Its been over three months that ‘Today’ show host Savannah Guthrie’s 84-year-old mother, Nancy Guthrie, went missing after a suspected kidnapping from her Catalina Foothills home. While no suspects have been identified, an FBI profiler this week weighed in on the possible motive behind the abduction. He claims that the suspect could be ‘obsessed’ with Savannah and there might be a revenge angle to this case.
Investigators initially said there was no video available since Guthrie didn’t have an active doorbell camera subscription. But digital forensics experts kept working to find images in backend software that might have been lost, corrupted or inaccessible. But then a footage came up. The FBI shared a clip of at least one masked man at Nancy’s doorstep on the night of her suspected abduction.
We do not have a name or a complete face of the alleged suspect yet.
Why Nancy Guthrie was kidnapped
Former FBI profiler Jim Clemente told NewsNation that revenge could be a reason behind the alleged abduction on February 1. He added that the kidnapper could be someone who was ‘obsessed’ with Savannah.
“It could also have been just a delusion in his own mind and he could have built up an anger and resentment against her,” he said. “And as a result, he felt justified in taking the mother to hurt her.”
The reporter immediately asked whether Clemente thinks that the man had ‘some sort of obsession with Savannah, who maybe watched her on TV every morning?’
He replied: “I think that’s the highest probability. We might be able to catch him if someone eventually recognize(s) a guy who always talked about her.”
Savannah Guthrie had a similar theory
Back in an NBC interview in March, a tearful Savannah said that ‘someone needs to do the right thing’ and come forward with information to help the investigation.
“To think that I brought this to her bedside, that it’s because of me. I’d just say: ‘I’m so sorry, Mommy. I’m so sorry.'”
Guthrie spoke about the shock she felt on February 1.
“My sister called me. I said, ‘Is everything OK?’ And she said, ‘No.’ She said, ‘Mom’s missing,'” Savannah Guthrie said. “And I said, ‘What? What are you talking about?’ She said, ‘She’s gone.’ And she was in a panic. I was in a panic.'”
“We are in agony,” she told NBC News colleague Hoda Kotb. “We feel the love and prayers from our neighbors, from the Tucson community and from around the country,” Guthrie wrote in a social media post earlier, ending the sentence with a heart emoji. “please don’t stop praying and hoping with us. bring her home.”