Savannah Guthrie has dropped more than $500,000 on private investigators to hunt for her missing mom — after local authorities failed to turn up any solid leads whatsoever, according to a source close to the family.
The “Today” show host assembled her own team of crack investigators, experts and former law enforcement agents in her desperate search for Nancy Guthrie, 84, who vanished from her home near Tucson, AZ, on Feb. 1, the insider told The US Sun.
“She feels that depending only on the official investigation is not enough anymore – that’s why she’s investing so heavily in private investigators and outside specialists,” the source told the Sun.
The source claimed Savannah has been “increasingly disappointed” with the FBI and the Pima County Sheriff, which have turned up few leads — despite having security footage of an armed, masked suspect at her door on the morning she vanished.
“What once felt urgent started to feel far more routine … When Savannah learned there would no longer be direct contact with the sheriff, she took that very personally,” the insider said.
As the investigation approaches its fifth month, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has been accused of mismanaging the investigation and bungling critical early leads.
He also snubbed offers of agents and resources from the FBI, earning him a tongue-lashing from agency director Kash Patel.
Meanwhile, Savannah and her siblings have publicly urged the kidnapper to return their mom, offering to pay a ransom.
Although numerous ransom notes surfaced after the disappearance, none provided proof of their legitimacy.
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The suspected kidnapper — who Guthrie’s doorbell camera caught wearing gloves, a mask, and a holstered pistol — may have left DNA evidence at the scene, but authorities have not been able to match it to a suspect.
Guthrie’s neighborhood is a community of secluded homes connected by winding, desert roads, making it particularly difficult to track the movements of Guthrie’s kidnapper.
In the first weeks of the investigation — which will hit its 90th day on Friday — authorities went door-to-door looking for security camera footage that may have caught a glimpse of the kidnapper.
They also rounded up at least 16 black gloves to test for genetic evidence, but most of them turned out to be discarded by the searchers themselves, and none yielded a DNA match to a suspect.
