Detectives looking into the disappearance of Savannah Guthrie’s mother have officially ruled out her family as suspects.
Nancy Guthrie, aged 84, is suspected to have been taken from her Tucson, Arizona home in the middle of the night on January 31.
Savannah Guthrie, host of the TODAY show, has been actively campaigning for her mother’s safe return. She has publicly addressed her mother’s abductors, urging them that “it is never too late to do the right thing” and appealing for “whoever has her, or knows where she is” to come forward.
Authorities suspect that a masked, hooded individual, captured on Nancy’s doorbell camera, is responsible for her abduction.
During the investigation, DNA evidence was gathered, which did not match Nancy or her immediate contacts, according to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department (PSCD) announcement on February 13. “Investigators are working to identify who it belongs to. We are not disclosing where that DNA was located,” read a statement shared with People.
In light of this development, Savannah Guthrie and her family have been excluded from being suspects in the case of her mother’s disappearance.
“To be clear … the Guthrie family — to include all siblings and spouses — has been cleared as possible suspects,” stated Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos on February 16. “The family has been nothing but cooperative and gracious and are victims in this case.”
“To suggest otherwise is not only wrong, it is cruel,” the statement continued. “The Guthrie family are victims plain and simple … please, I’m begging you the media to honor your profession and report with some sense of compassion and professionalism.”
The authorities had never officially considered the Guthrie family as suspects.
Previously, authorities discovered a glove approximately two miles from Nancy’s residence, which the FBI indicated ‘appears to match’ gloves worn by the individual seen on the doorbell camera footage.
Sheriff Nanos mentioned that experts from Google specializing in cloud-based video systems are working to retrieve additional significant details from the cameras at Nancy’s home.
“It’s hard. It’s like scratching through layers, think of it like you have eight layers of paint on your house,” he explained to the Daily Mail. “They want to go to the sixth or seventh layer and they have to be very delicate about it not to destroy what’s there.”
Nanos also discussed the challenge of determining the motive behind Nancy’s disappearance.
“This is somebody who’s disappeared from the face of the Earth, and now we have a camera that says here’s the person who did this,” he said.
“And that’s what makes me say this is a kidnapping. The motivation for it is where we get stuck, right? Is it for money? I mean, we had the one demand where they asked for money. But is it really for money, or is it for revenge for something?”
As the investigation continues, alleged ransom notes related to Nancy’s disappearance have been reported by both local and national media. Former President Donald Trump has warned that Nancy Guthrie’s alleged kidnappers will face ‘severe’ repercussions, asserting that they will face the death penalty if she is not returned safely to her family.
Trump had previously described the situation as ‘terrible’ and articulated in a Truth Social post that he would be ‘deploying all resources’ to locate her.
In an interview with the New York Post, Trump mentioned that the kidnappers would face ‘very, very severe — the most severe’ federal punishment if Nancy is found deceased and indicated that he would instruct the Department of Justice (DOJ) to pursue the death penalty.
The FBI is encouraging anyone with information or leads to contact 1-800-CALL-FBI as well as the Pima County Sheriff’s Office at 520-351-4900.