Today show host Savannah Guthrie pleaded with her mother’s captors to ‘do the right thing’ and return the 84-year-old woman two weeks after she went missing.
In a somber video message on Sunday, Guthrie said she and her two siblings, Camron and Annie, ‘still have hope’ and that their mother Nancy is alive and ‘still believe’ she will be returned to them.
‘And I wanted to say to whoever has her or knows where she is that it’s never too late, and you’re not lost or alone, and it is never too late to do the right thing,’ the television host said on Instagram.
‘We are here and we believe, and we believe in the essential goodness of every human being, and it’s never too late,’ she concluded the video, which she captioned ‘bring her home.’
Nancy Guthrie was taken from her $1 million home in the Catalina Foothills neighborhood of Tucson, Arizona in the early morning hours of February 1.
Two weeks have now passed without any suspects in custody, as federal authorities await the results of DNA testing from a glove found near Nancy’s home.
Feds say it matches the kind of glove worn by a masked figure caught on her doorbell camera the night of her abduction.
The masked man, who authorities say was carrying a 25-liter Ozark Trail Hiker Pack backpack, was seen yanking the camera from the door frame after he apparently tried to obscure the camera with a bunch of flowers he ripped from Guthrie’s entranceway.
Savannah Guthrie shared a somber video on Sunday as she marked two weeks since her mother, Nancy, went missing
Nancy Guthrie was taken from her $1 million home in the Catalina Foothills neighborhood of Tucson, Arizona in the early morning hours of February 1
Nancy Guthrie’s home in the Catalina Foothills neighborhood is pictured
Federal authorities believe the suspect is approximately 5ft 9in to 5ft 10in with an average build.
Authorities have also collected DNA belonging to an unidentified individual – someone not known to Guthrie or her family – that was said to be found at Nancy’s property.
Additionally, authorities have said blood was found on Nancy’s front porch.
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department has now sent the evidence to a private forensic laboratory in Florida, 2,000 miles from Tucson after reportedly refusing to send it to the FBI’s own world-class crime lab in Quantico, Virginia.
Jason Pack, a retired FBI supervisory special agent with more than two decades of experience, slammed the decision – warning that investigators risk losing precious time as they wait for the DNA to be processed.
‘If the FBI has the lead, Quantico is the logical answer, and I’d expect evidence to be wheels-up before the sun sets today,’ he told Fox News.
Pack then warned that authorities cannot afford to hesitate particularly when Guthrie, who has serious medical needs, remains missing.
‘In a case involving a vulnerable 84-year-old woman who is without her heart medication, where every hour matters, you don’t wait for FedEx on Monday morning,’ he said, adding that ‘authorities cannot afford to lose a weekend debating how to process evidence.’
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An unidentified masked man was caught tampering with Nancy’s doorbell camera the night she disappeared
Authorities have not confirmed when the newly obtained evidence will arrive at the lab, or how long results might take.
The warnings come as investigators dramatically escalated their search late on Friday night, sealing off roads and deploying heavily armed SWAT teams and FBI agents to a home about two miles from Guthrie’s upscale Catalina Foothills residence.
The operation marked what Pack called a ‘significant escalation’ – a signal investigators may be acting on specific intelligence rather than chasing blind leads.
Agents detained multiple individuals during the operation and stopped a gray Range Rover in a nearby Culver’s parking lot.
The SUV’s contents were examined, concealed from public view under a tarp, and the vehicle was ultimately towed away for further forensic analysis.
But Pack cautioned that the dramatic searches represent only the beginning of the real investigative work.
Federal authorities are awaiting the result of DNA tests
‘They’ll be going door to door, looking to talk face to face with neighbors,’ he said.
‘They want to identify patterns of life for each of the people detained. If someone says, “I wasn’t home that night,” a neighbor’s Ring camera might tell a different story. Investigators are building the box.’
‘DNA that doesn’t belong to Nancy Guthrie or anyone close to her has already been identified at her property. Gloves have been recovered,’ Pack said. ‘All of that evidence needs to get to a lab.’
