Savannah Guthrie pleads for tips on air as ransom note claims mom is dead
Savannah Guthrie made an emotional plea on air Tuesday, begging the public to come forward with any information about her mother’s disappearance, saying “somebody knows something” and that her family is living in “agony” 20 weeks after Nancy Guthrie was abducted from her Tucson-area home. (Credit: NBC)
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Kidnapping survivor Elizabeth Smart says there’s still a chance Nancy Guthrie can be returned home safely in a new interview 25 weeks after the 84-year-old’s suspected abduction from her home in the Catalina Foothills of 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,” the 38-year-old told E! News in an interview published Friday.
She said she hopes that investigators have more information than is publicly available and that they’re making progress behind the scenes.
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Savannah Guthrie and her mother Nancy Guthrie are pictured Thursday, June 15, 2023. (Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images)
The results of DNA testing and other forensics have not been made public as the case drags on without signs of Guthrie. A purported ransom note and an apparent follow-up message that claimed she had died have not been confirmed as authentic by investigators.
Smart did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Fox News Digital.
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Elizabeth Smart joins John Walsh in the season premiere of “America’s Most Wanted” in April 2025. (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.
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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.
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More recently, she’s become an amateur bodybuilder and took first place in the novice category in a competition in April.
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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.
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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.
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The combined sum of all rewards from authorities, 88-CRIME and the Guthrie family is over $1.2 million.
Fox News’ Julia Bonavita contributed to this report.
