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Savannah Guthrie Speaks on Eve of Return to "TODAY" Show | Nancy Guthrie Missing
00:25:58
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- [00:00]
Savannah Guthrie
Foreign.
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Podcast Host
Hey everyone. Happy Easter. It is Easter Sunday, April 5, 2026. As I record this late at night, I've had a very long day, had a lovely Easter with my husband and saw the little girls who lived next door and wished them happy Easter and they brought eggs, which was so cute. I say all these nice things because I'm going to talk about the Nancy Guthrie case, but there is an Easter connection. Couple things you should know that I'm going to talk about. First of all, Savannah's probably having a really tough time going to sleep tonight because it's her return to the Today show in the morning. And if you know the morning show schedule it means you get up at 3, if you're really late 4am and you get into work and you're on the air at 6 and you know girls hair and makeup takes longer than the guys so we usually have to get in earlier. So I am thinking about her on the eve of her return. It is going to be really hard to go live in front of millions of people when you are feeling as emotionally brittle as she is at this time. And maybe to ease into it, Savannah did something really interesting today. She gave an Easter message and she gave the message in the same venue that her mom attended religious services on Sundays ever since COVID you may not know about Good Shepherd. It is a church in New York and they offer in person services but they they also offer a digital service. And this is the service that Savannah did her taped message. It's really interesting. I watched the service and I don't typically do that. I'm not very religious anymore. Grew up as an Anglican, I was christened, baptized, I was confirmed in the church. I traveled all over the holy world. Most special sites for Christians, Jews and Muslims. And I have all my questions and I have sort of become more agnostic in my older age. But I'm fascinated by the history of religion and the politics of religion. That aside, Savannah's Easter message and as I watched this service was super interesting. For starters, the service is all digital. So there are people who appear in an empty church and they deliver their readings either reading off their phones or reading off a printed script or extemporaneous and their messages of, well, whatever they choose. Easter message, message of hope, message of love. And then there is like extraordinary well produced music by a very fulsome and energetic band. Great singers, great musicians, all doing these fabulous hymns and modern music and it's a really, really good service. I really actually enjoyed listening to it and watching it and I was super interested in Savannah's mess. I'm gonna play you her message, and it's really heartfelt, and I can see her holding back tears in a lot of these spots. It's about eight minutes long, and I want to make sure that, you know, one thing before you cut. If you cut off too soon. Before the end of her message. In the summary here, she just. You know, she addresses the elephant in the room, obviously, like, happy Easter. And how am I supposed to be happy? You know, I'm sitting in this. This torturous mystery in my life. I don't know where my mom is. Police don't know where my mom is. No one knows where my mom is. All we know is that there's blood on her front door and a terrifying man in a ski mask on her camera. And so she rests on her faith and questions her faith. And she's a very faithful woman. We know this because she's written a book about her faith. And what she does is she sort of says, I question God and Jesus. Have you ever had a circumstance where you've just been living in the horrifying unknown? And she asks that because she says, at least Jesus knew. He talked to people about what. What his fate was going to become. You know, what, that he was going to be betrayed. And so she said, I seriously questioned there whether God and Jesus even knew what it was like to live in this. This kind of human condition, because, you know, they were the embodiment of the human condition, sending Jesus to live among us and suffer among us. And then she answers that question in the affirmative, where she says, you know, after three days, he was in that tomb. He rose again, according to scripture, and he didn't know in that tomb how long he'd be there. Days, weeks, years, thousands of years. So there was the unknown for him, and then there's the unknown for all of us. If you believe in religion, if you believe in Christianity, if you believe that there will be the second coming of the Lord, we're still in that ambivalence. We don't know right from his resurrection to the second coming, we're still living in the unknown. So I just wanted you to know that that's her end message. Because I don't want. I don't want anyone to misinterpret. If you only listen to a certain point and drop off. I know that there's been some criticism online. I, for one, think it was an extraordinary message that she delivered. I couldn't have done it. I'd be a puddle I couldn't have done half the stuff that Savannah's been doing. And I certainly don't think I could have returned to work the way she's going to. So I'm gonna play that for you in a moment. I also wanna give you a little bit of news as well. Cause it's Sunday and I don't always work on Sunday. I don't always work on Easter Sunday, but I thought it was important on the eve of Savannah returning back to work. And then of course, this incredible message that she delivered in the same service that her mom used to attend with her friends. I think if you remember, she missed that gathering with her friends to attend this digital service. And the friends reached out to. To the Guthrie family, to Annie and her husband Tommy. And they went over and found she wasn't there and saw the blood. And they opened doors and called the police. And then we know what happened from there. And then we don't know what happened, but there was Savannah doing the same service that her mom, you know, used to attend. You know, in, In. In the. At home setting. I'm going to play Savannah's comments in just a moment. Cause I think you need to hear them. Really, you do. But also I just want to get you up to speed on a couple of other things that are happening right before that. So during all of this, a few things have happened. You probably saw the criticism if you watched my podcast. I think it was last week or Monday. I can't remember when I told you that. I learned that the lead detective in the case had all of two years under his belt as a homicide detective. That's real concerning. Right. Leading the case. I have since learned that he didn't always attend daily briefings. Don't know why. Could have been different reasons. Maybe he was on location. I do not know. Just learned that line alone. Giving it to you as a piece of the puzzle. It's not the answer. And then Brian Anton did a report saying that the homicide sergeant. And that would be the guy who oversees sort of the. The homicide division. Right. He's also kind of a newbie in homicides. He's not a newbie to the force. Guy looks like he's probably in his 50s, been around the block a little in, you know, sheriff's department and in policing. But as far as Brian Enten reported, when he landed on Nancy Guthrie's front doorstep, he'd never done a homicide. I don't know what that means. If he was in charge of the department, he certainly had some experience with with homicides, but whether he'd handled one himself or been a lead detective himself, that's what seems to be the criticism here. I think the overall message here is that there were a lot of newbies in the homicide unit in the Pima county sheriff's department, and some of the older guys are really critical of it, saying, look, all the old guys are gone and the new guys are in. And the criticism from the outside is that nanos is putting his friends in high places, not maybe the most deserving, not necessarily a meritocracy is the criticism to that. Sheriff nanos came out pew, pew, pew. Guns a blazing. But again, cherry picking the interviews and giving it to his friends in the local press and saying, we don't believe that there were any mistakes made. The sergeant been a homicide supervisor for two years and basically saying that the, the criticism is unfounded and unwarranted. And he can say that, and maybe there are certain pieces of the criticism where he's right, but there's been a lot of criticism. And I gotta say, yeah, why was the lead detective only a two year vet? Right. Why was the sergeant only leading up homicide supervising for two years? One of the older guard who's retired said nobody was brought back in, deputized. Like you can do that. Apparently you can go out to the diaspora, the guys who have retired and say, hey, we need your smarts, we need your savvy, we need your experience. We got a young department, we got a real bitch of a case. Yeah, Real vexing case. No answers. And it's. The pressure's on, it's the international spotlight, national spotlight, local spotl like, but to these other folks, knowledge. There wasn't anybody brought in with all that expertise, you know, the decades under their belts and deputized and brought back in to pinch it for a while. Not even pinch it. Just add to the force, add to the knowledge base. Why wasn't that done yet? 400 people working on the case at one point. Maybe he should have gotten some of the guys who've been around the block, you know, Anyway, so if you want to see it, you can find the sheriff's message. I think he gave it to kvoa. You can check that out. Here's a little snippet of it.
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Sheriff Nanos
But you cannot attack my department, Attack the sheriff, but you will not get by with attacking my department with reports
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Podcast Host
coming out that his investigators made mistakes in the early stages of Guthrie's disappearance. This is what nano's had to say.
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Sheriff Nanos
Discrediting an investigation like this doesn't help anything. It's very harmful. No, we don't believe there were any mistakes made.
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Podcast Host
He goes on to fight back against public accusations that the lead investigator on Guthrie's case has never investigated a homicide.
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Sheriff Nanos
This sergeant's been the supervisor of homicide for over two years. And in that time, he solved some pretty significant, very high profile cases for this area. The Reddington homicide, the Goodwill homicide. And they solved those within days.
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Podcast Host
As for the recent reports that he should step down for being our sheriff
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Sheriff Nanos
for 50 years, every sheriff here has had that. I can't listen to that. That's white noise.
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Podcast Host
And again, if you want to see his complete message, you can check out kvoa's website and the interview that he gave to kvoa and everything that he said with all the context. And again, I'm going to play Savannah's comments for you in a second. But again, a little bit other news that has happened. I did not know this, but during the Board of Supervisors meeting, and I listened to a lot of that meeting, but not all of it, and I must have missed one of the local residents who said to the Board of Supervisors that she was very pissed at an incident that happened November 6, 2024, with Sheriff Nanos at the local airport in Tucson. She alleged that the sheriff showed up at the airport with a loaded weapon in his carry on. And when I say loaded, I mean five in the magazine and one in the chamber. First of all, I guess if you're law enforcement, maybe you do travel with one in the chamber. Okay, but on a fucking airplane. Are you shitting me? Like, also, if you're law enforcement, there's a different set of rules. So, yeah, you're a little different. I get it. But you do have to follow them. You can actually travel on a commercial airliner with other passengers as a member of law enforcement with your service weapon. But you have to fill out a metric shit ton of paperwork, and you have to advance, warn them, everybody has to be in on it, and then it's okay. And not in all jurisdictions, to my knowledge, but in this specific incident. And I am just going to have to rely on the incident report that was obtained by Fox News Digital. And so far, they haven't served me wrong. A TSA X ray technician saw the weapon in the sheriff's bag and flagged an officer. He's taken into an interview room. They read him his Miranda rights, according to Fox News Digital, which apparently is just protocol. He is not arrested. He is detained because they need to figure out what the f. And then he is escorted to his vehicle so that he can put his hard case containing his weapon. And apparently these other rounds into his vehicle. Then he's allowed to book another flight and head out. No arrest, no charges. So I think the Tucson resident who spoke to the Board of Supervisors in their meeting last week. Was pissed off. She said, that's different treatment. That's special treatment. I can't weigh in on that. It feels like it. Because I know I'd be arrested, I'd have cuffs on me. I'd be taken to the who scout, probably spend the night. But he was allowed to carry on. And there's no other action that was taken against him. And maybe that is something that's afforded to law enforcement or senior law enforcement. I do not know that. But I can tell you that that was something that really outraged this particular complainant at the Board of Supervisors. And I don't know how much they're looking into that incident as well. But it was like, what the f, dude? First of all, it's stupid as fuck. Who does that? Who does that in this day and age? I mean, it's almost dumb if you don't take your shoes off these days. Like, you don't know that. Where you been? Under a rock. But we know we can't take knives and guns. And people still do it. You know, people still do it. But law enforcement people who are that educated about security and safety. That's shocking to me. Maybe he thought, okay, it's no problem. We're allowed. But didn't know they have to file all the paperwork beforehand and give prior knowledge. I don't know. That's the kind of stuff you should know, you know, if you're a sheriff. Anyway. So those are the big sort of pieces of news in the Guthrie investigation. That I wanted to give to you just before we do the Easter. The nice stuff, the nice Easter message. And so, without further ado, again, this is Savannah Guthrie giving her taped message. And all the messages of everybody in the Easter service with Good Shepherd. They're all taped. And this is her taped message. So here. Here you go. Have a look.
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Savannah Guthrie
Good morning, everybody. Happy Easter. And Easter is happy. It is flowers and pastels and baby bunnies. It is sunshine and joy and hope. It is rebirth and second chances and new life and fresh starts. It is the most important day of the year for all of us who believe even more than Christ's birth, more than his death, his resurrection, his second birth into a permanent life. That is what is most crucial to us. His revival. And Resurrection mean the same for us. We celebrate today the promise of a new life that never ends in death. But standing here today, I have to tell you there are moments in which that promise seems irretrievably far away, when life itself seems far harder than death. These moments of deep disappointment with God, the feeling of utter abandonment. For most of us, there will come a time in our life when these feelings hold sway in our tradition. We are taught to take comfort in the fact that our friend Jesus, in his short life, experienced every single emotion that we humans can feel. That his taking on the form of humanity made him not a distant observer to our pain, but a hands on experiencer of it. Recently, though, in my own season of trial, I have wondered, I have questioned whether Jesus really ever experienced this particular wound that I feel, this grievous and uniquely cruel injury of not knowing, of uncertainty and confusion and answers withheld in those darkest moments. I have thought bitterly and perhaps irreverently, that I have stumbled upon a feeling that Jesus did not know. After all, don't the gospel stories recount Jesus informing his disciples of his destiny? That he had been sent to die, to ultimately be raised up? They didn't get it, but he did. He at least knew his fate. And yes, it grieved him deeply, to the point of shedding tears of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane. But still he knew the ending. He knew the plan. There would be suffering, but then resurrection. And so I thought, he never suffered this excruciating not knowing. It isn't wrong to think such thoughts, to challenge our God with questions. God does not ask us to be stoics, withstanders of pain with Zen like remove, or shallow sloganeering about the hard battle God gives to his toughest soldiers. Our questions to God, our wrestling with God, this is his opportunity. For through our authenticity and vulnerability comes a portal of revelation, the imparting of truth and wisdom. And so it went for me, this portal opening as I stared at yet another incongruently luminous desert sunset amidst my spirit's utter darkness. Suddenly I remembered the grave. I remembered three days in the grave. No one talks much about that. We focus mostly on Easter. Of course we do. We cut to the happy ending and the joy of Sunday morning. And yes, we do observe the Friday before the agony of crucifixion. We mourn by candlelight that darkest night. But after Jesus died, after he breathed his last, what did he actually know? On the cross he cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? That Is the anguished cry of someone who does not know the answers. Where did his soul and his spirit go in those days in between? And what was he thinking? Did he think his time in the grave would be a day or two or a thousand years in the grave? Did his agony seem indefinite to him, that torment of uncertainty, the way indefinite pain can feel eternal? Perhaps he did know this feeling after all. As humans living on this earth now, we are all suspended in that moment of uncertainty. Not three days, but thousands of years between his cross and our resurrection with Him. Our faith gives us a spiritual conviction that we will be reborn, that God will redeem this pain, that every tear will be wiped away, that our Easter is coming, but we live viscerally in the meantime, the mean time of feeling unsure, lost, abandoned, disappointed, enraged, forgotten. Our comfort is that our God has felt those feelings from a perspective of humanity, that he has compassion on us and that he promises, if not immediate answers, his sweet presence. He promises closeness to the brokenhearted, somehow, miraculously, his loving and gentle presence. That makes the mean time less mean. Perhaps this is too dark a message to share on Easter morning, but I have long believed that we miss out on fully celebrating resurrection if we do not acknowledge the feelings of loss, pain, and, yes, death. It is the darkness that makes this morning's light so magnificent, so blindingly beautiful. It is all the brighter because it is so desperately needed. So I close my eyes this morning and I feel the sunshine. I see a bright vision of the day when heaven and earth pass away, because they are one on earth as it is in heaven. When we celebrate today, this is what we celebrate. And I celebrate, too. I still believe. And so I say with conviction, happy Easter.
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Podcast Host
I, for one, applaud Savannah for being able to do that. I wondered if it was a dry run for being able to do something on the Today show. I don't know what her, you know, her first day back is going to be like. If it were me, I'd request being on tape a lot because there's a certain pressure when you're live that can get your emotions cooking real quick, especially if you've experienced trauma. And I know that because I experienced trauma on 911 and I had a lot of trouble with live events afterwards. I fell apart during a live speech on a stage. I was just humiliated. I was so embarrassed. It wasn't even about, like, terrorism. It was about Matthew Shepard, and Matthew Shepard's mom was on stage. I just. Oh, it was. It was so hard. And when. When you're live or when you're on stage or when you're, you know, presenting live in front of an audience from in front of camera, that trauma comes back hard, and it takes control. And so if. I don't know. I don't know if Savannah is going to try to just sort of rein it in by appearing on a lot of taped pieces and maybe a little bit on camera at the beginning, Some hellos, a couple of messages, whatever it is. And maybe she can do something that's very, very se from the subject matter she's been steeped in for the last two months. Maybe she can do a political interview. Whatever it is, I wish her well. I wish her the best. I wish her strength and support and all the feels, all the vibes, everything. You need to know that you've got a village behind you that's propping you up, because I think she's going to need a lot of propping up. And here's something else we can do to help prop up. Keep spreading that message. 1-800-call FBI. 1-800-call FBI. There's $1.2 million reward money for somebody out there who knows who was acting real weird on February 1st, February 2nd, and February, and then again a week later when, you know, the images showed up online at the guy on camera. I mean, can you imagine what this guy would have done on the day that suddenly his images are all over the news like, holy. He would have freaked the f out. He would have absolutely acted weird. Do you know somebody who acted real weird on the day those images surfaced? Cash Patel's FBI let those images out for the rest of us to see. Do you recognize this person? Their gate, their clothes, their backpack? Do you recognize anything about them? Their goatee? They're anything. The bite light, anything. Did someone act real weird? Did a bite light go missing from your house recently, like two months ago? These are the things to think about. Yeah. And if you have a boyfriend who is acting like an asshole, and now in the last two months, you're no longer with him, and you know all these weird things. Yeah. Back in February, he did these weird things. Might be time to call 1-800- call FBI. $1.2 million. 1.2 million reasons to not protect this. Right? Let's do something as a village, as a community, to support the Guthrie family. Find him now. Let's string him up, because hopefully, if we find him, we may be able to find Nancy. Okay, so I'm done my rant. But to all of you who do or don't celebrate religiously on this day. I wish you peace and I wish you love and understanding. And I wish that you and your family never have to go through anything that so many of the crime victims that I cover in my 38 years of doing this job that I've had to cover because they all need our love and support, too. Thank you so much, everyone, for listening. Thank you so much for watching. And remember, the truth isn't just serious, it's drop dead serious.