TUCSON, Arizona — The investigation into “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie’s missing elderly mom is narrowing its focus from a kidnapping-ransom investigation towards a probe of people who knew the 84-year-old grandmother, sources told The Post.
Pima County Sheriff’s Department detectives are investigating people known to Nancy Guthrie or her family as possible perpetrators of her abduction, the sources said Wednesday.
But that doesn’t mean police have ruled out the idea that the attack on Nancy was carried out by kidnappers hoping to cash in on a ransom connected to her high-profile daughter, the sources cautioned.
Police are still following every lead as the search continued into its fourth grueling day with no suspects or known breaks in the case, cops said.
“We have nothing else to go on but the belief that she is here, she’s present, she’s alive, and we want to save her,” Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos told NBC on Wednesday.
Several purported ransom notes have been sent to news outlets and even Savannah herself claiming knowledge of the vanishing and even involvement while providing supposed details of the crime scene.
One sent to TMZ went so far as to demand millions of dollars in bitcoin in return for Nancy’s release.
Arizona police are continuing to investigate those notes – with the FBI stepping in to help analyze them — while narrowing focus on people known to Nancy as they try to identify suspects, sources said.
Nancy was last seen Saturday around 9:45 p.m. when her son-in-law — Tommaso Cioni, husband of Savannah’s sister Annie — dropped her at her $1 million Tucson home.
Nancy, Tommaso and Annie all had dinner together that night, with science teacher Tommaso seeing his mother-in-law safely home before departing, police said.
The family has been cooperating with investigators since Nancy was reported missing Sunday after failing to show up for church, according to police.
Savannah has skipped out on covering the Olympics opening ceremony in Italy to join her sister and brother-in-law in Tucson as the search continued.
And the disappearance has left friends and neighbors baffled — with many sharing how “sweet” a person Nancy is and insisting they couldn’t imagine anybody wanting to hurt her.
“Anybody knows her and met her loves her,” said Mary Ann Blevins, a friend who attends a monthly book club with Nancy.
“I don’t think she has any enemies and that’s why this whole thing is very scary,” she told The Post, adding that Nancy never expressed fears about living alone on her Tucson street.
The search for Nancy has grown increasingly dire by the hour as she desperately needs medication every 24 hours, and could die without it — medication which she did not have with her when she left her home, police said.
By Wednesday evening, 96 hours could have passed without Nancy taking that medication.
Her family and police both have also insisted she was “sharp as a tack” and did not succumb to any mental ailments and wander off — a notion also ruled out by Nancy’s severe physical immobility.
“The clock is literally ticking,” Sheriff Nanos told CBS, saying he still didn’t know how many suspects police were even looking for.
A spokesperson Pima County Sheriff’s Department told The Post they were not aware that the investigation’s focus had narrowed.
