Savannah Guthrie pleads for answers in mom’s abduction: ‘We need someone to tell the truth’
In this May 4, 2015, file photo, Australian-born presenter, Savannah Guthrie poses alongside her mother Nancy Guthrie during a production break while hosting NBC’s “Today Show” live from Australia at Sydney Opera House in Sydney. (Don Arnold/WireImage via Getty Images, FILE)
(NEW YORK) — “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie is begging for answers in the abduction of her mother, Nancy Guthrie, saying that “someone knows something.”
“How can someone vanish without a trace?” Savannah Guthrie said in the final part of her emotional interview with her friend and former co-host Hoda Kotb.
Nancy Guthrie, 84, was abducted from her Tucson, Arizona, house in the early hours of Feb. 1, authorities said. Investigators have released surveillance images from outside Nancy Guthrie’s house, but the person who took her remains unidentified.
“Our anguish is real. We need help,” Savannah Guthrie said. “We need someone to tell the truth. I have no anger in my heart — I have hope in my heart. I have love. But this family needs peace — I don’t think we deserve anything more or less than any other person.”
“It is never too late, and when you do, the warmth of love and forgiveness that will come will be greater than can be imagined,” she said.
As she waits for answers, Savannah Guthrie said she’s leaning on her faith, and is inspired by the deep faith her mother’s had through hard times, like after Savannah Guthrie’s father died when the “Today” host was a teenager.
“I saw her grieve, I saw her world shatter,” Savannah Guthrie said.
“And I saw her get up and I saw her believe and I saw her love. And I saw her hope and I saw her smile and I saw her laugh. I saw her joy. … I saw her faith,” she said.
“She taught me, she taught all of us,” Savannah Guthrie continued.
“I may not do it as well as her, but I will do it. I will do it for my kids. I will. I will not fall apart,” she said through tears. “I will not let whoever did this take my children’s mother from them. I will not let them take my joy.”
“Faith is how I will stay connected to my mom. … And I won’t let sadness win for her,” she said through tears.
Kotb has been filling in for Savannah Guthrie on “Today” since Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance. Savannah Guthrie plans to return to “Today” on April 6.
“I’m not gonna be the same,” she said.
But she added, “I want to smile, and when I do, it will be real. And my joy will be my protest.”
Anyone with information is urged to call 911, the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI, or the Pima County Sheriff’s Department at 520-351-4900.
Barry Morphew is shown in this booking photo released by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office
(ALAMOSA COUNTY, Colo.) — Barry Morphew has pleaded not guilty for the second time in the alleged murder of his wife, Suzanne Morphew, whose body was found more than three years after the mother of two was reported missing.
The plea was entered on his behalf during his arraignment in Alamosa County, Colorado on Monday.
His trial has been scheduled to start on Oct. 13. He waived his right to a speedy trial, due to the amount of data and anticipated length of the proceedings. The trial is expected to last up to six weeks.
Suzanne Morphew was reported missing on Mother’s Day in May 2020. Her remains were found in September 2023 while investigators were searching in an unrelated case. Her death was subsequently ruled a homicide.
A grand jury returned an indictment against Barry Morphew on a single count of first-degree murder in June 2025. He was taken into custody in Arizona.
He had previously been charged with his wife’s presumed murder in 2021, but those charges were dropped in April 2022, just before the trial was supposed to begin.
Barry Morphew was the last known person to see his wife alive, according to the probable cause statement in the indictment.
The day she was reported missing, he told police she had planned to go on a bike ride while he was out of town on a work trip, according to the indictment. Her bike and helmet were later located in separate locations near the home.
In early interviews with law enforcement following his wife’s disappearance, Barry Morphew allegedly said their marriage was “the best,” according to the indictment. Though his statements were “inconsistent with other witness accounts and evidence located,” the indictment stated, noting that Suzanne Morphew had “confided in people that she was unhappy in the marriage in the weeks and months leading to her disappearance” and had discussed plans to divorce her husband with a close friend.
Investigators also uncovered a screenshot of a text message from Suzanne Morphew on her husband’s phone that stated, according to the indictment: “I’m done. I could care less what you’re up to and have been for years. We just need to figure this out civilly.” The screenshot was saved on May 6, 2020 — four days before she was reported missing by a neighbor, according to the indictment.
Suzanne Morphew’s body was found in September 2023 near the town of Moffat, less than an hour south of where she lived, according to the indictment.
Her death was determined to have been caused by homicide “by undetermined means in the setting of butorphanol, azaperone, and medetomidine intoxication,” according to the autopsy.
Law enforcement specifically requested that the coroner’s office test for the presence of butorphanol, azaperone and medetomidine, which comprise a chemical mixture known as BAM that is used for sedating animals, according to the indictment.
Prior to moving to Colorado in 2018, Barry Morphew was a deer farmer in Indiana and used BAM to sedate and transport deer on his farm, according to the indictment. He allegedly admitted to using BAM in Colorado as recently as April 2020 to tranquilize a deer on his property, according to the indictment.
According to the indictment, records of BAM prescriptions showed that Barry Morphew last purchased BAM by prescription in March 2018, and that no individual or business in the Colorado region where the Morphews lived and where Suzanne Morphew’s remains were found had purchased BAM prescriptions from 2017 to 2020.
“Ultimately, the prescription records show that when Suzanne Morphew disappeared, only one private citizen living in that entire area of the state had access to BAM: Barry Morphew,” the indictment stated.
Barry Morphew has denied any involvement in his wife’s death.
“Yet again, the government allows their predetermined conclusion to lead their search for evidence,” his attorney, David Beller, said in a statement to ABC News last year following his indictment. “Barry maintains his innocence. The case has not changed and the outcome will not either.”
His attorney during his initial prosecution by the 11th Judicial District Attorney’s Office also maintained her former client’s innocence.
“Not only is he a loving father, but he was a loving husband,” the attorney, Iris Eytan said in a statement. “I’ve handled thousands of cases, and I’ve never seen prosecutors mishandle a case so recklessly.”
The district attorney for the 11th Judicial District at the time, Linda Stanley, was disbarred by the Colorado Supreme Court in 2024 for misconduct regarding the Morphew case and others.
Barry Morphew and his daughters spoke to ABC News in May 2023 after they filed a lawsuit against prosecutors, saying he was wrongfully charged.
“They’ve got tunnel vision and they looked at one person and they’ve got too much pride to say they’re wrong and look somewhere else,” he said at the time. “I don’t have anything to worry about. I’ve done nothing wrong.”
Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay on the field before the preseason game against the Cleveland Browns at Lucas Oil Stadium on August 17, 2019 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Justin Casterline/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The death of Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay is now under federal investigation, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
The FBI and the DEA are investigating the 65-year-old Irsay’s death in May at the Beverly Hills Hotel along with the California addiction specialist who had been treating him with opioids and ketamine, the sources said.
Dr. Harry Haroutunian signed the death certificate that said the cause was cardiac arrest due to pneumonia, according to a copy of the document obtained by ABC News. There was no autopsy, the certificate said.
Haroutunian did not respond to an ABC News request for comment.
The FBI declined to confirm or deny the investigation, which was first reported by the Washington Post.
Irsay was the billionaire owner of the Colts for nearly 30 years, celebrating a Super Bowl victory with Peyton Manning in 2007. He was open about his life-long struggle with addiction.
“We are aware of the investigation, but at this time, we’ve not been contacted by the FBI or been served with any subpoenas,” the Colts said in a statement provided to ABC News.
The use of ketamine to treat addiction was the subject of an investigation into the 2023 death of Matthew Perry. Five people ended up facing criminal charges in the Perry case with one doctor being sentenced to 30 months in federal prison for distributing ketamine to the actor.
The investigation into Irsay’s death is in its early stages, the sources said.
Mountains outside Patterson, California. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(PATTERSON, Calif.) — The FBI is at the scene of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement-involved shooting that happened in Patterson, California, on Tuesday near the I-5, Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said in a statement.
According to Lyons, ICE officers were attempting to arrest a man they claimed was an 18th Street gang member when he “weaponized his vehicle” and attempted to run over an officer.
Lyons claimed that the suspect is wanted in El Salvador for questioning in connection with a murder.
“Following their training, our officers fired defensive shots to protect themselves, their fellow agents and the public,” Lyons said.
The motorist was taken to a local hospital, Lyons said. The individual’s condition is unclear.
Earlier Tuesday, the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office issued a statement saying they were assisting with the shooting and had closed the on and off ramps in the area.
Patterson is an agricultural city in California’s San Joaquin Valley.
