Authorities in Arizona searching for the 84-year-old mother of the Today show presenter Savannah Guthrie said on Monday they were treating the missing woman’s home as a crime scene, and expressed “grave concern” for her safety.
Nancy Guthrie was last seen by her family at her house near Tucson on Saturday night, and was reported missing on Sunday lunchtime, sparking a search using a helicopter, drones and dogs, officials said.
At a press conference that night, Chris Nanos, sheriff of Pima county, said he could not rule out foul play.
He went further at a Monday morning briefing, declaring “we do in fact have a crime scene”, and suggesting she did not leave by herself.
“I need this community to step up and start giving us some calls,” he said.
The sheriff said Guthrie had limited mobility, and although she has no cognitive issues, she requires medication that must be administered within 24 hours.
He said there were other things that indicated she did not leave on her own, but giving details “would be inappropriate at this time”.
“We know she didn’t just walk out of there,” the sheriff said, adding that she “could not walk 50 yards on her own”.
Investigators were in possession of her cellphone, according to a report on the website of NBC’s Today show, of which Savannah Guthrie has been a co-anchor since 2012.
It said Guthrie’s family told police they were alerted to her disappearance when they received a call from someone at their local church saying Nancy Guthrie was not there. The family then went to her house and searched for her before calling police, the report said.
Nanos said at a Sunday night news conference that Nancy Guthrie was last seen around 9.30pm Saturday at her home. Search and rescue teams were supported by volunteers and border patrol and the homicide team was also involved, Nanos said Sunday, adding that it was not standard for the homicide team to get involved in such cases.
During the Monday update, Nanos said the search had been “shut down” because her disappearance was being treated as a crime, Today’s website reported.
It said Savannah Guthrie was in contact with police and was in Arizona. She issued a statement on Sunday, the Today show reported.
“On behalf of our family, I want to thank everyone for the thoughts, prayers and messages of support,” she said.
“Our focus remains on the safe return of our dear mom. We thank law enforcement for their hard work on this case and encourage anyone with information to contact the Pima county sheriff’s department.”
Today opened Monday’s show with the story of the disappearance of the co-anchor’s mother, but Savannah Guthrie was not at the anchor’s desk.
In a 2022 interview, Savannah Guthrie spoke of having a close bond with her mother, especially after the death of her father, Charles, when she was 16.
“My father died when I was entering my senior year in high school. I then lived at home all through college. We didn’t have money to afford the dorm. And that was thing one, but the other was that my sister and I really felt like we should stick with my mom and not leave her alone,” she said.
She said her mother was “selfless” when she moved to Montana at the age of 21 for her first news reporting job: “She said, ‘If you can’t leave me, then I didn’t do my job right, Savannah’.
“She could have held onto me. It wouldn’t have taken very much. If she said, ‘Well, you know Savannah, maybe you could find something a little closer to home…’”
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