Savannah Guthrie believes she was responsible for the kidnapping of her mother, Nancy Guthrie, in February.
In her first TV interview since the 84-year-old went missing last month, Savannah sobbed as she described the realization that her fame might have something to do with the tragic crime.
“My brother is really great. My younger brother (Camron Guthrie), he’s had a career in the military, he’s worked in intelligence, he’s a fighter pilot, he’s brilliant, he clearly saw what this was all about right away. We called him And he said, ‘I think I was kidnapped for ransom,’ and I said, ‘What?!'” Savannah, 54, recalled to Hoda Kotb in an interview on “Today.”
She said, ‘How stupid am I? I didn’t want to believe it, but you think it’s because of me?’ And he said, ‘I’m sorry, but maybe you are.'”
“But I knew it. I hope not, but we don’t know yet. We don’t know anything, so I think it’s because she’s my mom and someone thought, ‘Oh, that woman has money, we can make money right away.’ It makes sense, but we don’t know.”
Savannah said it was “unbearable” to think it was her fault.
“It’s my fault and I just want to say I’m so sorry, Mom,” she said.
“I’m so sorry. To my sister[Annie Guthrie]and my brother and my children and my nephew and my brother-in-law Tommy, I’m so sorry. If it were me, I’d be so sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Savannah recalled the moment she learned her mother was missing.
“My sister called me and said, ‘Are you okay?’ And she said, ‘No. She said, “My mother is missing,” the journalist explained.
“So I said, ‘What? What are you talking about?’ She said, ‘He’s gone,'” Savannah recalled.
Savannah said she and her sister were “in a state of panic.”
“We thought she must have had some kind of medical condition during the night and that the back door had been thrown open so somehow the paramedics came, but that didn’t make sense,” she said.
“I thought maybe they came and they took her from behind because there was a stretcher,” Savannah continued. “But her phone, wallet and all her belongings were there.”
Nancy was first reported missing from her home in Tucson, Arizona, on February 1st.
While investigating Nancy’s disappearance, authorities found blood stains on the front porch.
Last month, the FBI released horrifying home security camera photos showing an armed and masked figure outside Nancy’s door the night she disappeared.
Video and photos show a man wearing gloves standing at Nancy’s front door, fiddling with the door camera.
Several people were detained during this investigation, but they were not charged in Nancy’s disappearance as they were proven not to be involved. Savannah and her relatives were also cleared of any wrongdoing.
Last month, Savannah offered her family $1 million to return Nancy’s “miracle” and said she had come to terms with the possibility of Nancy’s death.
