A friend of Savannah Guthrie’s mom, Nancy Guthrie, says she did not seem to have issues with anyone prior to her mysterious disappearance.
“She doesn’t have any enemies at all. And this, it’s just a freaky thing,” Mary Ann Blevins, who is in a book club with Nancy, 84, and a close friend of the Arizona native, exclusively tells Us Weekly.
Blevins also said she does not believe that Nancy was targeted because of her daughter, Today anchor Savannah, 54.
“Yeah. You know, her daughter is quite well known, and I don’t know if that has anything to do with it or not,” she continued. “She and her mother are very, very close.”
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Nancy was reported missing on Sunday, February 1, after she did not show up to church. After her noticeable absence, a friend called one of Nancy’s children to express concern. (Nancy shared Savannah, Camron Guthrie and Annie Guthrie with late husband Charles Guthrie.)
Blevins tells Us she last spoke to Nancy a month ago, when their book club most recently met.
“She always seems OK,” Blevins adds of Nancy’s demeanor at the time. “She’s just a beautiful person.”
Nancy’s family shared a statement confirming her disappearance on Monday, February 2.
“We can confirm this is a missing persons case, and the family is working closely with local law enforcement,” the Guthrie family said in a statement to NBC News.
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said in a press conference on Monday that there were “some concerns” about what was found at Nancy’s home amid her disappearance. He added that police are “not ruling out” foul play.
“She has no cognitive issues at all. She’s very alert [and] of sound mind,” Nanos said, adding that Nancy didn’t leave “on her own.”
Nanos told Us exclusively that “something unusual” happened at Nancy’s house, which is being considered a crime scene.
“Something doesn’t fit,’” Nanos said. “We’re gonna pull all the stops and go at all angles. We really do hope it’s a search-and-rescue mission and we find her and she’s safe and sound. But it would be unjust if we didn’t look at what’s in front of us and go, ‘We need to act.’”
The sheriff added that there were “things” about Nancy’s home that made police believe, “This lady’s in danger.”
“It does have to do with what was described to us about the scene,” Nanos continued. “I’ve been doing this for 50 years. When something doesn’t sit well, it doesn’t sit well.”
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In a press conference on Tuesday, February 3, Nanos clarified that blood was not found at Nancy’s home despite a report claiming otherwise.
“I’m not sure where that came from,” Nanos said. “Maybe I said something, and trust me, I’ve said a lot, talked to a lot of people. And some of those comments — on my fault, not the media — may have been distorted or taken out of context.”
He continued, “We’re not confirming whether there was blood in the home or any of that. What we’re saying is we do have evidence that we submitted to DNA labs, actually, through other sources that we use, and they have confirmed that the DNA that we found was in fact, belonged to Nancy, Savannah’s mom, which we were hopeful that it would give us a different profile than just hers, but that’s where we’re at with the DNA. We have other items that we submit for DNA research and see what that comes up, but that was the first submittal we’ve got back, and we’ll continue to wait for lab results, see if we find something else.”
Savannah was absent from Today on Monday amid Nancy’s disappearance, but her cohosts, Craig Melvin and Sheinelle Jones, shared a statement on her behalf. (Savannah did not appear on Tuesday’s broadcast either.)
“On behalf of our family, I want to thank everyone for the thoughts, prayers and messages of support. Right now, our focus remains on the safe return of our dear mom,” the statement read. “We thank law enforcement for their hard work on this case and encourage anyone with information to contact the Pima County Sheriff’s Department at 520-351-4900.”