Savannah Guthrie tearfully discussed the ransom note her family received in February allegedly claiming her missing mom, Nancy Guthrie, has died on Tuesday’s “Today” show.
The NBC personality broke down telling her co-hosts that even though she has “no comment” on the headlines and is “not involved in … coverage” of her mother’s abduction, she couldn’t “pretend” to not be present for the conversation.
“This is unusual and unprecedented to say the least to be sitting here,” Guthrie noted after reporter Liz Kreutz shared the news.
“So since I am I just wanted to take the opportunity to really ask people and really beg people to come forward because somebody knows something,” Guthrie continued.
“This is a news story today that is on your radar, but this is the live my sister, [Annie Guthrie], lives, that I live, that my brother, [Camron Guthrie], lives, that our extended families live, that our children live every day,” she explained.
Savannah, 54, and her family members are “in agony,” she added during the emotional segment.
“We cannot be at peace,” the journalist said. “No matter how much I try to come out here every day and smile and find that joy — and I will, I promise I will — this is a moment to say we need your help. … I’m not gonna miss that opportunity.
“No matter how small, the reward is there. You can tell us, it can be anonymous. Please do the right thing,” Savannah, who was surrounded by colleagues Craig Melvin, Al Roker, Carson Daly and Jenna Bush Hager, concluded.
She promised, “We love our mom, and we’ll never stop looking for her. Ever.”
Melvin, 47, chimed in to point the public to an FBI tip line to give the Guthrie family “a modicum of peace.”
Additionally, he told Savannah, “The bravery and courage with which you have done this job every day since that happened is nothing short of remarkable.”
Savannah took a brief hiatus from Studio 1A when her mom was reported missing from her Arizona home on Feb. 1, returning to her job in April while the search remains ongoing.
Sources close to the investigation told Air Mail over the weekend that a ransom note, believed to be credible, referred to the 84-year-old as “safe but scared” hours after her disappearance — and demanded $6 million in Bitcoin.
This message was reported on widely at the time, unlike the second one from the same I.P. address, which indicated, days later, that Nancy had passed.
While the outlet claimed on Saturday that the note appeared to offer the return of Nancy’s body for a ransom payment, sources insisted to NBC on Tuesday that the individual “made no further request for money.”
Savannah told Hoda Kotb in March that she “tend[s] to believe” the two notes that she and her siblings “responded to” in emotional social media pleas were, in fact, “real.”
She slammed “most” of the ransom notes that came in and were not legitimate, saying, “A person that would send a fake ransom note really has to look deeply at themselves.”
Officials have yet to arrest or charge anyone in the kidnapping — but did detain Derrick Callella for allegedly attempting to extort with fake ransom texts. The 42-year-old faces federal charges.
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