Savannah Guthrie says her family has endured five months of “agony and unending trauma” as the desperate search for her missing mother, Nancy Guthrie, continues with no arrests and no publicly identified suspect.
“It is five months of agony and unending trauma for our family,” the 54-year-old Today host said in a statement published by Arizona station KOLD on Wednesday, July 1. “There is not a moment that goes by that we aren’t actively trying to find our mom.”
Savannah thanked the Tucson community for continuing to support her family, along with the FBI and the Pima County Sheriff’s Department for their work on the investigation.
“Bring her home,” she pleaded.
Nancy, 84, was last seen after relatives dropped her off at her home in the Catalina Foothills area near Tucson on Jan. 31. Her family reported her missing the following day when she failed to attend church. Investigators believe she was abducted from her home during the early morning hours of Feb. 1.
Authorities found Nancy’s cellphone, medication and other essential belongings inside the house. Drops of blood were reportedly discovered near the porch, and surveillance footage released by investigators showed an armed, masked person appearing to tamper with the camera at her front door.
Nancy has difficulty walking, has a pacemaker and requires daily medication for a heart condition, making her disappearance especially urgent. The FBI has offered a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to her recovery or the arrest and conviction of anyone involved.
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said the case remains active and explained that investigators are continuing to examine complicated DNA and genealogy leads.
“Especially when you throw in genealogy — now, you’ve got … this may not be the bad guy, but this person might be the bad guy’s relative three times over,” Nanos told KOLD. “So, that has to be broken down to see if this might be someone of interest to us.”
The FBI continues to treat Nancy’s disappearance as a kidnapping-for-ransom investigation. The agency said it has received several ransom communications during the five-month search. While some have been dismissed as illegitimate extortion attempts, others remain under investigation as possibly genuine.
The clarification came after an earlier report claimed that three messages connected to the case had all been determined to be fake. The FBI later stressed that although some demands were fraudulent, other communications had not yet been ruled out.
At least one ransom demand reportedly sought an initial payment of $4 million in Bitcoin and threatened to increase the amount by another $2 million if the deadline was missed. Investigators reportedly transferred a small test payment to a cryptocurrency account in an attempt to determine whether the demand was legitimate, but the money was not moved.
Media organizations including KOLD, TMZ and other outlets have received messages related to Nancy’s disappearance. One recent communication reportedly claimed its sender possessed photographs and video connected to the alleged kidnapping. That material was turned over to the FBI for examination.
Meanwhile, a California man has pleaded guilty to sending fake ransom messages to Nancy’s family.
Derrick Callella, 42, of Hawthorne, admitted to two counts of harassment using a telecommunications device, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona announced on Thursday, July 2.
Callella had reportedly been following coverage of Nancy’s disappearance on television. After learning that an earlier ransom demand had requested Bitcoin, he obtained phone numbers belonging to Nancy’s daughter Annie Guthrie and her son-in-law, Tommaso Cioni.
On Feb. 4, Callella allegedly sent them messages claiming he was waiting for a Bitcoin transaction. He also made phone calls and attempted to obtain information about the investigation, authorities said. Investigators traced the communications to an email address and phone number connected to him.
Federal prosecutors said Callella knew that a previous ransom demand had already been made and admitted that his messages were intended to harass the family and gather details about the search.
His communications were not connected to the initial ransom note received by KOLD, authorities said.
Callella faces a maximum penalty of two years in prison, a $250,000 fine, one year of supervised release, or a combination of those punishments. However, his plea agreement reportedly calls for five years of probation. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 10.
Despite months of searches, tips and forensic work, Nancy has not been found. No arrests have been made in connection with her disappearance, and investigators have not publicly named a suspect.
Savannah has repeatedly said her family will not stop searching.
“We love our mom,” she said in an earlier public plea. “And we will never stop looking for her.”
Nancy is with the Lord and is watching from above.