'Today' show host Savannah Guthrie asks for prayers to help bring her missing mom home

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TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie is asking for prayers to help bring home her 84-year-old mother, whom authorities in Arizona believe was taken against her will.

The host described her mother as “a woman of deep conviction, a good and faithful servant” in a social media post late Monday. She asked supporters to "raise your prayers with us and believe with us that she will be lifted by them in this very moment. Bring her home.”

Nancy Guthrie must be found soon because she could die without her medication, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said, urging whoever has her to free her.

“If she’s alive right now, her meds are vital. I can’t stress that enough. It’s been better than 24 hours, and the family tells us if she doesn’t have those meds, it can become fatal,” Nanos said.

For a second day Tuesday, “Today” opened with Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance, but Savannah Guthrie was not at the anchor’s desk. Nanos said during a news conference Monday that Savannah Guthrie is in Arizona. She grew up in Tucson, graduated from the University of Arizona and previously worked as a reporter and anchor at Tucson television station KVOA.

Nancy Guthrie was last seen Saturday night at her home in the Tucson area, where she lived alone and was reported missing Sunday. Someone at church called a family member to say Guthrie wasn’t there, leading family to search her home and then call 911, Nanos said. The sheriff’s department is investigating the possibility she was taken overnight, spokesperson Angelica Carrillo said.

Nancy Guthrie has limited mobility, and officials do not believe she left on her own. Nanos said she is of sound mind.

Nanos said investigators took samples they hope will provide at least part of a DNA profile, KVOA reported.

Searchers used drones and search dogs and were supported by volunteers and Border Patrol. The homicide team was also involved, Nanos said Sunday. The FBI has offered to help, Carrillo said.

On Monday morning, Nanos said search crews had been pulled back.

“We don’t see this as a search mission so much as it is a crime scene,” the sheriff said.

Even so, a sheriff’s helicopter flew over the desert Monday afternoon near Nancy Guthrie’s home in the affluent Catalina Foothills area on the northern edge of Tucson. Her brick home has a gravel driveway and a yard covered in prickly pear and saguaro cactus.

Savannah Guthrie, who has two siblings, was 16 when their father died. Nancy Guthrie raised them on her own. The host often brought her mother on “Today” as a guest.

“She has met unthinkable challenges in her life with grit, without self-pity, with determination and always, always with unshakeable faith,” Savannah said on the show in 2022 on Nancy Guthrie’s 80th birthday.

“She loves us, her family, fiercely, and her selflessness and sacrifice for us, her steadfastness and her unmovable confidence is the reason any of us grew up to do anything.”

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Billeaud reported from Phoenix.