The desperate search for Nancy Guthrie has taken a bombshell turn with the missing 84-year-old’s three children releasing a heartbreaking video pleading for her safe return and telling any kidnappers holding her: ‘We are ready to talk.’
Today host Savannah Guthrie, her sister Annie and brother Camron choked back tears as they spoke directly to the potential abductors and begged them to show proof that their mom is still alive in a video posted to Instagram Wednesday night.
‘We want to hear from you and we are ready to listen. Please, reach out to us,’ Savannah said.
She then also spoke to her missing mother: ‘Mommy, if you are hearing this, you are a strong woman. You are God’s precious daughter, Nancy.’
The video was simply captioned: ‘Bring her home.’
The gut-wrenching plea comes almost four days on from when Guthrie was last seen alive and hours after hostage negotiation experts were reportedly being rushed in to aid in the investigation.
Dr Bryanna Fox, a former FBI special agent in the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit and criminology professor at the University of South Florida, told the Daily Mail that the language and the set-up of the video shows the Guthrie children are trying to humanize their mom in the eyes of her potential captor.
‘They are doing exactly what we were taught in the FBI Behavioral Science Unit: the first thing you must do is humanize the victim,’ she said.
‘The abductor does not view the victim as human. They’re not viewing them as a family member, as someone who has people at home worried about her, as someone who has health issues, as a mother.’
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Savannah Guthrie (pictured center) demanded proof that her missing mother Nancy is alive in a heartbreaking new video
Savannah Guthrie addresses missing mom’s captors
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By calling her ‘mommy’ in the video and showing the children crying and begging for her safe return, ‘it can change the captor’s mentality and increase the likelihood they will hold the victim safe and start negotiations.’
Fox noted that, while Savannah spoke for a lot of the video, the appearance of the three siblings – crying, looking sleep-deprived in a casual setting – made them more relatable to their mom’s potential captor.
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‘This shows this isn’t a celebrity problem. Everybody can relate to them,’ she said.
‘This wasn’t Savannah Guthrie, the Today show anchor, the celebrity, having a problem. The three of them were very relatable.’
Posting the video on Savannah’s own Instagram account also personalizes the situation.
‘It wasn’t at a police press conference, it wasn’t formal or in front of the media cameras. It feels like she and her siblings want to say how they feel on their own,’ she said.
The Pima County Sheriff’s Office has not ruled the possibility that Guthrie was targeted in connection to her daughter’s fame.
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The Today Show anchor described her mother in glowing terms alongside her siblings in the new clip posted to Instagram Wednesday night
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Crime scene tape was put back up at Nancy’s $1 million Tucson home on Wednesday
On Tuesday, it emerged that ransom notes had been sent to media organizations – including TMZ and a local Arizona station.
But their authenticity remains unclear with the sheriff’s office saying only that they are ‘aware’ of them.
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Savannah mentioned the notes in the video but also did not confirm whether or not they are genuine.
‘We too have heard the reports about a ransom letter in the media. As a family, we are doing everything that we can,’ she said.
‘We live in a world where voices and images and images are easily manipulated. We need to know, without a doubt, that she is alive and that you have her.’
Fox noted that Savannah’s wording that she had ‘heard’ about the notes suggests that no note has been sent to her or the family.
‘The notes may not be real but maybe they are. There is no harm in doing this if they are not but hopefully if they are, then the person holding her hostage will see the video,’ she said.
There was one other statement in particular that stood out to Fox as an attempt to connect with a potential captor: ‘We want to hear from you and we are ready to listen.’
Often in kidnapping cases, money is not the only driver, the former FBI special agent explained. There can also often be a grievance.
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Photos from Nancy Guthrie’s Tucson, Arizona home show blood splattered on the walkway and her Ring doorbell camera missing
‘Whoever did this has a grievance. Yes, it is about money but it is also someone wanting to do something grandiose, dramatic. There is some other narrative behind it, perhaps the person feels they aren’t seen or listened to,’ Fox said.
‘So that wording was really important – that we will listen to you.’
In that moment, Savannah was speaking directly to her abductor.
But, she was also speaking to potential friends or family members of the abductor who might know what they have done.
‘If a girlfriend or friend knows, they might see that and feel guilty. Seeing the siblings on TV crying really humanizes it and might encourage them to come forward.
Ultimately, in humanizing their mom and relating to the potential abductor, the goal is to begin communications.
As well as bringing Guthrie home safe, communication can produce further evidence and help lead investigators to a suspect.
‘Once you start communication you have more chance of getting evidence,’ she explained.
‘This is how they caught the BTK killer,’ she said, referring to the serial killer Dennis Rader who was finally captured after he began communicating with police years after his crimes – and ultimately sent them a floppy disk that was traced back to his church.
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Nancy Guthrie, 84, was last seen Saturday night after enjoying a dinner with her daughter, Annie (right). They are pictured here with Nancy’s other daughter, Today Show host Savannah Guthrie
‘Just by having communication there could be auxiliary evidence,’ Fox said.
‘An email or something that could lead to blowing the case wide open.’
Nancy was snatched from her home in the Catalina Foothills area of Tucson, Arizona, sometime late Saturday night or Sunday morning.
She had gone for dinner with Annie and her husband Tommaso Cioni who then dropped her back home.
On Sunday, when she failed to show for church, the alarm was raised.
Investigators say there were signs of forced entry and that Guthrie’s pacemaker stopped syncing with her Apple Watch data at around 2am Sunday morning – suggesting this was the moment she was taken from her bed. Blood was also found outside the home.
Investigators said there is no suspect and no person of interest yet on the radar.
