It’s been three months since the TODAY show host Savannah Guthrie’s 84 year-old mother Nancy Guthrie was kidnapped from her home in Tucson, Arizona. Sadly, no trace of Nancy has been found, and she remains missing at this time.
Now, Savannah’s mother’s neighborhood is asking that people stop leaving flowers outside Nancy’s home.
Nancy’s Neighbors Are ‘On Edge’
It has now been over 100 days since Nancy went missing. On Monday, May 11, Will Pew, president of the Catalina Foothills Association, sent out a newsletter to her neighbors. In it, he wrote that those who live near Nancy have been “particularly affected” and left “on edge” by the her disappearance. Indeed, Pew wrote that large numbers of people from outside the area have descended on her street and local roads.
Pew went on to say that the association has received numerous reports of behavior from non-residents that is “disrespectful of neighbors and the surrounding area.” Though he acknowledged that flowers and other items left outside Nancy’s home were put there with good intentions, animals, wind and rising temperatures have created safety concerns regarding these things.
Instead of leaving flowers outside Nancy’s home, Pew is encouraging people to donate to World Vision, a global Christian humanitarian organization that “Nancy loves.”
“Nancy has been a resident of our neighborhood for over 50 years,” Pew said. “Her children — like me, my children, and many of yours — attended our local public schools. As with most of us who have lived here for decades, Nancy and her family are rooted in Tucson and the Catalina Foothills, and she and her children and grandchildren have many close friends who are all suffering while waiting for any news of her whereabouts.”
“I urge you to keep Nancy and her family in your thoughts and to respect their privacy,” he concluded. “Our homes may be relatively far apart, but we, as neighbors, are closer than ever.”
Nancy’s Disappearance
Nancy was last seen on the night of Saturday, January 31. That evening, she had dinner with her daughter Annie and son-in-law Tommaso Cioni. They dropped her off at home afterwards at around 9:45pm, and she tragically hasn’t been seen since.
A masked intruder was captured on Nancy’s doorbell ring camera in the early hours of February 1. He managed to cover the camera with some plants before moving forward with the kidnapping.
The masked man was seen on the doorbell ring camera prior to the night Nancy was taken. This indicates that he may have been casing out her home.
No trace of Nancy has been found, and the desperate search for her continues.
Savannah Returns To TODAY
As for Savannah, she bravely returned to the TODAY show on April 6. She’d spent the previous two months in Tucson desperately trying to find her mother, to no avail. Finally, Savannah decided that she needed to get back to both her job and her family, which includes her husband and two young children.
“I will not fall apart,” Savannah, 54, defiantly told her former TODAY colleague Hoda Kotb just before her return. “I will not let whoever did this take my children’s mother from them, I will not let them take my joy.”
“They will not take my sister’s joy, they will not take my brother’s joy,” she continued. “They will not take our love, they will not take our faith. But our anguish is real. We need help. We need someone to tell the truth.”
Savannah has yet to comment about Nancy’s neighborhood asking people to stop leaving flowers outside of her mother’s home. We can only imagine the anguish that she and the rest of her family are going through right now.
Please join us in saying a prayer for the return of Nancy Guthrie.