Savannah Guthrie’s 84-year-old mother Nancy remains missing after last being seen on Saturday — and her home in Arizona is now being treated as a crime scene.
“As I said yesterday, we saw some things at the home that were concerning to us. We believe now, after we processed that crime scene, that we do in fact have a crime scene, that we do in fact have a crime and we’re asking for the community’s help,” Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos shared in a Monday press conference. “This community has always stepped up to help us solve some crimes. I’m looking for that.”
While authorities were reluctant to reveal what makes them suspicious, Nanos further stated the Guthrie family has been cooperative and insisted this is not a dementia-related incident. He did not rule out a potential threat to the public.
“This is an 84-year-old lady who suffers from some physical ailments, has some physical challenges, is in need of medication. Medication that, if she doesn’t have in 24 hours, it could be fatal,” he further noted.
“We expended a lot of resources for missing persons that we typically always do, our search and rescue volunteers, our search and rescue teams, other agencies, North Star from Border Patrol sent their canines out. They worked tirelessly all day yesterday and all last night. To no avail,” Nanos continued. “She did not leave on her own.”
“It’s still very active in investigation. There were circumstances on scene that we believe are suspicious in nature, I think, is the best way to put it,” Sergeant David Stivers added.
Nanos also stated the need to remove politics from cases like this and for state and federal government officials to listen to local law enforcement.
Guthrie was forced to miss “The Today Show” on Monday as the search for her mom continued. Sheinelle Jones co-hosted in her place, while fellow NBC co-anchor Craig Melvin read a statement from Guthrie.
“On behalf of our family, I want to thank everyone for the thoughts, prayers and messages of support,” the message read. “Right now, our focus remains on the safe return of our dear mom. 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.”
The Monday morning updates came two days after Nancy was last seen near her home in Pima County, Arizona, on Saturday. She has brown hair and blue eyes; she is 5 feet, 5 inches tall and weighs around 150 lbs. It is unclear what she was wearing at the time of her disappearance, as she wasn’t reported missing until Sunday at around noon local time when she didn’t show up for church, per officials.
Sheriff Nanos said at a press conference on Sunday that Nancy has “no cognitive issues at all” and was very alert before she went missing: “Just some physical ailments that limit her ability to move around.”
However, he also stated she was not in good physical health and acknowledged that the scene at her home provoked “grave concern,” adding that foul play had not been ruled out.
