Savannah Guthrie Recalls ‘Chaos’ at Mom Nancy’s Home After She Disappeared—and Reveals Fears Her Fame Made 84-Year-Old a Target

To see our latest updates on the Nancy Guthrie case, please click here.

Savannah Guthrie has shared new details about the “chaos” that erupted at mom Nancy Guthrie’s home after the 84-year-old was reported missing from the property nearly two months ago. 

Sitting down with her former “Today” show co-host Hoda Kotb in her first interview since her mom disappeared, Savannah, 54, opened up about the moment she learned her mother had disappeared from her Arizona dwelling—revealing that she received a call from her sister, Annie Guthrie, on Feb. 1 that left her in a total “panic.” 

“My sister called me. I said, ‘Is everything OK?’ And she said, ‘No.’ She said, ‘Mom’s missing,’” Savannah recalled. “And I said, ‘What? What are you talking about?’ She said, ‘She’s gone.’ And she was in a panic. I was in a panic.’”

At the time, the on-air host was with her husband, Mike Feldman, and their two children, Vale and Charley, at their Brooklyn townhome—but said she immediately began calling local hospitals in Arizona to see if Nancy had been taken in for medical care. 

By that point, Annie and her husband, Tommaso Cioni, had already called 911, with Savannah noting that investigators initially thought her mother had wandered off, a theory that she and her family quickly rejected, explaining that Nancy was living in “tremendous pain” that left her unable to make it to her mailbox every day, let alone walk off into the night. 

“I started calling the hospitals, and the police were there and talking to [Annie] at the same time, and it was just chaos and disbelief,” Savannah said.

“I think we were on the phone with the sheriff and trying to really make clear … from the very early moments, Annie and Tommy were saying, ‘This isn’t that case that you are used to where someone wanders off. She can’t wander off.’

Anyone with any information about Nancy Guthrie's case should call 1-800-CALL-FBI, 520-351-4900, 88-CRIME, or visit https://tips.fbi.gov/.

“My mom, she was in tremendous pain. Her back was very bad. On a good day, she could walk down to the mailbox and get the mail, but most days not. So there wasn’t a wander off.”

Speaking about the scene at Nancy’s property, Savannah said that the back doors to the home were “propped open,” which led her and her siblings to believe that their mother had perhaps suffered “some kind of medical episode in the night” that required paramedics to access the dwelling through that entrance. 

However, they quickly realized that something more sinister may have occurred—when it was noted that Nancy’s personal effects, including her purse and her phone, were still at the home. Detectives then discovered that there was blood on the doorstep of the property, while the doorbell camera had been “yanked off” the frame of the front entrance.

“The doors were propped open, and there was blood on the front doorstep. And the camera had been yanked off. And so we were saying, ‘This is not OK. Something is very wrong here.’”

Savannah confessed that her mother's disappearance was made all the more agonizing for her family, because she was taken from the home where the "Today" host and her siblings had been raised—and where they made some of their most significant memories as a family.

"It’s the house where I came home on a Friday night at 16 and my mom and sister were on the couch praying, and told me that my father had died," she revealed.

"It’s the house where all of our memories are, good and bad. So it’s hallowed ground. It’s really hard to see that violated. And the terror. The terror that she must have felt is unbearable."

Nancy was reported missing by her family on Feb. 1, after she failed to turn up to a friend’s home, where she had been due to watch a livestreamed church service. 

Members of the Pima County Sheriff’s Department began a desperate search for the missing 84-year-old and were soon joined in those efforts by agents from the FBI headquarters in Phoenix. 

However, little progress appears to have been made in the investigation—save for video footage that was recovered from Nancy’s missing doorbell camera, which shows a masked and armed man approaching her home. The footage is understood to have been taken in the early hours of Feb. 1, shortly before the camera was disconnected, according to a timeline shared by Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos. 

Speaking about the harrowing footage that was recorded of the anonymous suspect, Savannah said the video was "totally terrifying" to her, adding that she can't imagine the horror her mother felt at seeing such a person "standing over her bed."

The sheriff has previously said that he believes Nancy's abduction was "targeted" and Savannah told Hoda that she fears her mother may have been taken because of her on-screen fame as a "Today" host.

"I don’t know that it’s because she’s my mom and somebody thought, ‘Oh, that girl— that lady has money. We can … make a quick buck.’ I mean, that would make sense,” Savannah shared. “But we don’t know. Which is too much to bear, to think that I brought this to her bedside. That it’s because of me."

Savannah added that her brother, Cameron, who has a military background, was the first to suggest their mother may have been kidnapped by a person or persons who wanted to hold her for ransom.

"“Even on the phone when I called him, he knew," she said. "He said, ‘I think she’s been kidnapped for ransom.’ And I said, ‘What? Well, why? What?’

"It sounds so, like, how dumb could I be? But I just—I didn’t wanna believe. I just said, ‘Do you think because of me?’ And he said, ‘I’m sorry, sweetie, but yeah, maybe.’ But I knew that."

Breaking down in tears, Savannah issued a heartbreaking apology to her mother for any part her career may have played in her abduction, saying: "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.

"If it is me, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry."

Addressing two ransom notes that were sent to several news outlets—including TMZ and local Arizona networks—Savannah said she does believe they are authentic, telling Hoda that, while multiple notes were sent in the wake of Nancy's abduction, those two stood out to her as being real.

She also hit out at anyone who sent a fake ransom message to her family, urging those persons to "look deeply at themselves" and examine what would have made them feel it was acceptable to take advantage of another human's "pain."

The notes that she believes to be authentic were, she added, the ones that she and her family issued a response to, by posting videos on Instagram urging the person or persons who sent them to get in touch and share details of their demands.

"There are a lot of different notes, I think, that came. And I think most of them, it’s my understanding, are not real. And I didn’t see them," she said. "But, you know, a person that would send a fake ransom note really has to look deeply at themselves, to a family in pain.

"But I believe the two notes that we received that we responded to, I tend to believe those are real."

What is the full timeline of Nancy Guthrie's disappearance?

Nanos noted during a media briefing on Feb. 5 that, while times are approximate, his team has pieced together several pieces of evidence that indicate Nancy's movements—and the timeline of her apparent abduction.

Nancy was reported missing at around 12 p.m. local time on Feb. 1, around 14 hours after she was dropped off at the property following a family dinner. When she failed to turn up at her usual church gathering on Sunday, her friends alerted her family, who found her home was empty.

SATURDAY, JAN. 31

5:32 p.m. Nancy travels to Annie's house in an Uber for "dinner and playing games with the family."

9:48 p.m. A garage door at Nancy's house opens when she was dropped off at the property by her daughter.

9:50 p.m. The garage door closes, indicating that Nancy was inside the home.

SUNDAY, FEB. 1

1:47 a.m. Nancy's doorbell security camera is disconnected.

2:12 a.m. Movement is detected on a security camera at the home. No footage of this is currently available.

2:28 a.m. Nancy's pacemaker app indicates that the device has been disconnected from her phone.

11:00 a.m. Nancy fails to arrive at the home of a friend, where she had been due to watch a church service livestream.

11:56 a.m. Nancy's family travels to her home to check on her and finds the property empty.

12:03 p.m. The family calls 911 to report Nancy missing.

12:14 p.m. Police officers arrive at Nancy's home.