Savannah Guthrie & Nancy Guthrie
Savannah Guthrie & Nancy Guthrie

"Today" co-anchor Savannah Guthrie says she plans to return to Ireland next summer with her children, after a first visit to the country that let her connect with her missing mother's Irish heritage.

Guthrie, 54, traveled to Ireland earlier this month with her NBC colleagues for a special "Today" broadcast that aired Friday, Oct. 16. Nearly nine months after her mother, Nancy Guthrie, disappeared from her Arizona home, Guthrie said she was eager to go back.

"I'm already planning my trip! I'm gonna go back in June. I want to bring the kids," Guthrie told viewers after returning to the show's New York studio. "I think it's just so beautiful."

A family connection

Ireland holds special meaning for Guthrie because of her mother's family roots.

"I've never been to Ireland," she said during the broadcast. "My mother's family, my mother was Irish." She said her mother's family came from Galway, on Ireland's west coast.

The special featured Guthrie alongside co-anchor Craig Melvin and colleagues Al Roker, Carson Daly, Dylan Dreyer, Jenna Bush Hager and Sheinelle Jones. The team traveled across the island to "take in the incredible views, sample local food and drink, and meet the amazing people of Ireland," according to NBC's announcement of the episode.

Guthrie visited some of the country's best-known landmarks, including the Cliffs of Moher in County Clare, for segments taped for the special.

"We saw it from the ocean and then from this Martin Guerin farm right there," she said. "It was absolutely stunning. If you've been to Ireland and you haven't done the Cliffs of Moher, then I don't know if you've been to Ireland."

She said what stood out most was the warmth of the Irish people.

"That's what I think sets it apart — the people," Guthrie said.

Comment drew attention

Guthrie's use of the past tense, "my mother was Irish," drew attention online when she first made the remark on "Today" in September. Some viewers questioned whether it signaled anything about her mother's fate.

Guthrie has not announced any developments in the case, and her comments about Ireland referred to her mother's ancestry. Neither the family nor investigators have announced any change in Nancy Guthrie's status.

A mother's disappearance

Nancy Guthrie, then 84, was last seen on the evening of Jan. 31 at her home in the Catalina Foothills, a suburb of Tucson, Arizona. She was reported missing on Feb. 1, after she failed to appear for a church livestream and relatives found her gone.

Investigators believe she was taken from her home against her will in the early hours of Feb. 1. According to authorities:

  • Her doorbell camera was disconnected at about 1:47 a.m.
  • Her pacemaker app lost contact with her phone at about 2:28 a.m.
  • Blood found near the front entrance of the home was confirmed to be hers.
  • The FBI released surveillance footage showing a masked, armed person with a backpack on her porch that night.

The Pima County Sheriff's Department and the FBI are treating the case as a suspected abduction. No arrests have been made in connection with her disappearance.

Ransom demands and false leads

The family received multiple ransom notes demanding cryptocurrency payments in the weeks after she disappeared. Authorities have said some of the messages were fake.

One man, Derrick Callella, pleaded guilty to federal harassment charges for sending fraudulent ransom demands to the family and was sentenced to probation in August.

A person detained in February was released without charges, and authorities later said that person was not involved. In early October, investigators determined that a text message containing an extortion demand, received Sept. 28, was not credible.

The family has offered a $1 million reward for information leading to Nancy Guthrie's recovery.

Volunteers and search teams spent weeks combing the rugged desert near her home. A volunteer group recently searched an area near the Arizona-Mexico border.

Repeated public pleas

Guthrie and her siblings have made repeated public appeals for information, both on air and on social media.

"We are begging for help. We are desperate. We need someone to come forward. Someone knows something," Guthrie said in an appeal in August.

In an Instagram post on Aug. 1, she wrote: "Every day, we wake up and try to be strong and go on — because that's what our joyful and resilient Mom taught us to do. But make no mistake — our hearts are in ruins."

In September, she told "Today" viewers: "We just want our mom home."

Balancing grief and work

Guthrie, a longtime co-host of NBC's flagship morning show, stepped away from the program for a time after her mother's disappearance and later returned to the anchor desk.

Her colleagues and viewers have rallied around her. The Ireland trip offered a rare moment of joy during a painful year, and a chance to explore the place her mother's family once called home.

Guthrie has two children, Vale and Charley, with her husband, Michael Feldman. Bringing them to Ireland next summer, she suggested, would let them experience the heritage her mother passed down.

Anyone with information about Nancy Guthrie's disappearance is urged to contact the Pima County Sheriff's Department or the FBI.