Journalist Savannah Guthrie has pleaded with her mother’s would-be kidnappers for her safe return and says the family is willing to pay a ransom as the frantic search for the 84-year-old woman enters its seventh day.
“We received your message and we understand. We are now begging you to return our mother to us so we can celebrate with her,” the Melbourne-born co-host of NBC’s morning news show Today said in a post on Instagram, flanked by her brother and sister.
“This is the only way we can achieve peace. This is very valuable to us and we will pay for it.”
The Today show host was referring to a message sent to Tucson-based television station KOLD on Friday afternoon, said Kevin Smith, a spokesman for the FBI’s Phoenix office.
KOLD said it received an email related to the Nancy Guthrie case on social media that day, but declined to share specific details about its contents as the FBI conducted its investigation.
The station was one of several press outlets to receive alleged ransom letters during the week. At least one letter made monetary demands and set deadlines for Thursday evening and the following Monday evening.
At a news conference Thursday, law enforcement officials declined to confirm the letters were credible but said all tips are seriously investigated. They also said a letter referenced Nancy Guthrie’s Apple Watch and a specific feature of her property.
The video released Saturday was the third this week to implicate possible kidnappers.
Investigators believe Nancy Guthrie was taken against her will from her home outside Tucson last weekend. DNA testing showed the blood on Guthrie’s porch matched her, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said. Authorities have not identified any suspects or ruled anyone out.
The sheriff said Friday he was frustrated that a camera at Nancy Guthrie’s home failed to capture images of anyone on the day she went missing.
Investigators learned that the home’s doorbell camera was disconnected early Sunday and software data recorded movement in the home minutes later. But Nancy Guthrie didn’t have an active subscription, so none of the images could be recovered.
“It’s concerning, it’s almost disappointing actually, because you have high hopes,” Nanos told The Associated Press in an interview.
“Okay, they have a picture. ‘Well, we do, but we don’t do that.’
President Donald Trump said in his speech on Air Force One on Friday that the investigation was going “very well.”
“We have some evidence that I think is very strong,” Trump said as he headed to his Florida estate. “We have some things that could come out fairly quickly.”
The sheriff said Thursday that detectives have not given up efforts to retrieve surveillance footage.
“I wish the technology was as simple as we think it is, that here’s a picture, here’s your bad guy. But it’s not,” Nanos told the Associated Press.
“We have bits of information coming to us from these technology groups saying, ‘This is what we have and we can’t get it anymore.’”
The sheriff also said he had no new information about the note to the TV station or other alleged ransom letters sent to some media outlets, and said the FBI is handling that side of the investigation.
Meanwhile, concerns have increased about Nancy Guthrie’s health as she has a pacemaker, high blood pressure and heart problems, according to sheriff’s audio on broadcastify.com.
“Her condition, I think, is getting worse every day,” Nanos said.
‘She needs medicine. And I don’t know if they’ll get those medications to her.’
The kidnapping has drawn the attention of Americans, including Trump, who said he was ordering federal authorities to assist in the investigation.
Savannah Guthrie, 54, is one of America’s best-known news personalities. She was born in Melbourne and moved to Arizona as a young child.
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