Part I: Savannah Guthrie on Moment She Learned Her Mom Was Missing

Take me back to the day. It was, I guess, a normal weekend for you. Yeah.

The weekend your mom went missing. Tell me what you were doing and what happened. Well, we just, Mike, I had given Mike for Christmas a boys trip to go play tennis, and so he had been gone for the weekend, so I took my kids actually to Carson's. So we had a beautiful, fun night together, and then I came home, and really it just got home at the same time that Mike came home and we're just saying hi and putting down our stuff and the

kids are running around and my sister called me and I said is everything okay and she said no she said mom's missing and I I said what's new. We talking about she said she's gone.

She was in a panic. I was in a panic, I'm like call 911 just like I did we caught them there here.

We thought

she must have had like some kind of

medical episode in the night and that somehow, you know, the paramedics had come because the back doors were propped open, you know, and that didn't make any sense. We thought maybe they came and there was a stretcher and they took her out the back, but her phone was there and her purse was there and all the

things it just didn't make any sense. So you know she and Tommy had already called all the hospitals, but then I'm like I'm going to call the hospital so then I started calling the hospitals and and the police are there talking to her at the same time and it was just chaos and disbelief.

Within hours, Savannah was making the long journey home to Tucson. You saw Annie and Cam when you got to their house. Tell me about that moment.

Just disbelief and hugging each other and I think we were on the phone with the sheriff and trying to you know really make clear as I mean from the very early moments you know Annie and Tommy were saying this isn't this isn't that case that you are used to where someone wanders off she can't wander off. mom her or she was in tremendous pain. Her back was very bad. You know she was trying to on a good day she could walk down to

the mailbox and get the mail but most days not. So there was no wonder off. And the doors were dropped in yeah. And there was blood on the front door. And the ring camera had been yanked off. And so we were saying, this is not okay. This isn't, something is very wrong here. Did you guys talk about what possibly could have happened?

Like what could have happened? What went down?

Did you?

I think my brother, I mean, my siblings are so amazing. My brother, you know, he spent his career in the military and worked in intelligence and as a fighter pilot and is brilliant. And he saw very clearly right away what this was. And even on the phone, when I called him, he knew. He knew.

And he said, I think she's been kidnapped for ransom. And I said, what? Well, why, what? And then, I mean, it sounds so, like how dumb could I be, but I just, I didn't want to believe.

I just said, do you think because of me? And he said I'm sorry sweetie, but yeah, maybe But I knew that you You did? I hope not. I mean, we still don't know. Honestly, we don't know anything. We don't know anything. So I don't know that it's because she's my mom and somebody thought, oh, that girl, that has money, we can get make a quick buck.

I mean that would make sense but we don't know but yeah that's probably... which is too much to bear to think that I brought this to her bedside. That it's because of me. And I just say, I'm so sorry, Mommy. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry to my sister and my brother

and my kids and my brother and my kids and my nephew and Tommy. My brother-in-law just like Mike so sorry so sorry. If it is me I'm so sorry. We want to thank all of you for the prayers for our beloved

mom.

Initial days you and your sister and brother sat together in all the despair, you sat and managed to think of words to say were you able to do that. In that moment.

My siblings are amazing. And we are a unit. And I talked about how brilliant my brother is, but my sister is equally brilliant and powers of intuition and faith and language and depth and heart. And I feel like we came together with all these beautiful gifts that came from our mom and dad and from Krumgott and somehow together we did our best to come up with the words to say and I haven't posted one thing or said one thing that the three of us haven't decided together.

It is surreal. It's how is it possible that we are having to make a video speaking to a kidnapper who took an 84 year-old woman in the dead of night in her pajamas with no shoes without her medicine this little person and to beg for mercy. In the days that followed multiple notes demanding

payment were sent to various media outlets. The ransom note notes are ransom requests. Did you

believe those to be real.

There are a lot of different notes I think that came. I think most of them it's my understanding are not real and I didn't see them but you know a person that would send a fake ransom note really has to look deeply at themselves. Yeah. To a family in pain. But I believe the two notes that we received that we responded to, I tend to believe those are real. Really? When the ring camera video surfaced and you could see who that person was.

Just tell me what you thought when you saw those images of the person who took your mother.

I mean it's just absolutely terrifying. It's just totally terrifying. Yeah. It's just totally terrifying. And I can't imagine that that is who she saw standing over her bed. I can't. It's too much. And I'm glad and grateful to the investigators and the technology companies that were able to find that video. Do I hope, at least with people of good heart and compassion, stop the irresponsible and cruel speculation that had started to swirl. Let's talk about that for a minute.

I'm glad that people saw what came to our door.

Yeah.

When you talk about the cruel speculation, the whispers,

the innuendo, that it was somebody in your family, how did you weather that?

It's unbearable. And it piles pain upon pain. There are no words. There are no words. I don't understand. I'll't understand. I'll never understand. And no one took better care of my mom than my sister and brother-in-law.

No one protected my mom more than my brother. And we love her and she is our shining light, she's our matriarch she's all we have.

Savannah and her family stayed together in Arizona for weeks as the media coverage grew more intense.

We had to move houses many times because people came in. Not everyone. It's, unfortunately. You know? There was a night we had to leave in the dark, in the desert, holding hands, me and my sister and brother and I,

get into a car waiting for us. Because the people outside were closing in. So we found a place that was safe and then we couldn't really leave too much. So those days are a blur. Yeah. Crying and praying. How did

your family feel about the way the investigation was conducted? Well it's

still going. Yeah. And people have worked tirelessly and we see that but we need answers. We cannot be at peace without knowing and someone can do the right thing. And it is never too late to do the right thing. And our hearts are focused on that.

I think where Savannah ended that, it's not too late to do the right thing, is really, I think, the intent from the beginning. I think she was... a fantasy was that someone sees it, someone who saw someone who knows someone who will say something because, you know, I think she really this is all about bringing Nancy home.

It's still an open case. We're 54 days in. The bravery that she's showing in this interview is not to shine a light on herself but to remind people that if you have anything to do with this if you know anything and firmly believe that somebody does know something it's not too late. Yes, we can still bring Nancy home if you

call the number and one of the things Savannah actually said to me she said please remind everybody that there are lots of people who are missing and that's why her family has donated to the National Center for missing and exploited children and she wanted me to underscore that because she you know she wanted to be clear like this is also about a lot

of people who who are missing but you guys know how strong stand is I have never I mean I knew she was strong but not I didn't know how much until yesterday yet when I sat with

her just of the takeaways there the fact that our dear friend would blame herself yeah that was the hardest part would blame herself for any of this when it was some sicko or sickos out there you know kidnap a woman in the middle of the night yes but the only SG could sit there and do that. Because of the faiths that she has, Nancy instilled in her.

And I think we're going to talk about that Al, in fact, in the next hour. We're going to talk a little bit more about Nancy and the faith that kind of brought her to this point. So, our love and number to call. If you have any information about this case that phone number is right there on your screen, And I think we're going to talk about that Al, in fact, in the next hour. We're going to talk a little bit more about Nancy and the faith that kind of brought her to this point. So, our love and number to call. If you have any information about this case that phone number is right there on your screen,

1, 800 call FBI.