Savannah Guthrie wonders if her fame is to blame for mother’s disappearance

CNN

By Eric Levenson, CNN

(CNN) — Savannah Guthrie said she believes her mother may have been abducted for ransom because of her fame, the “Today” show host said in her first interview since her mother’s disappearance nearly two months ago.

Speaking to her NBC colleague and friend Hoda Kotb, Guthrie said her brother first raised the possibility that Nancy Guthrie was kidnapped for ransom.

“I said, ‘What? Why? What?’ It sounds so – how dumb could I be but I just, I didn’t want to believe. I said, ‘Do you think because of me?’” Guthrie said. “He said, ‘I’m sorry sweetie, but yeah maybe.’ But I knew that. I hope not. I mean we still don’t know. Honestly we don’t know anything.

“I don’t know that it’s because she’s my mom, and somebody thought, ‘That lady has money, we could make a quick buck.’ I mean that would make sense, but we don’t know, but yeah that’s probably. Which is too much to bear, to think that I brought this to her bedside, that it’s because of me.

“I just say, I’m so sorry mommy. I’m so sorry. … If it is me, I’m so sorry,” she said.

The interview comes nearly two months after Nancy Guthrie, 84, disappeared from her home in Tucson, Arizona, on January 31 in what police believe to be an abduction.

Video from her doorbell camera showed an armed, masked person tampering with the camera at her home that night, and Guthrie’s blood was found on the front porch, according to authorities. Several purported ransom letters demanded millions of dollars in bitcoin for her return, but the family and police did not receive proof of their legitimacy.

The suspect in the video is described as male, about 5-feet-9-inches to 5-feet-10-inches tall and having an average build. His backpack was identified as a black, 25-liter Ozark Trail Hiker Pack.

Guthrie and her family have released emotional videos pleading for their mother’s return and asked the public to provide tips on her whereabouts. The family announced a $1 million reward for information leading to her mother’s recovery.

Officials say the case is still active, with a 20- to 24-person task force dedicated to the investigation. “We’re not giving up,” Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos told KOLD, the CBS affiliate in Tucson, earlier this week. The Guthrie family maintains close communication with law enforcement, a friend of Savannah’s told CNN.

Guthrie describes learning about abduction

NBC first released a short clip of Guthrie’s interview on Wednesday and plans to release further clips on Friday. Guthrie and Kotb co-hosted “Today” from 2018 until Kotb’s departure last year.

In the parts of the interview that aired Thursday, Guthrie offered a few new details about her mother and the early moments of the investigation.

She first learned about her mother’s disappearance when her sister called her.

“I said, ‘Is everything OK?’ and she said, ‘No, mom’s missing.’ 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.

She said she initially thought her mother may have had a medical episode in the night and paramedics took her to a hospital “because the back doors were propped open.” But her phone and purse were still there, so that theory didn’t make any sense.

“It was just chaos and disbelief,” she said.

She said her mother was in tremendous pain due to a bad back and could only walk as far as the mailbox on a good day.

“There was no wander off,” she said. “And the doors were propped open, and there was blood on the front door step, and the Ring camera had been ripped off. So we were saying, this is not OK. Something is very wrong here.”

Regarding the purported ransom notes, Guthrie said it was her understanding most were not real. But not all.

“I believe the two notes that we received, that we responded to, I tend to believe those are real,” she said.

Seeing the Ring video of the masked and armed suspect was “absolutely terrifying,” she said. “I can’t imagine that’s who she saw standing over her bed. I can’t. It’s too much.”

Her mother’s home in Tucson is the same home in which Guthrie was raised.

“It’s the house where all of our memories are, good and bad, so it’s hallowed ground,” she said. “That’s my mom’s safe haven. It’s really hard to see that violated.”

Guthrie spoke about her decision to leave Tucson and return to New York without a resolution in the case. Her father died when Guthrie was just 16, and her mother’s response taught her how to survive grief.

“I remember my mom saying in those early days when daddy died, ‘You have to get up and decide and do. Just decide and do,’” Guthrie said. “I always remember that, so I’m trying to decide and do. Let’s get up and decide and do every day.”

Guthrie, 54, is the centerpiece of the “Today” show, one of the most important franchises at NBCUniversal. The network has not yet announced a return date for Guthrie, but a person close to the show said they anticipate Guthrie coming back to Studio 1A sometime in April.

Finally, she said her faith was helping her through this period and said she had heard a message from above.

“For one of the very few times in my life, I did hear God speak to me,” she said. “As I said to myself, ‘I can handle anything God, I can handle anything, I just can’t handle not knowing. We can’t handle not knowing. I have to know.’ And I heard a voice, and it said, ‘You do know where she is. She’s with me. She’s with me.’

“So whether she’s on this earth still, or whether she’s in heaven, I know where she is. I know who she’s with.”

This story has been updated with additional information.

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CNN’s Brian Stelter contributed to this report.