Six months have passed since 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie vanished from her Tucson-area home against her will, and her daughter – prominent US television host Savannah Guthrie – has issued a urgent new emotional appeal directly to the people responsible for her abduction, begging for information that could lead to Nancy’s recovery.
In a video posted to social media this week, Guthrie laid bare the unending pain her family has endured since Nancy’s disappearance in late January. “It has been months since our mom was taken from us,” Guthrie said in the video address. “Our family is in agony. We are trapped in a nightmare that will not end. Nothing about our situation has changed. We have done everything in our power to find her, and we will never stop looking. We will always ache for her and carry that empty hole in our hearts forever.”
Looking directly at the camera, she issued a plea to anyone holding information about her mother’s location: “I’m asking you, begging you, to do the right thing now. Help us find her – tell us where to look for her. Help us bring this suffering to an end. For all of us, no matter where we’ve been and what we’ve done, I believe there is always a chance to make things right. Please make the right choice.”
Investigators with the Pima County Sheriff’s Department and the FBI have been working the high-profile case for six months, but the investigation has hit a dead end with no suspects arrested and no clear publicly disclosed motive for the abduction. Nancy, who requires daily prescription medication, was dropped off at her home by relatives on the evening of January 31. When she failed to arrive at a friend’s home the next morning to join a virtual church service, family members raised the alarm.
Authorities previously released surveillance images of an armed, masked suspect who was captured disabling the front door security camera at Nancy’s home shortly before she disappeared. Multiple ransom notes have been sent to the family and leaked to news outlets, two of which law enforcement have deemed credible. The first, sent the day after Nancy’s disappearance, demanded a multi-million dollar ransom paid in Bitcoin for her safe release – it included specific, accurate details about the layout of her home, her bedroom and the surrounding property, according to law enforcement statements to CBS. A second credible note sent days later claimed the 84-year-old had already died. Savannah Guthrie has previously acknowledged that some other ransom communications were confirmed to be hoaxes, and has gone on public record saying she accepts her mother may no longer be alive.
Law enforcement requested that media outlets delay publishing details of the ransom notes during the early stages of the investigation, a request that major US outlets including CBS honored. The Pima County Sheriff’s Department has declined to publicly confirm the contents of the notes, but confirmed in a statement that the investigation “remains active and ongoing” more than half a year after Nancy was taken.