March 26, 2026
“I’m So Sorry Mommy” Savannah Guthrie Blames Herself For Missing Mom In Heartbreaking Interview
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RSS Feed Today co-anchor Savannah Guthrie sat down with Hoda Kotb for her first interview since her 84-year-old mom Nancy went missing 54 days ago. Savannah talked about the disbelief and chaos in the first few days after Nancy disappeared, and the almost immediate conclusion she and her siblings came to: that Nancy was likely kidnapped for ransom. Savannah goes on to say she believes the two ransom notes she and her siblings responded to in videos were legitimate. She also says she believes that her fame, and the knowledge of her high income, probably enticed the kidnapper to take her mom in the middle of the night.
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00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks.
00:00:02
Speaker 2: It it's Thursday, March twenty sixth, and we have for the first time heard from Savannah Guthrie in a sit down interview, and she told us a lot we didn't know about the disappearance of our mother. Yes, the case itself, but my goodness, she broke our hearts and explaining what she and her siblings have been going through the past couple of months. Now, with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and teenj I paused their robes. I'm going back the timing. It's almost two months. It's almost a full.
00:00:34
Speaker 3: Two months, these four days.
00:00:35
Speaker 1: Fancy Guthrie went missing.
00:00:38
Speaker 3: It was February first, February first, And to hear Savannah talk about how she first learned the news getting a phone call from her sister. She knew something immediately was wrong, and she was on a plane at just even a few hours after that phone call. But just the chaos, the confusion, the disbelief. She put you in that mode, like can you imagine getting that phone call, racing home and all of the first initial thoughts that they believed, Okay, maybe she had a medical emergency, maybe she had to leave and head out to a hostle. She said the back doors were open, but then when they started looking, they saw signs and it clearly pointed to something else.
00:01:18
Speaker 2: So you all and the country has been was really gripped by this story for so long. There haven't been significant updates to the story, at least from a police standpoint. But Savannah Guthrie back in New York, we did know this, but we knew this interview was coming. They set this up the last couple days and they have been teasing that they were going to air this, so today was the day. Now she is doing a sit down with Hoda codby Hodah. These two anchored that show together for a long time, so it makes perfect sense that Hoda would be doing it. So the Today Show it started this morning, and we made sure we did catch it, and we were wondering where they were going to actually put this interview, and quite frankly, it went exactly where a new person puts it in the show at that seven thirty half hour. We've been in morning news a long time. This is where they put the big crime story. This is what you put a big feature. We debated, and we wondered, why are they going to do it right at the top because I will sit from seven am to eight am and watch that whole thing if they do it. But I was fairly robe they applied some news judgment to this story and it didn't feel, at least in a moment, that they were doing anything outside of their jobs as journalists. I know it's personal to them, but they displayed some news judgment and how they handled it this morning, I want to make sure I compliment them on that.
00:02:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, they did a fantastic job. It was the right tone, It was heartfelt, but it still had as you pointed out, news, it had information. It would be how they would have handled this interview if Savannah was just a regular person who they got an interview with. And I do think that that was pretty remarkable, because look, this is a fine line and this is personal. As you point out, they not only know Savannah, they know her mom. She's been on this set, she's been with them throughout the years. So this is something that affects everybody in that newsroom on that set, And they could have blown it out and they could have started and made a big, a much bigger deal about it, But then that might have looked gratuitous. That might have looked icky in a way. This was perfectly handled.
00:03:24
Speaker 2: So they all were on set there at the seven thirty half hour as Holda introduced the piece and the interview. It ended up going on tape with the seven eight minutes.
00:03:34
Speaker 3: Yes, somewhere around there. Okay, I didn't time.
00:03:36
Speaker 2: It, but yes, as you just mentioned, I mean, she's starting. Gave us a lot of information about how she got the news. Got a phone call, got a rumored sister said mom is missing.
00:03:44
Speaker 1: Call nine one one. She said, yeah.
00:03:45
Speaker 2: The sisters said, hey, we already did, They're already here. She was almost the last family member to realize that something terribly was wrong. Police were already at the house when Savannah Guthrie got word that her mom was missing.
00:03:59
Speaker 1: I thought that was.
00:03:59
Speaker 3: Interesting because I thought it was interesting too, And I'm imagining her sister probably didn't want to call her and alarm her until she knew something was wrong. She probably figured, let me figure this out first, handle it here, call the hospitals, do what I can, and then and only then will I bring Savannah in.
00:04:15
Speaker 2: That makes sense, and it also made sense how she explained that maybe this was a medical episode, is what their first thoughts went to.
00:04:21
Speaker 3: Yeah, because they said, you know, why else would someone be missing in the middle of the night, and she's eighty four years old, she had health problems. To hear her talk about her mom's condition was also really sad because she just talked about what poor health her mom was in, just that she was in pain, she needed medication, and she said on a good day she could walk to the mailbox. That's as far as she could get. So the thought would be, yeah, maybe she had an emergency and she called nine one one and she's at a hospital somewhere.
00:04:48
Speaker 2: Well that idea, it didn't or she pieced it together. This makes sense when she said it, but she said the reason, yes, she was in bad health. But they actually thought she might have been in the middle of the night taken to a hospital because the back doors were propped open. That was blood on the front porch. It looked like was she transported out of here because she had an issue and she wasn't able to call anybody, and she's at a hospital somewhere, so they start calling around.
00:05:14
Speaker 1: I thought about that.
00:05:15
Speaker 2: I don't remember the police being that clear about yeah, we had doors propped open. They certainly weren't talking about the blood.
00:05:23
Speaker 3: Initially, no, we didn't know about that, And then to hear Savannah say, she left the house without her purse, without her phone, without her shoes. So yeah, if you're thinking my mom left without her shoes and left all of her things, that would be something that would happen in a mad dash and a mad rush. So that would be the most likely reason behind her disappearance that you wouldn't immediately think, my eighty four year old mom's been kidnapped by a masked man.
00:05:51
Speaker 2: Savannah went, I think much further than the authorities, the sheriff out there did, and explaining just how unlikely it is that she wandered off. You talked about the mailbox there, bros. But I remember the sheriff very clearly when he came out, this is a woman that's not very mobile. He yeah, she doesn't get I think they use the word the distance of fifty yards at one time. Yeah, is it not very mobile? Savannah was emphatic and very clear, this is not a woman who can walk off anywhere by herself. I didn't think the sheriff came out that strongly to hear Savannah say it, like, oh hell yeah, this woman is she's been taken. This woman can't go right a few feet, yeah, day and day out, and so.
00:06:36
Speaker 3: Yes, once she got there and she said that, you know, they obviously knew that about their mom. Then they saw the blood on the front doorstep, and then she said the ring camera being ripped off. That's when she said, something is very wrong here. And her brother said, I think she's been kidnapped for ransom.
00:06:51
Speaker 1: It was interesting.
00:06:52
Speaker 2: She talked a little bit about her brother and his background. I didn't realize he was a was it fighter pilot? Yeah, okay, so he has this military background.
00:06:58
Speaker 1: She said.
00:06:58
Speaker 2: He was the one that pieced together pretty immediately. Yeah, he's like, this is not that, this is not wandered off. He immediately knew she has been taken. And he was the one who told Savannah, or at least according to this interview, was kind of the one who first. I guess it's started coming around in her mind.
00:07:15
Speaker 3: That was this me, she said. She asked him after he said I'm I'm pretty sure mom's been kidnapped for ransom, She said, do you think it's because of me? And she said he responded, I'm sorry, sweetie, but yes, and she said, I don't know for sure, but she said, I have to imagine that someone saw me and said that lady has money. I can get something if I take this lady's mom. And so she just said, that's too much to bear. That was just it was so gutting. It was so heartrending to hear her say that it's I brought this to her, that I brought this masked man to her standing over her bed, and she said it's too much to bear. And that is when she went into just the saddest part of the interview, apologizing to her mom. I'm so sorry, mommy. I'm so sorry, mommy.
00:08:09
Speaker 1: She didn't just mention her mom.
00:08:10
Speaker 2: She went through and she said, I'm sorry to her brother, I'm sorry to my sister, I'm sorry to my kids. I'm sorry to my nephew. She went on and on and on, and this was, without a doubt, the most emotional part and the most painful part of this interview. This was the part of the interview where most tears came through. And this might be the part of the interview that you are going to see replayed on television news screens.
00:08:30
Speaker 1: This was awful.
00:08:31
Speaker 2: That's awful to hear we knew this robes and it was always kind of there. I mean, anybody watching the story, you knew this part of the story was that she was probably targeted because of her daughter. We understood that I throughout and covering it day and day out ropes. It didn't sit with me the way it sat with me and hearing her talk about it, and I guess we didn't. It was just trying to bring her home, so you don't focus on that particular fact. That particular fact is devastating that she actually spoke of the guilt of maybe it's because of her that her mom is never coming home. That is hard to sit with.
00:09:11
Speaker 3: It's incredibly difficult to live with. And you know, it makes sense because we've heard the sheriff talk in veiled terms about how we've always believed the reason behind Nancy's disappearance. We've always had a theory and it remains the same, and you have to imagine that that is the operating theory that Savannah Guthrie's fame, her title, her position, her money are what potentially drew somebody to kidnap her.
00:09:40
Speaker 1: Mom, and obviously.
00:09:44
Speaker 2: The emotion of it. We got more and understanding of what she's going through personally, but she did also break news, if you will, when it comes to this case and things we hadn't heard before. We know the sheriff hasn't been saying a whole lot from the very beginning. He's been careful and we haven't gotten signific updates about this case. We did get some from Savannah having to do in particular with all of those ransom notes. Not even sure what the count got up to, but at least five six several sent to various media agencies. She did make comments about that and which ones she thought were real and which ones were not.
00:10:19
Speaker 1: Stay here and.
00:10:29
Speaker 3: Welcome back everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ. We are talking about that heartbreaking interview Savannah Guthrie gave today. She sat down with Hotocopy and talked about the moments that she and her three siblings have been dealing with and when they first found out that her mom went missing, but certainly the aftermath, what it was like for them while they were holed up in several houses, moving around trying to avoid folks who she said were not that respectful, but all the while praying hoping that their mom would be found, that they would be able to make some sense of this just mystery. And all of those ransom notes, no one could figure out where they were coming from. How many there were, It was very confusing. And she did say that most it was her understanding that most of the ransom notes were not real, except for two.
00:11:24
Speaker 2: She again she believes two were, but she didn't confirm enrolled. It became clear to me throughout that she doesn't know for sure, but she said that the ones that we saw them at least two times in videos where they were directly addressing a potential kidnapper, She said they did that because those were the notes they believe were possibly real, but they still don't know for sure.
00:11:50
Speaker 3: Yeah, she I think she used the language. I believe the two notes that we responded to. I tend to believe those notes were real, but those aren't. That isn't a a definite. Yes, she just believes that. And she talked about she talked about what it was like to see that ring camera and to see that masked man and how terrifying it was to imagine that that's the man who her mother saw standing over her bed. That took my breath away. That was just unbelievable to hear her talk about that, and she also talked about how painful it was for the suspicion that enveloped her family that some people online were pointing the finger at members of her own family. She said there were no words. She said it was unbearable and there are no words to talk about that and what that pain was like. But she also talked about how those days were a blur and she can't be at peace without knowing. I do like what she ended the interview with. At least this is part one. We know there's another part coming, but she did talk about and talk directly to anyone who might have information about where her mom is, and she said it's never too late to do the right thing, and our hearts are focused on that, and so we will hear more from Savannah Guthrie. I guess tomorrow, right, there's part two of the interview, and we will certainly be watching that. But our hearts go out to Savannah. And they also made a point to say that Savannah and her family recognize that so many other people in this world, in this country are missing loved ones, and so they just their hearts went out to all of those other families who are also dealing with the same kind of pain that the Guthries are dealing with.
00:13:32
Speaker 1: All right, well, folks, we'll keep an eye on this.
00:13:34
Speaker 2: We will keep an eye on all things Savannah Guthrie, who are expecting to hear more from her in that interview today and tomorrow. In fact, they have another part that's going to air on the Today Show, but we will keep an eye on it. Please keep her in your thoughts, keep a mom in your thoughts, and quite frankly, a lot of people in this country who are waking up day and day out.
00:13:52
Speaker 1: I have no idea where a loved one is.
00:13:54
Speaker 2: It's good that the focus has been put maybe back on missing folks and what so many families are going through.
00:13:58
Speaker 1: So, folks, we appreciate you need some time with us. I am T. J. Holmes on behalf of Amy Robot. Will talk soon.
00:14:04
Speaker 3: M M.
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks.
00:00:02
Speaker 2: It it's Thursday, March twenty sixth, and we have for the first time heard from Savannah Guthrie in a sit down interview, and she told us a lot we didn't know about the disappearance of our mother. Yes, the case itself, but my goodness, she broke our hearts and explaining what she and her siblings have been going through the past couple of months. Now, with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and teenj I paused their robes. I'm going back the timing. It's almost two months. It's almost a full.
00:00:34
Speaker 3: Two months, these four days.
00:00:35
Speaker 1: Fancy Guthrie went missing.
00:00:38
Speaker 3: It was February first, February first, And to hear Savannah talk about how she first learned the news getting a phone call from her sister. She knew something immediately was wrong, and she was on a plane at just even a few hours after that phone call. But just the chaos, the confusion, the disbelief. She put you in that mode, like can you imagine getting that phone call, racing home and all of the first initial thoughts that they believed, Okay, maybe she had a medical emergency, maybe she had to leave and head out to a hostle. She said the back doors were open, but then when they started looking, they saw signs and it clearly pointed to something else.
00:01:18
Speaker 2: So you all and the country has been was really gripped by this story for so long. There haven't been significant updates to the story, at least from a police standpoint. But Savannah Guthrie back in New York, we did know this, but we knew this interview was coming. They set this up the last couple days and they have been teasing that they were going to air this, so today was the day. Now she is doing a sit down with Hoda codby Hodah. These two anchored that show together for a long time, so it makes perfect sense that Hoda would be doing it. So the Today Show it started this morning, and we made sure we did catch it, and we were wondering where they were going to actually put this interview, and quite frankly, it went exactly where a new person puts it in the show at that seven thirty half hour. We've been in morning news a long time. This is where they put the big crime story. This is what you put a big feature. We debated, and we wondered, why are they going to do it right at the top because I will sit from seven am to eight am and watch that whole thing if they do it. But I was fairly robe they applied some news judgment to this story and it didn't feel, at least in a moment, that they were doing anything outside of their jobs as journalists. I know it's personal to them, but they displayed some news judgment and how they handled it this morning, I want to make sure I compliment them on that.
00:02:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, they did a fantastic job. It was the right tone, It was heartfelt, but it still had as you pointed out, news, it had information. It would be how they would have handled this interview if Savannah was just a regular person who they got an interview with. And I do think that that was pretty remarkable, because look, this is a fine line and this is personal. As you point out, they not only know Savannah, they know her mom. She's been on this set, she's been with them throughout the years. So this is something that affects everybody in that newsroom on that set, And they could have blown it out and they could have started and made a big, a much bigger deal about it, But then that might have looked gratuitous. That might have looked icky in a way. This was perfectly handled.
00:03:24
Speaker 2: So they all were on set there at the seven thirty half hour as Holda introduced the piece and the interview. It ended up going on tape with the seven eight minutes.
00:03:34
Speaker 3: Yes, somewhere around there. Okay, I didn't time.
00:03:36
Speaker 2: It, but yes, as you just mentioned, I mean, she's starting. Gave us a lot of information about how she got the news. Got a phone call, got a rumored sister said mom is missing.
00:03:44
Speaker 1: Call nine one one. She said, yeah.
00:03:45
Speaker 2: The sisters said, hey, we already did, They're already here. She was almost the last family member to realize that something terribly was wrong. Police were already at the house when Savannah Guthrie got word that her mom was missing.
00:03:59
Speaker 1: I thought that was.
00:03:59
Speaker 3: Interesting because I thought it was interesting too, And I'm imagining her sister probably didn't want to call her and alarm her until she knew something was wrong. She probably figured, let me figure this out first, handle it here, call the hospitals, do what I can, and then and only then will I bring Savannah in.
00:04:15
Speaker 2: That makes sense, and it also made sense how she explained that maybe this was a medical episode, is what their first thoughts went to.
00:04:21
Speaker 3: Yeah, because they said, you know, why else would someone be missing in the middle of the night, and she's eighty four years old, she had health problems. To hear her talk about her mom's condition was also really sad because she just talked about what poor health her mom was in, just that she was in pain, she needed medication, and she said on a good day she could walk to the mailbox. That's as far as she could get. So the thought would be, yeah, maybe she had an emergency and she called nine one one and she's at a hospital somewhere.
00:04:48
Speaker 2: Well that idea, it didn't or she pieced it together. This makes sense when she said it, but she said the reason, yes, she was in bad health. But they actually thought she might have been in the middle of the night taken to a hospital because the back doors were propped open. That was blood on the front porch. It looked like was she transported out of here because she had an issue and she wasn't able to call anybody, and she's at a hospital somewhere, so they start calling around.
00:05:14
Speaker 1: I thought about that.
00:05:15
Speaker 2: I don't remember the police being that clear about yeah, we had doors propped open. They certainly weren't talking about the blood.
00:05:23
Speaker 3: Initially, no, we didn't know about that, And then to hear Savannah say, she left the house without her purse, without her phone, without her shoes. So yeah, if you're thinking my mom left without her shoes and left all of her things, that would be something that would happen in a mad dash and a mad rush. So that would be the most likely reason behind her disappearance that you wouldn't immediately think, my eighty four year old mom's been kidnapped by a masked man.
00:05:51
Speaker 2: Savannah went, I think much further than the authorities, the sheriff out there did, and explaining just how unlikely it is that she wandered off. You talked about the mailbox there, bros. But I remember the sheriff very clearly when he came out, this is a woman that's not very mobile. He yeah, she doesn't get I think they use the word the distance of fifty yards at one time. Yeah, is it not very mobile? Savannah was emphatic and very clear, this is not a woman who can walk off anywhere by herself. I didn't think the sheriff came out that strongly to hear Savannah say it, like, oh hell yeah, this woman is she's been taken. This woman can't go right a few feet, yeah, day and day out, and so.
00:06:36
Speaker 3: Yes, once she got there and she said that, you know, they obviously knew that about their mom. Then they saw the blood on the front doorstep, and then she said the ring camera being ripped off. That's when she said, something is very wrong here. And her brother said, I think she's been kidnapped for ransom.
00:06:51
Speaker 1: It was interesting.
00:06:52
Speaker 2: She talked a little bit about her brother and his background. I didn't realize he was a was it fighter pilot? Yeah, okay, so he has this military background.
00:06:58
Speaker 1: She said.
00:06:58
Speaker 2: He was the one that pieced together pretty immediately. Yeah, he's like, this is not that, this is not wandered off. He immediately knew she has been taken. And he was the one who told Savannah, or at least according to this interview, was kind of the one who first. I guess it's started coming around in her mind.
00:07:15
Speaker 3: That was this me, she said. She asked him after he said I'm I'm pretty sure mom's been kidnapped for ransom, She said, do you think it's because of me? And she said he responded, I'm sorry, sweetie, but yes, and she said, I don't know for sure, but she said, I have to imagine that someone saw me and said that lady has money. I can get something if I take this lady's mom. And so she just said, that's too much to bear. That was just it was so gutting. It was so heartrending to hear her say that it's I brought this to her, that I brought this masked man to her standing over her bed, and she said it's too much to bear. And that is when she went into just the saddest part of the interview, apologizing to her mom. I'm so sorry, mommy. I'm so sorry, mommy.
00:08:09
Speaker 1: She didn't just mention her mom.
00:08:10
Speaker 2: She went through and she said, I'm sorry to her brother, I'm sorry to my sister, I'm sorry to my kids. I'm sorry to my nephew. She went on and on and on, and this was, without a doubt, the most emotional part and the most painful part of this interview. This was the part of the interview where most tears came through. And this might be the part of the interview that you are going to see replayed on television news screens.
00:08:30
Speaker 1: This was awful.
00:08:31
Speaker 2: That's awful to hear we knew this robes and it was always kind of there. I mean, anybody watching the story, you knew this part of the story was that she was probably targeted because of her daughter. We understood that I throughout and covering it day and day out ropes. It didn't sit with me the way it sat with me and hearing her talk about it, and I guess we didn't. It was just trying to bring her home, so you don't focus on that particular fact. That particular fact is devastating that she actually spoke of the guilt of maybe it's because of her that her mom is never coming home. That is hard to sit with.
00:09:11
Speaker 3: It's incredibly difficult to live with. And you know, it makes sense because we've heard the sheriff talk in veiled terms about how we've always believed the reason behind Nancy's disappearance. We've always had a theory and it remains the same, and you have to imagine that that is the operating theory that Savannah Guthrie's fame, her title, her position, her money are what potentially drew somebody to kidnap her.
00:09:40
Speaker 1: Mom, and obviously.
00:09:44
Speaker 2: The emotion of it. We got more and understanding of what she's going through personally, but she did also break news, if you will, when it comes to this case and things we hadn't heard before. We know the sheriff hasn't been saying a whole lot from the very beginning. He's been careful and we haven't gotten signific updates about this case. We did get some from Savannah having to do in particular with all of those ransom notes. Not even sure what the count got up to, but at least five six several sent to various media agencies. She did make comments about that and which ones she thought were real and which ones were not.
00:10:19
Speaker 1: Stay here and.
00:10:29
Speaker 3: Welcome back everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ. We are talking about that heartbreaking interview Savannah Guthrie gave today. She sat down with Hotocopy and talked about the moments that she and her three siblings have been dealing with and when they first found out that her mom went missing, but certainly the aftermath, what it was like for them while they were holed up in several houses, moving around trying to avoid folks who she said were not that respectful, but all the while praying hoping that their mom would be found, that they would be able to make some sense of this just mystery. And all of those ransom notes, no one could figure out where they were coming from. How many there were, It was very confusing. And she did say that most it was her understanding that most of the ransom notes were not real, except for two.
00:11:24
Speaker 2: She again she believes two were, but she didn't confirm enrolled. It became clear to me throughout that she doesn't know for sure, but she said that the ones that we saw them at least two times in videos where they were directly addressing a potential kidnapper, She said they did that because those were the notes they believe were possibly real, but they still don't know for sure.
00:11:50
Speaker 3: Yeah, she I think she used the language. I believe the two notes that we responded to. I tend to believe those notes were real, but those aren't. That isn't a a definite. Yes, she just believes that. And she talked about she talked about what it was like to see that ring camera and to see that masked man and how terrifying it was to imagine that that's the man who her mother saw standing over her bed. That took my breath away. That was just unbelievable to hear her talk about that, and she also talked about how painful it was for the suspicion that enveloped her family that some people online were pointing the finger at members of her own family. She said there were no words. She said it was unbearable and there are no words to talk about that and what that pain was like. But she also talked about how those days were a blur and she can't be at peace without knowing. I do like what she ended the interview with. At least this is part one. We know there's another part coming, but she did talk about and talk directly to anyone who might have information about where her mom is, and she said it's never too late to do the right thing, and our hearts are focused on that, and so we will hear more from Savannah Guthrie. I guess tomorrow, right, there's part two of the interview, and we will certainly be watching that. But our hearts go out to Savannah. And they also made a point to say that Savannah and her family recognize that so many other people in this world, in this country are missing loved ones, and so they just their hearts went out to all of those other families who are also dealing with the same kind of pain that the Guthries are dealing with.
00:13:32
Speaker 1: All right, well, folks, we'll keep an eye on this.
00:13:34
Speaker 2: We will keep an eye on all things Savannah Guthrie, who are expecting to hear more from her in that interview today and tomorrow. In fact, they have another part that's going to air on the Today Show, but we will keep an eye on it. Please keep her in your thoughts, keep a mom in your thoughts, and quite frankly, a lot of people in this country who are waking up day and day out.
00:13:52
Speaker 1: I have no idea where a loved one is.
00:13:54
Speaker 2: It's good that the focus has been put maybe back on missing folks and what so many families are going through.
00:13:58
Speaker 1: So, folks, we appreciate you need some time with us. I am T. J. Holmes on behalf of Amy Robot. Will talk soon.
00:14:04
Speaker 3: M M.