Savannah Guthrie is revealing when she plans to return to “Today” following the disappearance of her 84-year-old mother, Nancy Guthrie.
The coanchor opened up about the weight of the decision to come back, nearly eight weeks after her mom’s apparent abduction that has rocked her family.
“I really wanted to come and see everybody. I just love this beautiful place that we call home, where we get to come and be every day,” she said in the third segment of her interview with Hoda Kotb, aired Friday, March 27. “And I know how much people have prayed for me and loved me. All the people you’ve seen on TV and then all the people that you don’t.”
Guthrie said it’s “hard to imagine” coming back, but she has longed to be with her “Today” colleagues. “I consider this my family, my greater family. And when times are hard you want to be with your family.”
She also added, “It’s such a place of joy and lightness. I can’t come back and try to be something that I’m not. But I can’t not come back, because it’s my family.”
She continued: “I want to smile, and when I do, it will be real. And my joy will be my protest. My joy will be my answer.”
Guthrie will return to “Today” on Monday, April 6.
“I don’t know if I can do it. I don’t know if I’ll belong anymore,” she said. “But I’d like to try.”
Nancy Guthrie has not been seen since Saturday, Jan. 31, with her family reporting she was missing the following morning. She regularly gathered with friends and neighbors to watch church service online, but on Sunday when she did not show up to a friend’s home, they called her daughter Annie, who lives nearby, a source close to the family told NBC News.
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department has said they believe she was taken from her home against her will.
Law enforcement officials emphasized that the search for the 84-year-old remained an active investigation, although public announcements about new developments have dried up as of late.
Savannah Guthrie has continued to urge fans and the public to reach out to authorities with any relevant information. On Sunday, March 22, the star shared the latest statement from her family, which was previously provided to the Arizona station KVOA-News 4 Tucson. They asked for “renewed attention” to the case and urged the public to consult “camera footage, journal notes, text messages, observations or conversations that in retrospect may hold significance.”
“We continue to believe it is Tucsonans, and the greater Southern Arizona community, that hold the key to finding a resolution in this case,” the Guthrie family said. “Someone knows something. It’s possible a member of this community has information that they do not even realize is significant.”
Law enforcement asks anyone with information to contact 1-800-CALL-FBI or tips.fbi.gov, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department (520-351-4900) or 88-CRIME.
Contributing: Edward Segarra and Brendan Morrow, USA TODAY
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.usatoday.com ’
