By Steve Gorman
June 23 (Reuters) - National television host Savannah Guthrie took time on her morning news show on Tuesday to appeal to the public once more for answers to the fate of her mother, missing since a presumed abduction over four months ago in Arizona.
"I wanted to take the opportunity to ask people, to beg people, to come forward. Somebody knows something," NBC's "Today" co-host tearfully told viewers from her seat at the anchor desk, flanked by her colleagues on the show.
Her on-air plea came a day after NBC News reported previously undisclosed details from the second of two purported ransom notes that surfaced in the case in early February, less than a week after 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie vanished from her Tucson home.
NBC, citing three unnamed sources familiar with the matter, said on Monday that the note in question referred to the elder Guthrie as having died but included no apology or request for payment for the release of her body.
According to NBC, the home broadcast network of "Today," investigators regarded both notes, the first of which demanded a payment in cryptocurrency for Nancy Guthrie's release, to be credible.
Appearing on the "Today" show on Tuesday following the latest headlines about the second note, the 54-year-old co-anchor said, "I don't have any comment on this story, and I'm not involved in our coverage."
She went on to describe the anguish that continues to grip her family since Nancy Guthrie, who had been in frail health with limited mobility, was last seen alive on January 31, after spending an evening with her older daughter, Annie Guthrie, and son-in-law.
"We are in agony. We cannot be at peace. No matter how much I try to come out here every day and smile and find that joy," said Savannah Guthrie, who returned to the show in April from an extended leave following her mother's disappearance.
Reminding the audience that a $1 million reward for information leading to her mother's recovery remains in effect, Savannah Guthrie pleaded, "Please do the right thing for us, for our family, for our children."
"We love our mom and we'll never stop looking for her, never," she concluded.
Media attention on the case has ebbed considerably since mid-February, when Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos and the FBI released surveillance footage of an armed prowler in a ski mask shown tampering with Nancy Guthrie's doorbell camera shortly before she was abducted.
Days later, the FBI said a DNA sample was obtained from a glove found near her home and resembling the pair the masked prowler was seen wearing. But the specimen failed to produce a match in a search of known genetic profiles in a national database, dashing hopes that the tests would lead investigators to a suspect.
In a video recorded afterward, Savannah Guthrie said then that her family was still "blowing on the embers of hope" that Nancy Guthrie was alive, while also acknowledging that "she may already be gone."
(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
