Savannah Guthrie has now offered a $1 million reward for her kidnapped mother Nancy Guthrie as she conceded for the first time after weeks of searching that she may be dead.
‘We need to know where she is, we need her to come home,’ Guthrie said in a video posted to her Instagram account Tuesday.
Savannah said the family still believes that Nancy could come home as her sister Annie describes their ongoing hunt as ‘blowing on the embers of hope’.
‘We also know that she may be lost, she may already be gone. She may have already gone home to the lord that she loves,’ Guthrie said through her tears.
The Today show host added that if Nancy, 84, has died, they will ‘accept it,’ but the family still needs closure.
‘But we need to know where she is. We need her to come home. For that reason we are offering a family reward of up to $1 million for any information that leads us to her recovery,’ she said.
Savannah pleaded directly with her Nancy’s kidnapper and anyone with information about her whereabouts, saying: ‘If you’ve been waiting and you haven’t been sure, let this be your sign to please come forward.
‘Tell what you know and help us bring our beloved mom home so that we can either celebrate a glorious, miraculous homecoming or celebrate the beautiful, brave, noble and courageous life that she has lived. Please be the light in the dark.’
Savannah Guthrie has now offered a $1 million reward for her kidnapped mother Nancy Guthrie after the weekslong search has yielded no answers
Savannah Guthrie, pictured with Nancy, has conceded for the first time that she may be dead
The Guthrie family, acknowledging that there are millions of families in their exact situation, has also donated $500,000 to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Savannah revealed Tuesday.
She applauded the organization’s work and for ‘helping families who are coping with loss and actively looking for those who are lost.’
‘We are hoping that the attention that has been given to our mom and our family will extend to all the families like ours, who are in need, and need prayers and need support,’ Savannah said.
Nancy was last seen at her home just outside Tucson on January 31 and was reported missing the following day. Authorities believe she was kidnapped, abducted or otherwise taken against her will.
Drops of her blood were found on the front porch, but authorities haven’t publicly revealed much evidence. Police also have yet to arrest any suspects or produce any concrete leads.
On Friday, the sheriff’s department said they are ‘not ruling out the possibility that more than one person may be involved’.
Federal investigators released eerie footage of the unidentified suspect standing at Guthrie’s front door in the upscale Catalina Foothills neighborhood of Tucson, Arizona in the early morning hours on February 1.
But an image that the FBI released of the suspect at her front door without a backpack had been captured on her Nest doorbell camera before her abduction, sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News on Monday.
A masked suspect spotted outside Nancy Guthrie’s home in Tucson, Arizona apparently visited the house prior to her abduction
The unidentified suspect was later seen trying to obscure the Nest doorbell camera
The images of him carrying a backpack and with a gun holster were then taken on a different day, CNN reports, though authorities said ‘any suggestion that the photographs were taken on different days is purely speculative.’
It is now believed that the suspect approached the door the first time noticed the camera and was scared off, only to return later, when he was seen tampering with the device and putting branches in front of the lens.
If it is the same person, ‘it could indicate that the person was there surveilling the place before the abduction happened,’ Jason Peck, a former FBI agent, told ABC.
‘The fact that there was preparation and planning, which makes it more of a sophisticated type of criminal activity than someone just showing up.’
The timeline gap may help explain why investigators have asked neighbors to check their home security systems for suspicious people and vehicles going back to January 1, a full month before the abduction.
The sheriff’s department said in a statement late Monday that it’s aware of differences in the masked person’s clothing depicted in various images that were released, namely with and without a backpack.
‘There is no date or time stamp associated with these images,’ the department said. ‘Therefore, any suggestion that the photographs were taken on different days is purely speculative.’
Nancy’s disappearance three weeks ago has inspired a small number of volunteers to launch their own searches in the dense desert near her home in hopes of cracking the case.
Nancy was last seen at her home (pictured) just outside Tucson on January 31 and was reported missing the following day. Authorities believe she was kidnapped, abducted or otherwise taken against her will
Savannah Guthrie with her sister Annie (top left), brother Camron (bottom left) and mother Nancy (bottom right)
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department said while it appreciates the concern for Nancy, it asked people inquiring about volunteering to give investigators space to do their jobs.
‘We all want to find Nancy, but this work is best left to professionals,’ the agency said in a statement over the weekend.
Despite the sheriff’s request for people not to search on their own, volunteers have continued to look for Nancy.
A small group reported finding a black backpack on Sunday, but it wasn’t the same brand as one identified in video surveillance that the FBI released of a masked person at Guthrie’s home the night she disappeared.
A sheriff’s spokesperson has said that the bag and its contents didn’t appear to be viable leads.
Several hundred people are working the Guthrie investigation, and more than 20,000 tips have been received, the sheriff’s office has said. The FBI and other agencies are assisting.
But as the investigation drags on, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has been accused of ‘locking down’ the investigation from federal authorities.
Several sources told the Daily Mail that the sheriff is now insisting that only he and two of his highest-ranking inner circle will make decisions regarding the case of the missing 84-year-old.
Several PCSD sources also confirmed to the Daily Mail that just three decision makers are leading the department’s investigation: Sheriff Nanos, Chief Jesus Lopez and Captain Juan Carlos Navarro.
A woman places flowers on Monday at a memorial set up at the entry to the driveway leading to Nancy Guthrie’s residence in Tucson
The tribute to Nancy outside her home keeps growing, with flowers, yellow ribbons, crosses, prayers and patron saints for older adults and in desperate situations
The sheriff’s office has watched around the clock lately at Guthrie’s house. It also enacted a temporary one-way flow on the road so that emergency vehicles and trash collection trucks could get through.
The constant presence of news crews, bloggers and curious onlookers has drawn mixed reaction from neighbors.
Some appreciated the attention the case has been getting. Others have placed traffic cones and signs on their properties to keep people off.
Meanwhile, the tribute to Nancy outside her home keeps growing, with flowers, yellow ribbons, crosses, prayers and patron saints for older adults and in desperate situations.
