Savannah Guthrie is speaking her heart out in her first interview since her mom, Nancy Guthrie, disappeared.
Teary-eyed, she says her family members were in a state of panic when they received the information that the 84-year-old was missing.
But her brother, the TODAY anchor, shares that he knew it was not a burglary gone wrong but a kidnapping for ransom.
His background is rooted in military service as a retired F-16 fighter. Savannah recalls that before even observing the signs in the house, the door was propped open, there was blood on the doorstep, and the Ring camera had been removed.
Though these details indicated that Nancy could have been forcibly taken, the morning show host’s brother, whom she described as “brilliant”, had guessed it beforehand.
“Even on the phone when I called him, he knew,” Savannah shares about his brother whose name is Charles Camron Guthrie.
She tells TODAY, ‘He said, “I think she’s been kidnapped for ransom.”‘ And I said, ‘What? Well, why? What?’”
Registering at first, Savannah remembers, was hard, especially when it dawned upon her the possibility that her fame and wealth could be the reason her mom was kidnapped.
“It sounds so, like, how dumb could I be? But I just—I didn’t want to believe. I just said, ‘Do you think because of me?’ And he said, ‘I’m sorry, sweetie, but yeah, maybe.’ But I knew that.”
In a tear-soaked interview, Savannah continues to recall the painful memories after the realisation that her career could be blamed for her mum’s kidnapping led her to apologise to her family.
“I’d just say, ‘I’m so sorry, Mommy. 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,” she says, adding, “If it is me, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Savannah’s mom, Nancy, has been missing for over 50 days from her home near Tucson, Arizona.
Authorities are so far unable to produce a serious lead to find her whereabouts or catch her presumed abductor.
