Savannah Guthrie Says Her Mother Was Kidnapped for Her Fame, Reveals $6 Million Ransom Demand
In her first interview since Nancy Guthrie vanished 54 days ago, the NBC Today co-anchor said two cryptocurrency ransom demands are genuine and that her mother was targeted because of her celebrity.
Savannah Guthrie spoke publicly for the first time Thursday since her 84-year-old mother Nancy vanished from her Tucson, Arizona home 54 days ago, saying she believes Nancy was specifically targeted because of her daughter's fame and that two ransom demands the family received in cryptocurrency are genuine. The interview, aired on NBC's Today show, represented the most detailed account yet of a case that has captivated the country since Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos announced in early February that he believed Nancy Guthrie had been abducted.
Nancy Guthrie was last seen on February 1 at her home in the Catalina Foothills neighborhood, an affluent suburb south of Tucson. Evidence recovered at the residence — including doors that Savannah Guthrie said were found propped open — indicated to investigators that she had been taken against her will. The Pima County Sheriff's Office has not made any arrests and has declined to discuss specific investigative leads, but has confirmed it is working with federal authorities. The family has offered a $1 million reward for information leading to Nancy's safe return.
Multiple ransom demands were sent in the weeks following the disappearance, demanding $6 million payable in cryptocurrency with a deadline of February 9. While investigators believe many of those notes were sent by opportunists exploiting the family's vulnerability, Savannah Guthrie told Today that two specific notes were different. "We believe they are genuine," she said, adding that the family had responded to the demands. She declined to say whether any money had been paid or what response the family received, citing the advice of investigators.
Savannah Guthrie, 54, has been on leave from Today since her mother's disappearance became public. She announced Thursday that she plans to return to the program on April 6. The case has drawn comparisons to other high-profile kidnapping cases involving relatives of public figures, though law enforcement officials caution that the dynamics of such cases vary enormously. The $6 million figure demanded — payable in an anonymous digital currency that would be difficult to trace — suggests sophisticated planning, according to security experts who have reviewed publicly available details of the case.
The Sheriff's investigation is believed to include cooperation from the FBI's Victim Services Division and its Kidnapping and Hostage Rescue team. Pima County has declined to identify persons of interest or confirm whether investigators have named a suspect in the abduction. As of Friday, Nancy Guthrie had been missing for 54 days, making her case one of the longer-running active kidnapping investigations in Arizona state history. The case has unfolded against the backdrop of the ongoing Iran war, which has dominated the national news cycle and led some observers to note the painful personal dimension of Savannah Guthrie's situation: one of the country's most prominent broadcast journalists, ordinarily responsible for anchoring coverage of the nation's biggest stories, navigating a private crisis of her own while those stories continue without her.
Originally reported by NBC News.