Jonathan Allen and Jacques Billeaud
Arizona/New York: Investigators believe the 84-year-old mother of US journalist and television host Savannah Guthrie was abducted, a local sheriff in Arizona said, after she vanished from her home near Tucson and was reported missing over the weekend.
“We believe 100 per cent right now she could not have walked away from that home,” Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos told CBS News. “I believe she was abducted, yes. She didn’t walk from there. She didn’t go willingly. We don’t believe that.”
Nancy Guthrie was last seen at her home on Saturday night, when she was visited by her children, and was reported missing on Sunday afternoon, Arizona time.
She had limited mobility and could not have left her home, where she lived alone, unaided, Nanos told a press conference earlier on Monday, when he said her disappearance was being treated as a crime.
Nanos later expanded on his remarks in an interview with CBS to say he believed she was abducted.
Guthrie’s family was especially worried because she needed to take daily medication.
“She’s 84, she needs her meds, her family needs her too,” Nanos told reporters, imploring the public to send in tips. “This is not dementia-related, she is as sharp as a tack. The family wants everybody to know this isn’t somebody who just wandered off.
“If she’s alive right now, her meds are vital. I can’t stress that enough. It’s been better than 24 hours, and the family tells us if she doesn’t have those meds, it can become fatal.”
Savannah Guthrie – who was born in Melbourne, where her father worked at the time, but grew up in Tucson – did not appear in her usual seat on NBC’s Today show on Monday morning, which broadcasts from New York City.
“Right now, our focus remains on the safe return of our dear mum,” the presenter said in a statement read out by her colleagues.
Nanos said a family member had received a call from someone at church saying Guthrie wasn’t there, leading the family to search for her at her home and then calling 911.
Searchers were using drones and search dogs to look for Guthrie, Nanos said. Search and rescue teams were supported by volunteers and Border Patrol and the homicide team was also involved, he said. It was not standard for the homicide team to get involved in such cases, Nanos said.
“This one stood out because of what was described to us at the scene and what we located just looking at the scene,” Nanos said.
On Monday morning, Nanos said search crews worked hard but had since been pulled back.
“We don’t see this as a search mission so much as it is a crime scene,” the sheriff said.
Even so, a sheriff’s helicopter flew over the desert on Monday afternoon near Guthrie’s home in the affluent Catalina Foothills area on the northern edge of Tucson.
Savannah Guthrie issued a statement on behalf of her family on Monday, NBC’s Today show reported, thanking everyone for their thoughts, prayers and messages.
“Right now, our focus remains on the safe return of our dear Nancy,” she said.
Nancy Guthrie appeared in a November 2025 story her daughter did about her home town. Over a meal, Savannah asked her mother what made the family want to plant roots in Tucson in the 1970s.
“It’s so wonderful. Just the air, the quality of life,” Nancy said. “It’s laid back and gentle.”
She said she liked to see the javelinas, piglike desert mammals, eat her plants.
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