Savannah Guthrie pleads for tips on air as ransom note claims mom is dead
Savannah Guthrie delivered a tearful on-air appeal Tuesday, urging anyone with information about her mother’s disappearance to speak up. “Somebody knows something,” she said, describing her family’s ordeal as “agony” 20 weeks after Nancy Guthrie was abducted from her home in the Tucson area. (Credit: NBC)
Elizabeth Smart, who survived a high-profile kidnapping as a teenager, says hope should not be abandoned in the search for Nancy Guthrie, 25 weeks after the 84-year-old was reportedly taken from her home in the Catalina Foothills near Tucson, Arizona.
“I want to remind people that there isn’t a body, so there is still reason to have hope that she is alive and that we shouldn’t give up until we find her,” Smart, 38, told E! News in an interview published Friday.
Smart also said she hopes investigators know more than they have publicly disclosed and are continuing to make progress out of public view.
Savannah Guthrie and her mother, Nancy Guthrie, are seen Thursday, June 15, 2023. (Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images)
Authorities have not released the results of DNA testing or other forensic work as the case continues without any confirmed sign of Guthrie. Investigators also have not verified the authenticity of an alleged ransom note or a later message that claimed she had died.
Smart did not immediately respond to INC News’ request for comment.
Elizabeth Smart appears with John Walsh in the April 2025 season premiere of “America’s Most Wanted.” (FOX Image Collection)
In 2002, as a 14-year-old, Smart was abducted at knifepoint from her family’s home in Salt Lake City, Utah, by married couple Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee.
Police rescued her nine months later after members of the public recognized Mitchell and Barzee from news coverage of the case and called authorities in Sandy, Utah, about 20 miles to the south of her home.
More recently, she’s become an amateur bodybuilder and took first place in the novice category in a competition in April.
Elizabeth Smart won first place in the novice category, second in Class D, and third in the Masters 35+ category at the Wasatch Warrior Competition in Salt Lake City, Utah, on April 18, 2026. (Mitchell Gilbert/Gilco Productions)
Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie, was taken by force from her home in Tucson, Arizona, in the early hours of Feb. 1, according to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department.
These two images were released by the FBI, recovered from Nancy Guthrie’s Nest doorbell camera. It’s unclear whether they show the same person. (FBI)
The FBI and Google have released home security video recorded by her missing Nest doorbell camera that shows a masked intruder on her doorstep that morning.
Authorities have asked anyone with information on the case to dial 1-800-CALL-FBI. Tipsters can remain anonymous by calling 520-88-CRIME, Tucson’s Crime Stoppers affiliate.
“If anyone knows anything or seen anything — or the smallest detail that might seem insignificant can make all the difference — just report it,” Smart told the interviewer.
The combined sum of all rewards from authorities, 88-CRIME and the Guthrie family is over $1.2 million.
