As the search for Savannah Guthrie‘s missing mother Nancy Guthrie enters its 10th day, the FBI has said it is “not aware of any continued communication between the Guthrie family and suspected kidnappers.”
“For more than a week, FBI agents, analysts and professional staff have worked around the clock to reunite Nancy Guthrie with her family,” FBI Phoenix spokesperson Connor Hagan said in a statement obtained by multiple media outlets including People and the Associated Press. “Additional personnel from FBI field offices across the nation continue to deploy to Tucson. We are currently operating a 24-hour command post that includes crisis management experts, analytic support and investigative teams. But we still need the public’s help.”
The comments from the agency, late Monday, came as a second deadline in the ransom notes received by multiple media outlets last week passed. Authorities have yet to verify if those notes are legitimate.
Savannah Guthrie also released a new video to her Instagram account Monday afternoon asking for the public’s help in the search for her mother, saying the family was “at an hour of desperation.”
“She was taken and we don’t know where, and we need your help,” Savannah Guthrie said in the video, urging people to keep their eyes open for any clues, “no matter where you are, even if you’re far from Tucson, if you see anything, you hear anything, if there’s anything at all that seems strange to you, that you report to law enforcement.”
Savannah Guthrie’s 84-year-old mother was reported missing on Sunday, Feb. 1 in what authorities believe was an abduction. Though it was initially reported that the elder Guthrie went missing after she didn’t attend a church service on Feb. 1, new details about that also emerged overnight.
Multiple outlets, including NBC’s Today show on Tuesday morning, are reporting that though it was initially said that Nancy Guthrie didn’t show up at church, now a source close to the family says she was expected to watch a livestream of her daughter’s church service at Good Shepherd New York. When she didn’t show up at a friend’s house to watch the livestream, one of her friends alerted the family.
The Today show on Tuesday spoke to Good Shepherd pastor Michael Rudzena in a pretaped interview from the church that aired on Tuesday, with Rudzena sharing how he got to know Nancy Guthrie.
“She’s a strong woman and she is fiercely loving,” Rudzena told Hoda Kotb of Nancy Guthrie. “Over the years, we’ve gotten to know what makes her tick, in some ways from a faith perspective. Songs that meant something to her, scriptures that are meaningful for her.”
While investigators still have no suspects or persons of interest in Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance the FBI has offered a $50,000 reward for information and has posted digital billboards in Arizona as well as nearby states New Mexico, Texas and California.
Law enforcement’s work at Guthrie residences will continue Tuesday “as part of the ongoing investigative process, including the expansion of the search and follow-up on new leads,” the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement Monday.
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