‘An Hour of Desperation’: Savannah Guthrie Releases Harrowing New Plea for Help

Savannah Guthrie released an urgent new plea for information that might help lead to the safe return of her mother, Nancy Guthrie, who is believed to have been kidnapped from her Arizona home last week.

The younger Guthrie, an anchor on the Today show, previously released videos directed at the alleged kidnappers of her mother, who have reportedly sent a ransom note demanding $6 million in bitcoin and set a Monday deadline for payment.

CNN played the clip on Monday afternoon, soon after Guthrie uploaded it to her Instagram account.

“Hi there, everybody. I wanted to come on and share a few thoughts as we enter into another week of this nightmare. I just want to say, first of all, thank you so much for all of the prayers and the love that we have felt—my sister and brother and I—and that our mom has felt, because we believe that somehow, in some way, she is feeling these prayers and that God is lifting her even in this moment and in this darkest place. We believe our mom is still out there. We need your help. Law enforcement is working tirelessly around the clock trying to bring her home, trying to find her. She was taken and we don’t know where, and we need your help. So I’m coming on just to ask you, not just for your prayers, but no matter where you are, even if you’re far from Tucson, if you see anything, if you hear anything, if there’s anything at all that seems strange to you, that you report to law enforcement. We are at an hour of desperation and we need your help,” Guthrie said in the clip.

CNN anchor Boris Sanchez then brought on CNN senior law enforcement analyst and former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe to react to the message.

“Andrew, what do you make of the video just posted by Savannah Guthrie?” Sanchez asked.

“Yeah, very different video than the one that the family released on Friday—or I’m sorry, maybe that was Saturday. You can’t remember the last one in any case. You know, the first thing that strikes me, Boris, is this message does not sound like a message that you would expect to hear from a family that is currently negotiating the return of their loved one. The previous message really also marked a bit of a change in tone, and it seemed to be the family communicating very clearly to whoever’s been sending these letters to the media that they are prepared to pay, but of course they needed to open up some sort of two-way communication to figure out how to do that and how to actually get their mother back after a payment was made. So my guess is that they have not had a response to that and they are not engaged in a productive exchange with them,” concluded McCabe.

Watch the clip above via CNN.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!