A crayon drawing of a blue umbrella, drawn years ago by a child who had no idea what was coming, is now the centerpiece of Savannah Guthrie’s plea for the public’s help in finding her mother.
Someone took Nancy Guthrie, 84, from her home in the Catalina Foothills area near Tucson, Ariz. Nine months later, on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026, her daughter Savannah Guthrie, 54, who co-anchors “TODAY,” put a photo of the old drawing on Instagram. She shared an old photo of her mother in the same post.
The Line Beneath the Umbrella
Her daughter Vale, now 12, drew the umbrella and the raindrops falling around it. Underneath, in a handwritten line, the child wrote: “I know it might not seem like it but I really need my mommy.” Guthrie wrote in her caption that she had come across the old drawing that day and that it “says so much about how I feel.”
Her siblings, Annie and Cam, along with their spouses, Tommy and Kristine, signed on to the message, as did her husband, Michael Feldman, and every one of Nancy Guthrie’s grandchildren. Life around the family may look normal on the surface, she wrote, because the adults are trying to stay strong for young children — but it is not normal and never will be.
A Family That Cannot Move Forward
The family aches for her and cries out for answers, Guthrie wrote, and they “cannot move forward.” She thanked everyone who has shown the family kindness, asked anyone with information to come forward and urged people to keep praying. “Our mom was a light in this world,” she wrote, adding that the family wants to honor her and give her the dignity she deserves.
Relatives are offering as much as $1 million to anyone whose information leads to Nancy Guthrie’s recovery, and Guthrie pointed to that reward again. “The reward is still available. Please. We are begging you,” she wrote. She and her two siblings have made direct appeals to whoever took their mother, both online and on the air.
Guthrie used an August post to address her mother’s abductors, writing that they might be frightened, conflicted or angry at being in the situation, and that they had a way out — to say what they know. In a March interview, she described how hard it is to explain the investigation to her children, because parents want to protect them. Vale writes to her constantly, she said then, asking about leads, about anything new, about any hope. The couple also have a 9-year-old son, Charley, and Guthrie said she and Feldman are trying to give the children a little more certainty than the family has, so they can grieve.
The Doorbell Camera Goes Dark
Nancy Guthrie was last seen on the night of Saturday, Jan. 31, after dinner at her daughter Annie’s home. She got there at 5:32 p.m., and her son-in-law, Tommaso Cioni, dropped her at her own house around 9:48 p.m. Police say Cioni waited until she was inside before driving off. The garage door closed at 9:50 p.m.
The doorbell camera at the house was disconnected at 1:47 a.m. on Feb. 1. About 25 minutes later, software on a camera picked up someone, or possibly an animal, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said. Her pacemaker app disconnected from her phone at 2:28 a.m.
On the morning of Sunday, Feb. 1, a friend called the family because Nancy Guthrie had missed an online church service she was supposed to watch. Relatives alerted the sheriff’s department around noon; officers reached the house at 12:15 p.m. and determined she was missing under “concerning” circumstances. Officials have said she has limited mobility and relies on daily medication. A missing person flier described her as 5-foot-5 and 150 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes.
Nanos had confirmed by Feb. 2 that the disappearance was being treated as a crime. Nest doorbell video of an apparent suspect went to investigators: a man of average build, roughly 5-foot-9 or 5-foot-10, wearing a face mask and gloves and carrying a black Ozark Trail Hiker Pack backpack. Blood drops outside the front door were later confirmed to be hers.
Two ransom notes surfaced in the days after the abduction. The first demanded payment in bitcoin. In the second, the writer claimed the 84-year-old had died shortly after she was taken. Officials put out the full text of both over the summer, hoping a reader would recognize the handwriting, the syntax or the shift in tone between them. Agents at the FBI are investigating the case as a kidnapping for ransom. Hair recovered from her home produced nothing: testing “came back with no results,” the sheriff said July 30. The sheriff has said the family is cleared of any involvement.
“I believe she was abducted, yes,” Nanos told CBS News.
Why the Sheriff Says It Isn’t Cold
Two days before Guthrie’s post, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department posted a statement from Nanos on X about DNA analysis. “The Nancy Guthrie Task Force continues to work with our labs in hopes of furthering our DNA analysis in this investigation,” the sheriff said in the Oct. 30 statement. The same statement said the task force devoted to the case traveled to Florida early in October to meet with laboratory scientists about advancing the investigation, that several ideas were discussed, and that the department continues to work with its partners. It also urged the public to call in tips. “We want to remind the public that no tip is too small,” the statement said.
Nanos pushed back on the idea that the search has stalled in a radio interview on KVOI AM 1030’s Bill Buckmaster Show. “This case isn’t cold because we still have evidence that we’re working with,” he said, adding that labs in Kansas, San Francisco, Washington and Phoenix are also contributing. “We’re constantly talking about what we can do with the evidence we have, and how we can get to a point where we feel comfortable that we can make an identification,” he said.
As of Nov. 1, no suspect has been named in the case, despite investigators releasing photos and video clips of a masked suspect on Nancy Guthrie’s front porch and publishing alleged ransom notes. Investigators ask anyone with information to call 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324) or to leave an anonymous tip at 520-882-7463. The sheriff’s Oct. 30 statement also listed 88-CRIME as a tip line.