Authorities believe Nancy Guthrie was taken against her will on Jan. 31
Ed Smart; Nancy Guthrie.Credit :
George Frey/Getty; NBC
The tearful video Savannah Guthrie and her siblings posted pleading with their mother’s potential kidnappers for proof of life was heartbreaking — and very necessary, says Ed Smart.
“Talking directly to those that have taken her, the abductors, is crucially important,” Smart said Thursday, Feb. 5, on Fox & Friends. “That they know that they’re trying to comply with everything that’s being said, that they want to resolve this and bring their mother home.”
Like the Today show host’s 84-year-old mother, Nancy Guthrie, whom authorities believe was abducted from her Tucson, Ariz., home in the middle of the night on Sat., Jan. 31, Smart’s daughter, Elizabeth Smart, was taken from her Utah bedroom in the early morning hours of June 5, 2002 at 14.
For ten long months, Smart pleaded publicly for his daughter’s safe return, wondering all the while how she was doing and if she was even alive.
“Not knowing is one of the worst things out there,” Smart told CNN News Central on Friday, Feb. 6. “Not knowing what Elizabeth was going through, how was she was surviving, and all of these questions, of course, apply to Nancy.”
In March 2003, Elizabeth was reunited with her family after being spotted with her captors, Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee. Mitchell remains in prison serving a life sentence in connection with the kidnapping. Barzee was released from prison in 2018.
On Wed., Feb. 4, Savannah and her siblings posted the emotional video to Instagram addressing the captors directly, saying, “We need to know without a doubt that she is alive and that you have her.”
They were responding to ransom notes TMZ and two local outlets received earlier this week for Nancy, whose family called 911 on Sunday, Feb. 1, at noon when she failed to show up at church.
One person has been arrested and accused of falsifying one of the ransom notes connected to Nancy’s disappearance, authorities said at a press conference on Thursday, Feb. 5.
Nancy was last seen when she was dropped off at her house sometime around 9:30 p.m. after she had dinner with her daughter Annie, 56, and her husband at their nearby home, according to Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos.
Authorities believe the grandmother was taken against her will.
During a press conference on Thursday, Feb. 5, authorities confirmed that a trail of what appears to be blood on the front steps of the Tucson, Ariz., home is Nancy’s.
Nanos said authorities believe Nancy is still alive.
Savannah, 54, has been absent from the Today show since Monday. She has been in Arizona with her family.
The FBI has now become involved in the search, urging anyone with tips or leads to call 1-800-CALL-FBI in addition to the Pima County Sheriff’s Office number, 520-351-4900.