The TODAY family is sending a symbol of hope from New York City across the country to Tucson in support of Nancy Guthrie.
The co-hosts wore yellow ribbons and TODAY’s Studio 1A was decorated with bouquets of yellow roses on Feb. 18 in a gesture of love and hope for Savannah Guthrie and her family as the search for her 84-year-old mother continued into its 18th day.
“We’re all wearing ribbons as we send our love to Savannah and her family,” Hoda Kotb said alongside Craig Melvin, Carson Daly and Al Roker.
People in Catalina Foothills outside Tucson, Arizona, have been placing yellow flowers near Nancy Guthrie’s home as a symbol of community support. Police said Nancy Guthrie, who was last seen Jan. 31, was taken from her home in a possible kidnapping, and the investigation into her disappearance has now stretched nearly three weeks.
“I think we articulated it yesterday for the national collective — this is our missing mom,” Carson said. “And this is a nice symbol.”
“We remain hopeful,” Craig added.
Several community members spoke on TODAY Feb. 13 about placing flowers outside Nancy Guthrie’s home.
“It’s important to show support for your neighbors, especially in a very trying time like this,” neighbor Curt Dunshee told NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell.
“We all feel like we love them. We’ve taken them in as our own and my heart breaks,” local resident Lynne McCane said. “Everyone feels like they are going through it with her. We are with her.”
KVOA, the NBC News affiliate in Tucson, put up a banner outside its building that reads, “Bring her home,” and features a photo of Nancy Guthrie.
Her disappearance has struck a chord with people across the nation.
“Savannah has been part of people’s morning routines for years. Their families start to feel like our families and friends, so when something happens to her family, it feels very personal,” Judy Ho, a clinical neuropsychologist, told NBC’s Joe Fryer on TODAY Feb. 17.
“The number of people who came up and said, one thing they kept repeating which struck me is, ‘She’s like all of our moms,'” Hoda said on TODAY Feb. 16.
A Feb. 15 article in The New York Times about Nancy Guthrie featured the headline “Everybody’s Mom.”
“A lot of us have aging parents who we’re taking care of, and so there’s just kind of a natural connectivity where you see these people on screen day after day and think about your own life and people that might be important to you,” the article’s author, Jesse McKinley, told Fryer on TODAY.
“It’s this idea that Nancy Guthrie is not just Nancy Guthrie, but she is actually standing in for a lot of people’s parents, a lot of people’s grandparents, people they care about.”
“Today” co-anchor Savannah Guthrie shared a brief video statement urging her mother’s possible kidnapper that “it’s never too late to do the right thing.”
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Great Job Scott Stump l TODAY & the Team @ NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth for sharing this story.
