Savannah Guthrie Admits Her Mom ‘May Already Be Gone’ as Searchers Look For ‘Something Decomposed’ Near Her House
Jason Pham
Savannah Guthrie has “accepted” that her missing mother Nancy Guthrie “may already be gone.” More than three weeks into the search for Nancy, Savannah shared an Instagram video on February 24 in which she confirmed that she and her siblings, sister Annie and brother Camron, have come to terms that their mother may have passed while confirming that they “still believe in a miracle.”
“It is day 24 since our mom was taken in the dark of night from her bed, and every hour and minute and second and every long night has been agony since then — of worrying about her and fearing for her and aching for her and most of all, just missing her,” Savannah said. “We still believe in a miracle. We still believe that she can come home. Hope against hope. As my sister says, we are blowing on the embers of hope.”
Due to life-sustaining medications that her mother needs, Savannah also admitted that there’s a high chance Nancy has already died. “We also know that she may be lost; she may already be gone. She may already have gone home to the Lord that she loves, and is dancing in heaven with her mom and her dad and her beloved brother, Pierce, and with our daddy,” Savannah said. “And if this is what is to be, then we will all accept it. But we need to know where she is. We need her to come home.”
Savannah went on to thank the public for the “millions” of prayers they’ve made since her mother’s abduction. “So many people have been praying, of every faith and no faith at all; praying for her return. And we feel those prayers. Please keep praying without ceasing,” she said. “We still believe. We still believe in a miracle. We still believe that she can come home. Hope against hope, as my sister says. We are blowing on the embers of hope.”
Savannah also announced that she and her family are offering a reward of up to $1 million for any information about Nancy’s disappearance. She also also announced that the family is donating $500,000 to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). “We also know that we are not alone in our loss. We know there are millions of families that have suffered with this kind of uncertainty,” Savannah said. “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.”
She concluded her video, “Help us bring our beloved mom home so that we can either celebrate a glorious, miraculous homecoming or celebrate the beautiful, brave, courageous and noble life that she has lived. Please be the light in the dark. Thank you.”
Savannah’s video comes after a backpack was found by volunteers on February 22 not too far from Nancy’s home. The Pima County Sheriff’s Department later told reporters that the backpack did not appear to be a “viable lead” and that it seemed different than the brand of the one Nancy’s suspect kidnapper wore in surveillance footage from in front of her home. The department also reported that the backpack “appears to have been outside for much longer than three weeks” and “contained identification of a minor within it.”
Tucson resident Lupita Tello, a member of the Mexico-based volunteer search group Madres Buscadoras de Sonora, also told reporters about what the group, which is made up of mothers who lost their children, learned from their own searches. In an interview with USA Today, she demonstrated how she poked the dirt outside of Nancy’s home with a sharp metal rod soldered to a handle. After wiggling the rod in the dirt, Tello pulled it out and smelled the sharpened metal tip of anything rotting. “If it smells bad like something decomposed, that’s where we start,” she said.
“We have had experience looking, looking. We’re a little familiar with the land, we’re a little familiar with the areas where there could be a body,” she also told KTVQ. “It’s a way of giving visibility so that way people know that we’re looking for her and they can call us.”
