The FBI was flooded with new tips in the hours after “Today” anchor Savannah Guthrie announced on the morning of February 24, 2026, that her family is offering a $1 million reward for information that leads investigators to find her mom, 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie, who authorities believe was taken from her home in Tucson, Arizona, overnight on February 1.
A senior law enforcement official told NBC News that within hours of Savannah posting her latest video, pleading for the public’s help and announcing the new reward, over 750 new tips had come in.
Former FBI Supervisor Says Reward in Nancy Guthrie Case Was a ‘Strategic Pivot’
Former FBI Supervisor Jason Pack told NBC News that offering the massive reward at this stage in the investigation was a “strategic pivot” designed to give those with information on the case a hard-to-pass-up reason to come forward.
Nearly a month after her mother’s disappearance, Savannah said in her February 24 video, “Someone out there knows something that can bring her home.” The idea behind offering such a substantial reward is to incentivize that person or people to finally come forward.
“There’s some people that are close to what happened, that know what happened, that now have a decision to make,” Pack told NBC. “And that decision was really, really ratcheted up by this reward that Savannah and her family offered.”
There have been reports that the Guthrie family, including Savannah’s sister Annie and brother Camron, were advised not to offer such a large reward early in the investigation.
Pack explained, “At the beginning of these types of cases, particularly high-profile ones like this, there’s not an absence of tips. So (the reward) does two things: it reactivates the tipline and it puts a lot of pressure on those handful of people that know what happened.”
Savannah Guthrie Admitted Her Family Realizes Nancy Guthrie Could Be ‘Gone’
In her emotional video Savannah said her family is holding out hope that their mom is still alive, but wants to know either way where she is and what happened.
“Please keep praying without ceasing,” she said. “We still believe. We still believe in a miracle. We still believe that she can come home, hope against hope. As my sister says, ‘We are blowing on the embers of hope.'”
“We also know that she may be lost,” she admitted. “She may already be gone.”
The FBI is also offering its own $100,000 reward for any information that leads them to Guthrie or to an arrest. Anyone with information on Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance is urged to call 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324) and Savannah noted in her post, “you can remain anonymous — or find a way to reach out to me.”
