The desperate search for Nancy Guthrie took a dramatic turn Wednesday night as the missing 84-year-old’s three children released a raw video plea, addressing whoever may be holding their mother and saying plainly: “We are ready to talk.”
“Today” host Savannah Guthrie, alongside her sister Annie and brother Camron, fought back tears in the Instagram video, speaking directly to any potential kidnappers and urging them to prove their mother is still alive.
“We want to hear from you and we are ready to listen. Please, reach out to us,” Savannah said.
She then turned her message to her mother.
“Mommy, if you are hearing this, you are a strong woman. You are God’s precious daughter, Nancy.”
The post was simply captioned: “Bring her home.”
The emotional appeal came nearly four days after Nancy Guthrie was last seen alive and just hours after reports that hostage negotiation experts were being brought in to assist investigators.
Dr. Bryanna Fox, a former FBI special agent who worked in the bureau’s Behavioral Science Unit and is now a criminology professor at the University of South Florida, said the video appeared carefully crafted to reach a captor on a human level.
“They are doing exactly what we were taught in the FBI Behavioral Science Unit: the first thing you must do is humanize the victim,” Fox told the Daily Mail.
“The abductor does not view the victim as human. They’re not viewing them as a family member, as someone who has people at home worried about her, as someone who has health issues, as a mother.”
Fox said calling her “mommy” and showing the siblings crying and pleading could shift that mindset and raise the chances the victim is kept safe.
“By calling her ‘mommy’ in the video and showing the children crying and begging for her safe return, it can change the captor’s mentality and increase the likelihood they will hold the victim safe and start negotiations,” she said.
Fox added that while Savannah spoke for much of the video, the presence of all three siblings, visibly exhausted and emotional in a casual setting, made the message more relatable.
“This shows this isn’t a celebrity problem. Everybody can relate to them,” she said.
“This wasn’t Savannah Guthrie, the Today show anchor, the celebrity, having a problem. The three of them were very relatable.”
Posting the video on Savannah’s personal Instagram account also made the appeal feel more intimate, Fox said.
“It wasn’t at a police press conference, it wasn’t formal or in front of the media cameras. It feels like she and her siblings want to say how they feel on their own,” she said.
The Pima County Sheriff’s Office has not ruled out the possibility that Nancy Guthrie was targeted because of her daughter’s fame.
