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Nancy Guthrie has been unaccounted for since February 1, and authorities report a lack of credible leads or suspects in her case.
WASHINGTON — The family of Nancy Guthrie has announced a reward of up to $1 million for information leading to the safe return of the 84-year-old woman.
On Tuesday morning, “TODAY” show host Savannah Guthrie took to Instagram to reveal the increased reward, urging anyone with information to step forward.
“Someone knows how to find our mom and bring her home,” Savannah Guthrie stated in her heartfelt post.
She continued, her voice filled with emotion, “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. We also know that she may be lost. She may already be gone. She may have already gone home to the Lord that she loves. And is dancing in heaven with her mom and her dad and with her beloved brother, Pierce. And with our daddy. And if this is what is to be, then we will accept it. But we need to know where she is. We need her to come home.”
Anybody with information about the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie is being encouraged to call 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324). Callers can remain anonymous.
Savannah Guthrie also said the family would be making a $500,000 donation to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a nonprofit that aims to find and protect children who have been abducted or abused.
“We also know that we are not alone in our loss. We know there are millions of families that have suffered with this kind of uncertainty,” Savannah Guthrie said. “We are hoping that the attention that has been given to our mom and our family will extend to all the families like ours who are in need and need prayers and need support.”
The renewed plea for information comes a day after a new photo of a person related to the disappearance was released by the FBI, and more than three weeks after Nancy Guthrie went missing.
A masked person who may be a person of interest may have visited Guthrie’s house before her disappearance, ABC News reported on Monday. But the Pima County sheriff investigating her disappearance said later in the day it’s unclear when the photo was taken because it didn’t have a timestamp.
An image released by the FBI of a person in a mask without a backpack was captured by Guthrie’s doorbell camera some time before Guthrie vanished, a source familiar with the investigation told ABC News.
The FBI said the images of the masked person with a backpack are from “the morning of her disappearance,” Sunday, Feb. 1.
In a statement, the sheriff’s department called any attempt to determine a timeline from the photo “purely speculative.”
“We are aware that doorbell images released earlier in the investigation depict a suspect in different stages of attire, including with and without a backpack,” the statement reads. “There is no date or time stamp associated with these images. Therefore, any suggestion that the photographs were taken on different days is purely speculative.”
Guthrie was last seen at her home just outside Tucson on Jan. 31 and was reported missing the following day. Authorities believe she was kidnapped, abducted or otherwise taken against her will. Drops of her blood were found on the front porch, but authorities haven’t publicly revealed much evidence.
Officials have not identified a suspect in Guthrie’s disappearance.
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos, who is leading the investigation into Guthrie’s disappearance, told 12News last week that he has no reason to believe she won’t be found alive.
“We’re going to go with faith and hope that we find Nancy … safe and sound,” Nanos told the local TEGNA station.
DNA evidence found in and around Guthrie’s home in the Catalina Foothills of Tucson is being analyzed at a private lab but has yet to produce any significant leads.
On Tuesday, DNA found on a pair of black gloves recovered 2 miles from Guthrie’s home was uploaded into CODIS, a nationwide database. It didn’t trigger any matches.
The gloves haven’t officially been linked to the case, but the FBI previously stated they appear consistent with the gloves a person was seen wearing on Guthrie’s doorbell camera video the night she disappeared.
It remains unclear whether any of the DNA collected in this case belongs to the person who appeared to be tampering with Guthrie’s doorbell camera the night of her disappearance. That video footage was brought to light last week.
“The guy in the video — that’s been our biggest, really great piece of evidence to work from,” Nanos said told 12News.