Savannah Guthrie reveals doors were propped open, blood on the doorstep at missing mum’s home

Savannah Guthrie talks about her missing mother

The back doors of Nancy Guthrie’s Arizona home were found propped open, and her phone and purse were still at the home when the 84-year-old disappeared, daughter Savannah Guthrie said in an interview that has aired on NBC’s Today, her first since her mother’s apparent abduction.

Given the tremendous pain their mother suffered from, Savannah Guthrie said she and her siblings knew it wasn’t a case of a person wandering off. Then there were the propped doors, blood on the front doorstep and a camera yanked off.

“So we were saying, ‘This is not OK’,” Guthrie said. “’Something is very wrong here.”

Her brother immediately realised that their mother had been kidnapped for ransom.

“I said, ‘What?’ And then, I mean, it sounds so, like, how dumb could I be? But I just, I didn’t want to believe. I just said, ’Do you think because of me?’” Guthrie recounted, choking up and wiping away tears.

“He said, ‘I’m sorry, sweetie, but, yeah, maybe.’”

A banner with notes from hundreds of well-wishers for Nancy Guthrie, the missing mother of Today show host Savannah Guthrie, is displayed outside of KVOA Newsroom on March 6, 2026, in Tucson, Arizona. Photo: AP

Nancy Guthrie was reported missing on February 1. Authorities believe the 84-year-old was kidnapped, abducted or otherwise taken against her will.

The FBI released surveillance videos of a masked man who was outside Guthrie’s front door in Tucson on the night she vanished. The Guthrie family has offered a US$1 million reward for information leading to the recovery of their mother.

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The longtime Today show co-anchor said in the interview that they don’t know that their mother was taken because of her, but acknowledged that it would make sense.

“Which is too much to bear, to think that I brought this to her bedside, that it’s because of me. And I just say, ’I’m so sorry, Mommy. I’m so sorry,′” Guthrie said. “If it is me, I’m so sorry.”

Some of the purported ransom notes were fake, Savannah Guthrie said, but she believed the two notes that she and her siblings responded to were real. But the circumstances were surreal.

“How is it possible that we are having to make a video speaking to a kidnapper who took an 84-year-old woman in the dead of night, in her pyjamas, with no shoes, without her medicine?” Savannah Guthrie asked.

Savannah Guthrie visits the Today show at Rockefeller Plaza in New York on March 5, 2026. Photo: Charles Sykes/Invision/AP

Seeing the images of a man in a ski mask from the porch camera was terrifying, Guthrie said, but after “cruel speculation” that a family member might be involved began to swirl, she was “glad that people saw what came to our door.” She will never understand that speculation.

“No one took better care of my mum than my sister and brother-in-law. And no one protected my mum more than my brother,” Guthrie said.

Investigators have worked tirelessly, but the family needs answers, Guthrie said.

“We cannot be at peace without knowing and someone can do the right thing,” she said. “It is never too late to do the right thing and our hearts are focused on that.”

In a new interview, Savannah Guthrie is recalling the “chaos and disbelief” she experienced in the moments she learned her mother, Nancy Guthrie, disappeared from her home in Tucson, Ariz., 54 days ago.

In the interview with Hoda Kotb, who has been filling in on the Today show amid Savannah’s absence, that aired on Thursday, Savannah said she fears her mother may have been targeted because of her fame.

She said it’s “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.”

Savannah also talked about whether she believes the ransom notes sent to media outlets were real, addresses speculation of her family’s involvement and opens up about the agonizing decision to leave Arizona amid the ongoing investigation.

Guthrie described doors propped open and blood found at her mother’s home, expressed public guilt over her fame, and refuted painful speculation about her family’s role in the case. The interview aired on Thursday with more scheduled for Friday.

The rest of the interview will air on Friday, NBC said.

It’s been nearly eight weeks since Nancy Guthrie disappeared, and investigators have had no significant breakthroughs trying to locate her.

Last weekend, her family issued a new public appeal, asking Tucson residents to review home security footage, text messages and personal notes for anything that might help investigators.

“It’s possible a member of this community has information that they do not even realize is significant,” the family said in a statement to KVOA in Tucson. “We hope people search their memories, especially around the key timelines of January 31 and the early morning hours of February 1, as well as the late evening of January 11.” The Pima County sheriff and the FBI have not publicly named a suspect or a motive for the apparent abduction. Harry Trombitas, a former special agent for the FBI, told Yahoo that authorities are likely to “continue as long as there is an investigation to conduct.”

Trombitas said that while the motive could be for ransom, it’s “appearing less and less” likely. “There’s too much involved,” he said. “There are too many ways people can get caught.”

Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos told NBC Nightly News earlier this month that investigators believe they know why Nancy Guthrie’s home was targeted — and didn’t rule out the possibility that her kidnapper could strike again.