Expert perspective: Megyn Kelly highlights Savannah Guthrie’s plea as family offers $1M reward in Nancy Guthrie disappearance
The segment drew an expert focus on one line of Savannah Guthrie’s Instagram appeal after the family announced a reward of up to $1 million for the recovery of her 84-year-old mother, Nancy Guthrie, who vanished from her Tucson, Arizona, home on February 1. The case has stretched into its fourth week and investigators say the FBI and local authorities are continuing to gather leads.
Family reward and the Instagram appeal published just before 9 a. m. Tuesday
On February 24, Savannah Guthrie posted a new appeal on Instagram urging anyone with information to contact the FBI and announcing a family reward “of up to $1 million. ” In the caption she wrote, “Someone knows how to find our mom and bring her home. ” In the accompanying video, a visibly emotional Savannah asked the public to keep her mother in their thoughts and said, “Please keep praying without ceasing. ” She added, “We still believe. We still believe in a miracle. We still believe that she can come home, hope against hope. As my sister says, ‘We are blowing on the embers of hope. ’” She also acknowledged, “We also know that she may be lost. She may already be gone. ” The post was published just before 9 a. m. on Tuesday.
Calls to the FBI tip line and the family’s pledge to donate $500, 000
By Tuesday night, 12 hours after the family reward was made public, more than 750 calls had come in to the FBI’s tip line. The Guthrie family also said they plan to donate $500, 000 to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Michelle DeLaune, the chief executive of that center, called the family’s donation “very generous” and said, “It’s a tremendous opportunity to raise the visibility of many cases that otherwise would not be receiving this type of attention. ” The family said the reward does not hinge on an arrest or prosecution and that the $1 million can be split if there is more than one valid claim.
Doorbell footage, porch blood and a glove found about two miles away
Investigators have pointed to doorbell camera footage and the FBI released images and videos showing an armed, masked man outside Nancy Guthrie’s house on the morning she disappeared. Authorities have confirmed that the blood found on Nancy Guthrie’s porch belongs to her. Investigators also recovered a glove about two miles away that reportedly contained DNA, but it did not produce a match in federal databases. No arrests have been announced.
Megyn Kelly, James Hamilton and the 'taken from her bed' line
Television host Megyn Kelly focused on one part of Savannah Guthrie’s public plea and suggested it revealed more than the public already knows. Kelly highlighted the sentence, “It’s day 24 since our mom was taken in the dark of night from her bed, ” and said, “No one has ever said that before. ” James Hamilton, founder of Hamilton Security Group, agreed on Kelly’s segment, telling Kelly, “I think she was literally that Savannah knows something that we didn’t know, and now we do know that she was taken from her bed. ” Kelly also speculated about the timing of the family’s reward, saying there is a possibility that someone close to Savannah had earlier talked her out of offering a reward because they feared someone might “come out of the woodwork and point the finger at them. ”
Pima County statements, cleared family members and investigative posture
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has said that all members of the Guthrie family have been cleared as possible suspects and added that to “suggest otherwise is not only wrong, it is cruel. ” Early in the investigation the Pima County Sheriff’s Office said investigators believe Nancy Guthrie was “taken from the home against her will, possibly in the middle of the night and that includes possible kidnapping or abduction. ” Former FBI supervisor Jason Pack called the family reward a strategic pivot, saying the offer could force a decision by people who were close to what happened: “There are some people who were close to what happened, that know what happened, that now have a decision to make, and that decision was really, really ratcheted up by this reward that Savannah and her family offered. ”
Family appeals and pleas from siblings
Camron Guthrie, Savannah’s older brother, posted an Instagram video urging whoever is holding their mother to reach out: “Whoever is out there holding our mother, we want to hear from you. We need you to reach out. ” The family has said they had been prepared to offer a cash reward from the start of the investigation but were advised that doing so early might overwhelm the infrastructure set up to field leads; they said they decided to offer the reward after careful consultation and coordination with law enforcement.
