“Today” show anchor Savannah Guthrie will return to the NBC morning show on April 6, two months after her 84-year-old mother went missing in Arizona. Guthrie’s former co-host, Hoda Kotb, made the announcement after her interview with Guthrie aired Friday.
Guthrie said in the interview that she feels the return is “part of her purpose,” but noted she expects it to be a challenge.
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“I can’t come back and try to be something that I’m not,” Guthrie said. “But I can’t not come back because it’s my family. I don’t know if I can do it. I don’t know if I’ll belong anymore, but I would like to try. I would like to try.”
Guthrie’s mother’s disappearance
Guthrie’s mother, Nancy, was reported missing on Feb. 1 after she didn’t show up at a friend’s house for a virtual church service. She was last seen the night before, after having dinner with her daughter Annie.
Law enforcement has called her disappearance a possible kidnapping or abduction, and shared numerous photos and videos of a masked suspect from Nancy Guthrie’s doorbell camera.
Officials found blood on her doorstep and searched her home and the surrounding area extensively before turning the home back over to the Guthrie family.
The FBI said it is looking for a man between 5-foot-9 and 5-foot-10, of average build. Investigators are also weighing the use of genetic genealogy to help identify unknown DNA recovered from inside the house.
Local, state and federal agencies remain involved, and a task force continues to work the case.
In the interview with Kotb, Savannah Guthrie said she believed two ransom notes sent to news outlets were authentic, while others may have been fake.
She also suggested her fame may have made her mother a target.
“To think that I brought this to her bedside, that it’s because of me,” Guthrie said. “I’d just say: ‘I’m so sorry, Mommy. I’m so sorry.’”
