A blue umbrella, a scatter of raindrops and one sentence in a child’s handwriting have become the center of Savannah Guthrie’s newest plea for her missing mother.
Guthrie, 54, the “TODAY” co-anchor, posted the appeal on Instagram on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026, nine months after someone took her 84-year-old mother, Nancy Guthrie, from her home in the Catalina Foothills area near Tucson, Ariz.
What Vale Wrote Under the Umbrella
The post carried a photograph of an old drawing by her daughter Vale, now 12, showing a blue umbrella and falling rain. Beneath the umbrella, the child had written a line: “I know it might not seem like it but I really need my mommy.” Guthrie said she came across the drawing that day, and that it “says so much about how I feel.” She also shared an old photo of her mother.
Guthrie wrote that life around the family may look normal on the surface, with the adults trying to stay strong for young children, but that it is not and never will be. Her siblings, Annie and Cam, their spouses, Tommy and Kristine, her husband, Michael Feldman, and all of Nancy Guthrie’s grandchildren were included in the message she signed.
The family aches for her and cries out for answers, she wrote, and “cannot move forward.” She thanked those who have 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,” Guthrie wrote, adding that the family wants to honor her and give her the dignity she deserves. She closed with a direct plea: “The reward is still available. Please. We are begging you.”
A combined reward of $1.2 million is offered for information leading to Nancy Guthrie’s recovery. Guthrie and her two siblings have made direct appeals to whoever took their mother, both online and on the air.
In an August post, Guthrie appeared to address her mother’s abductors, writing that they might be frightened, conflicted or angry about being in the situation, and that they had a way out — to say what they know.
In a March interview, she said explaining the investigation to her children was hard because parents want to protect them. Vale was writing to her constantly, she said, asking whether there were any leads, anything new, any hope. She and Feldman, who also have a son, Charley, nine, have tried to hand their children a bit more certainty than the adults have, so they can grieve.
A Doorbell Camera Goes Dark
Nancy Guthrie was last seen on the night of Saturday, Jan. 31. She arrived for dinner at her daughter Annie’s home at 5:32 p.m. Her son-in-law, Tommaso Cioni, dropped her at her own house around 9:48 p.m., and 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. 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 after Nancy Guthrie failed to appear for an online church service. Relatives alerted the sheriff’s department around noon, and officers reached the house at 12:15 p.m., describing her as missing under “concerning” circumstances. Officials have said she has limited mobility and relies on daily medication. A missing person flier lists her as 5-foot-5 and 150 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes.
The Shift Between Two Notes
By Feb. 2, Nanos confirmed the disappearance was being treated as a crime. “I believe she was abducted, yes,” Nanos told CBS News. Investigators obtained Nest doorbell video of an apparent suspect, described as 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. The writer of the second claimed the 84-year-old had died shortly after she was taken. Officials published the complete wording of both notes over the summer, in the hope that a reader would recognize the handwriting, the syntax or the change in tone from one to the other. A possible new ransom text that surfaced in September was ruled not credible.
Agents at the FBI are treating the case as a kidnapping for ransom. Hair recovered from Nancy Guthrie’s home was tested, and that testing “came back with no results,” the sheriff said July 30. The sheriff has said the family is cleared of any involvement.
A Task Force Flies to Florida
Two days before Guthrie’s post, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department posted a statement on X about the task force devoted to the case, which had traveled to Florida early in October for a meeting with laboratory scientists on how to advance the investigation. Several ideas came up at that meeting, the Oct. 30 statement said, and the department continues to work with its partners. “The Nancy Guthrie Task Force continues to work with our labs in hopes of furthering our DNA analysis in this investigation,” Nanos said in the statement.
In an October radio interview on KVOI AM 1030’s “Bill Buckmaster Show,” Nanos said labs in Kansas, San Francisco, Washington and Phoenix are also contributing. “This case isn’t cold because we still have evidence that we’re working with,” he said. “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.”
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. The sheriff’s Oct. 30 statement urged the public to call in tips. “We want to remind the public that no tip is too small,” it said. Investigators have pointed people to 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324) and 88-CRIME, or anonymously to 520-882-7463.
