In a moving television interview broadcast on March 26 and 27, 2026, TODAY host Savannah Guthrie said she suspects some of the ransom notes her family received after her mother went missing are legitimate — and condemned those who sent bogus demands while her family endured this ordeal.
The 54-year-old journalist spoke with former co-anchor and longtime friend Hoda Kotb in a two-part conversation about the disappearance of her mother, Nancy Guthrie, who was taken from her Tucson, Arizona home in the early hours of Feb. 1. The investigation has now gone nearly 60 days without any public suspects despite an active FBI probe and disturbing doorbell camera footage of a masked, armed person.
Guthrie discussed the many ransom demands that arrived after her mother disappeared. “I believe the two notes that we received that we responded to, I tend to believe those were real,” she told Kotb in the Thursday broadcast, while saying she thinks most of the other notes were likely fraudulent.
Authorities confirmed at least one note was a hoax. Derrick Callella, 42, of Hawthorne, California, was arrested and charged in February for sending a fake ransom demand, adding misery to the Guthrie family’s already painful situation.
Guthrie didn’t mince words about those preying on her family’s pain, telling the interview that anyone who would send a false ransom note “really has to look deeply at themselves.” She also expressed guilt over her mother’s abduction, saying it is “too much to bear to think that I brought this to her bedside. That it’s because of me … And I just want to say I’m so sorry, mommy. I’m so sorry.”
The 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie was last seen on Saturday, Jan. 31. She routinely joined friends and neighbors to watch online church services on Sunday mornings. When she didn’t show up on Sunday, Feb. 1, a friend alerted Nancy’s daughter Annie Guthrie, who lives nearby., who lives nearby. The family reported her missing that day, and the Pima County Sheriff’s Department concluded Nancy had been taken from her home against her will.
The case grew more chilling after the FBI released doorbell camera video showing a masked, armed person. Guthrie called viewing the footage “absolutely terrifying,” saying she cannot fathom that the masked figure was what her mother saw over her bed—”it’s too much.” She also revealed that when family members arrived at the home after Nancy was reported missing, they found the two back doors propped open, with no sign of her mother and all of her belongings — phone, purse, and medication — still inside.
Guthrie also addressed painful conspiracy theories circulating online that suggested her family was involved. Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said publicly on Feb. 16 that the Guthrie family had been “100% cooperative” and were cleared as suspects “in the first few days.” Nanos has since come under intense pressure, however. On March 24, the Pima County Deputies Organization — representing over 300 deputies — passed a unanimous no-confidence vote calling for his immediate resignation, after records revealed he had resigned from the El Paso Police Department in 1982 to avoid termination over disciplinary issues including excessive force and insubordination. The Pima County Board of Supervisors has also voted to compel him to answer questions under oath, with noncompliance potentially providing a path for his removal. A separate public recall effort is underway.
Despite that, the rumors caused deep hurt. Guthrie described the speculation as “unbearable” and “pain upon pain,” defending her siblings and stressing that her sister and brother-in-law cared for their mother, and that her brother was protective of her.
Kotb, who left TODAY in January 2025 after 17 years but returned to fill in during Guthrie’s absence, said her colleague was living in “a tortured limbo” and called the interview heartbreaking. She praised Guthrie’s composure, noting both “a desperation and also a steeliness.”
Savannah Guthrie has not been hosting since her mother’s disappearance, though she briefly visited the TODAY studios in New York City on March 5. NBC has confirmed she will return to the show on April 6. “I can’t come back and try to be something that I’m not,” she told Kotb. “I don’t know if I can do it. I don’t know if I’ll belong anymore, but I would like to try.”
The family asked the Southern Arizona community to check security video, texts, and records from three key dates: Jan. 11, Jan. 31, and the early hours of Feb. 1. Investigators think Jan. 11 might have been a reconnaissance or practice run by the perpetrator.
“We continue to believe it is Tucsonans, and the greater Southern Arizona community, that hold the key to finding a resolution in this case,” the family said in a March 22 statement. “Someone knows something. It’s possible a member of this community has information that they do not even realize is significant.”
The family is offering a $1 million private reward for information leading to Nancy’s safe return, and the FBI has added $100,000. Though public updates have been limited, law enforcement says the investigation remains active.
Officials ask anyone with information to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or tips.fbi.gov, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department at 520-351-4900, or 88-CRIME. The family’s plea is urgent and simple: someone must come forward.