During an emotionally charged television interview broadcast on March 26 and 27, 2026, TODAY show host Savannah Guthrie disclosed her conviction that at least a portion of the ransom communications received by her family after her mother’s vanishing are authentic—while denouncing those who sent fraudulent demands throughout her family’s ordeal.
The journalist, age 54, met with previous co-host and dear friend Hoda Kotb for a two-segment interview discussing the kidnapping of her mother, Nancy Guthrie, who disappeared from her Tucson, Arizona residence during the early morning of February 1. The investigation has now extended nearly 60 days without any suspects being publicly identified, despite an ongoing FBI probe and disturbing doorbell camera video of a masked, weapon-carrying person.
Guthrie offered her evaluation of the multiple ransom communications that arrived following her mother’s vanishing. “I believe the two notes that we received that we responded to, I tend to believe those were real,” she informed Kotb during the Thursday broadcast, noting that the majority of the remaining communications, in her view, are fraudulent.
Authorities verified that a minimum of one ransom communication was counterfeit. Hawthorne, California resident Derrick Callella, 42, was apprehended and charged with sending a false ransom demand in February, introducing heartless fraud to an already tragic circumstance for the Guthrie family.
Guthrie expressed strong disdain for individuals taking advantage of her family’s crisis, stating during the interview that anyone who would send a fake ransom note “really has to look deeply at themselves.”
Nancy Guthrie, 84 years old, was last observed on Saturday, January 31. She routinely met with friends and neighbors to view church services online on Sunday mornings. When she didn’t show up on Sunday morning, February 1, a friend contacted Nancy’s daughter Annie, who resides in the vicinity. The family filed a missing person report that day, and the Pima County Sheriff’s Department swiftly concluded Nancy had been abducted from her residence involuntarily.
The probe took an unsettling direction when the FBI made public doorbell camera footage depicting a masked and armed individual. Guthrie recounted viewing the footage as “absolutely terrifying,” offering the disturbing reflection that she cannot imagine that masked figure was who her mother saw standing over her bed—”it’s too much.”
In addition to the ransom communications, Guthrie also confronted the distressing conspiracy theories that surfaced online, implying family participation in Nancy’s vanishing. Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos publicly declared on February 16 that the Guthrie family had been “100% cooperative” and were eliminated as suspects “in the first few days.”
Nevertheless, the internet conjecture caused profound harm. Guthrie characterized the rumors as “unbearable” and “pain upon pain,” vigorously defending her siblings and stressing that no one took better care of their mother than her sister and brother-in-law, and no one protected her more than her brother.
Kotb, who departed TODAY in January 2025 following 17 years but came back to substitute during Guthrie’s absence, characterized her colleague’s condition as “a tortured limbo” and described witnessing the interview gut-wrenching. She remarked on Guthrie’s extraordinary composure amid intolerable circumstances, detecting both “a desperation and also a steeliness” about her friend.
Savannah Guthrie has been away from her hosting responsibilities since her mother’s vanishing, although she momentarily came back to the TODAY studios for a visit in New York City on March 5 and intends to return to her position at some point during the upcoming weeks. Currently, her priority continues to be locating her mother.
The Guthrie family recently released a statement encouraging the Southern Arizona community to examine security footage, text messages, and personal records from three crucial dates: January 11, January 31, and the early morning hours of February 1. Investigators suspect January 11 may have been a trial run or scouting mission 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 their Sunday, 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 has offered a $1 million private reward for information leading to Nancy’s safe return. The FBI is offering an additional $100,000 reward. Despite the passage of time and the lack of public updates, law enforcement emphasizes that the investigation remains active.
Authorities urge 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 simple but desperate: someone needs to come forward.
