Nancy Guthrie is described as about 5-feet, 5-inches tall and weighing about 150 pounds. She has brown hair and blue eyes. Photo courtesy of Pima County Sheriff’s Department/X
The 84-year-old mother of NBC anchor Savannah Guthrie, reported missing in Arizona over the weekend, appears to have been abducted from her home, police said on Monday evening.
Nancy Guthrie has not been seen since Saturday night at about 9:30 to 9:45 p.m. MST, outside of her Tucson home, Sheriff Chris Nanos of the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said.
Nancy Guthrie, who was reported missing around noon on Sunday, was taken from her home while she slept, Nanos told CBS News and ABC News on Monday evening.
“I believe she was abducted, yes,” Nanos said. “She didn’t walk from there. She didn’t go willingly.”
In an afternoon press conference, Nanos already had said police were treating her house as a crime scene, NBC News reported, though he did not share details or a theory at the time.
“We do in fact have a crime,” he said. “She did not leave here on her own. We know that.”
Nancy Guthrie is described as about 5-feet, 5-inches tall and weighing about 150 pounds. She has brown hair and blue eyes.
Homicide detectives processed the scene at Guthrie’s home, which is not standard protocol, and Nanos said some details at the scene raise concern.
“This one stood out because of what was described to us at the scene and what we found and located just in looking at the scene,” Nanos said.
Guthrie is “sharp as a tack” and this is not a dementia-related episode, Nanos said, but that she also is “not of good physical health” an it is unlikely that she left her home in the way that it appeared.
Noting that Guthrie takes medication that with a required dose every 24 hours, and going without it “could be fatal,” Nanos asked neighbors and residents to check home security cameras for anything suspicious and contact law enforcement.
Savannah Guthrie, a co-anchor on the TODAY Show, did not anchor on Monday morning and NBC later announced that she would be pulling out of her host role for the Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, which start later this week.
She shared a statement thanking people for their “thoughts, prayers and messages of support.”
“Right now our focus remains on the safe return of our dear mom,” the statement said. “We thank law enforcement for their hard work on this case and encourage anyone with information to contact the Pima County Sheriff’s Department at: 520-351-4900.”
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Picketers hold signs outside at the entrance to Mount Sinai Hospital on Monday in New York City. Nearly 15,000 nurses across New York City are now on strike after no agreement was reached ahead of the deadline for contract negotiations. It is the largest nurses’ strike in NYC’s history. The hospital locations impacted by the strike include Mount Sinai Hospital, Mount Sinai Morningside, Mount Sinai West, Montefiore Hospital and New York Presbyterian Hospital. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo
