the middle of the night. Eventually, they found a place to stay out of view — but the toll lingered. "Those days are a blur," she said. "Crying and praying."
The moment caught on surveillance that still haunts her
One of the most unsettling moments in the case came when the FBI released doorbell camera images from outside Nancy's home. Shared 10 days after she was reported missing, the clip shows a masked, armed man approaching the door before appearing to tamper with the camera.
Investigators said they worked with "private sector partners" to recover the recording after initially determining the doorbell system had been disconnected around 1:47 a.m. the night Nancy disappeared.
Guthrie recalled seeing it for the first time in her interview with Kotb.
"It's just absolutely terrifying," she said. "And I can't imagine that is who she saw standing over her bed. I can't."
The images have continued to stay with her. "I wake up every night in the middle of the night," she said. "And in the darkness, I imagine her terror. And it is unthinkable, but those thoughts demand to be thought."
She added that she's grateful investigators were able to recover it — both for what it may reveal and for what it helps put to rest.
"I'm glad and grateful to the investigators and the technology companies that were able to find that video to, I hope, at least with people of good heart and compassion, stop the irresponsible and cruel speculation that had started to swirl," Guthrie said.
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She fears her public profile may have made her mother a target
Though investigators have not publicly identified a suspect or motive, Guthrie told Kotb that her brother, Camron, believed right away that their mother had been "kidnapped for ransom."
"Even on the phone when I called him, he knew," the TODAY co-anchor said.
That possibility has forced Guthrie to confront a painful question: whether her visibility as one of the most recognizable faces on television may have played a role.
"Is it because she's my mom and somebody thought, 'Oh, that lady has money — we can make a quick buck?' I mean, that would make sense," she said. "But we don't know."
The thought is "too much to bear," she added. "To think that I brought this to her bedside. That it's because of me."
At one point in the interview, her grief turned inward. "I'd just say I'm so sorry, Mommy," she said in the interview. "I'm so sorry. I'm sorry to my sister and my brother and my kids and my nephew and Tommy, my brother-in-law. I'm just — I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. If it is me, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry."
Guthrie says most ransom notes were likely hoaxes — but two stood out
In the weeks after her mother disappeared, multiple ransom notes surfaced, though she believes most were not credible.
The Pima County Sheriff's Department and the FBI said in February that they were investigating multiple ransom notes, but have not indicated whether any have been linked to a suspect in Nancy's disappearance.
"There are a lot of different notes, I think, that came," Guthrie said. "And I think most of them, it's my understanding, are not real. And I didn't see them. But a person who would send a fake ransom note [to a family in pain] really has to look deeply at themselves."
Still, she says two messages felt different — and were taken seriously enough to warrant a response. "I believe the ones we received and responded to… I tend to believe those are real."
And despite so much uncertainty, she says her mother still feels close. When Kotb noted that Guthrie refers to her mom in the present tense, she responded, "she is present tense to me."
She spoke to God about her mother's whereabouts
Guthrie has relied on prayer and her faith in this time, and she told Kotb about a powerful religious experience she had after her mother's kidnapping: God spoke to her. She asked where her mother was, and she recalls God responding, "'You know where she is. She's with me.' So whether she's on this earth still, or whether she is in heaven, I know where she is. I know who she's with."
She shut down rumors that her family was somehow involved
In the days after Nancy was reported missing, online speculation began to surface, including unfounded claims involving family members. Guthrie addressed those rumors directly, describing them as "unbearable" and underscoring how they've compounded an already devastating situation.
"It piles pain upon pain. There are no words," she told Kotb, visibly emotional.
She went on to defend her loved ones, emphasizing the care and protection surrounding her mother before her disappearance. "No one took better care of my mom than my sister and brother-in-law. And no one protected my mom more than my brother," she said. "We love her — she is our shining light. She's our matriarch. She's all we have."
Guthrie said her focus now is on getting answers, and holding onto hope that someone will eventually come forward.
"People have worked tirelessly, tirelessly," she said. "And we see that. But we need answers. We cannot be at peace without knowing and someone can do the right thing. It is never too late to do the right thing. And our hearts are focused on that."
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