The disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, mother of US television anchor Savannah Guthrie, has taken an emotional toll on her family. In an interview with NBC Today’s Hoda Kotb, Savannah revealed that Nancy Guthrie’s grandchildren have been worried and asking questions.
Nancy Guthrie, 84, was last seen on January 31 at her home in Tucson, Arizona, and was reported missing the next day under circumstances authorities have described as suspicious and likely involving abduction.
Read more: Nancy Guthrie update: Savannah’s brother Camron knew about kidnapping, suspect’s motive right away
Nancy Guthrie’s grandchildren’s emotional response
In the interview, Savannah Guthrie revealed that her children, daughter Vale and son Charles, have been grappling with confusion and fear, frequently asking questions like “Any leads?” and “Any hope?” as the search for their grandmother continues.
She said, “Vale would write me all the time, [saying,] ‘Mama, any leads? You hear anything? Any hope?”
Savannah said she has been trying to shield them while also allowing them to process the situation. She further described the experience as painful for the entire family. She said, “We try to talk to them and try to give them a little more certainty than we have, to let them grieve.”
Savannah also talked about Nancy’s other grandchild and nephew. “There’s just a way in which this is even so much harder on Annie [Guthrie] and [her husband] Tommy [Cioni] and [their son] because they’re there, and they were there every day for my mom.”
She noted that the situation is even more agonizing for them, given what they’ve been through.
Emotional toll of family being suspected
Kotb asked Savannah about her thoughts on the speculation online about her sister Annie and brother-in-law Tom being suspected of Nancy’s disappearance.
She told Kotb, “It’s unbearable, and it piles pain upon pain. There are no words. There are no words. I don’t understand. I’ll never understand.”
She further praises her family for always supporting their mother. “They made it possible for her to stay in the house we grew up in, which she loved so much. I think she always stayed in that house because I think she still felt my father there, all our memories,” she said, speaking about Annie and Tom.
She further added, “No one took better care of my mom than my sister and brother-in-law, and 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.”
The Guthrie Family has been cleared as suspects in the initial weeks of the investigation by the authorities.
Read more: Nancy Guthrie update: Savannah drops bombshell on suspect’s motive; shares ransom details
Savannah Guthrie’ s guilt
Savannah discussed that her brother, Camron Guthrie, initially speculated that Nancy might have been “kidnapped for ransom” in the Kotb interview.
Savannah told Kotb, “Like, how dumb could I be? I didn’t want to believe it, but do you think because of me?” She continued describing a conversation between her and Camron, “And he said, ‘I’m sorry, sweetie, but yeah, maybe.”
She added, “But I knew that — I hope not, we still don’t know. We don’t know anything, so I don’t know that it’s because she’s my mom and somebody thought, ‘Oh, that lady has money, we can make a quick buck.”
It has been previously reported that Savannah has once before considered herself the focal point and the reason for her mother, Nancy Guthrie’s, kidnapping.
Savannah further said that the idea that she was to blame was “too much to bear.”