MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Good morning. And it's another difficult morning for the family of Nancy Guthrie, as the search for "Today" show co-host Savannah Guthrie's mother is now in its second week.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
The Guthrie family says they have received a message from the people who took Nancy Guthrie from her home in Arizona.
MARTIN: NPR's Bill Chappell is following the story, and he's with us now. Good morning, Bill.
BILL CHAPPELL, BYLINE: Good morning, Michel.
MARTIN: The Guthrie family put out a new video about their mother over the weekend. What did they say?
CHAPPELL: Right. So Savannah Guthrie posted a video message on Instagram Saturday afternoon. It was really short. And from the start, Savannah Guthrie speaks directly to the people who took her mother. Here's how it starts.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: We received your message, and we understand. We beg you now to return our mother to us so that we can celebrate with her.
CHAPPELL: So she went on to say that getting Nancy Guthrie back is the only way her family will have peace, and she said the family's willing to pay for that. In the video, Savannah sits next to her brother, Camron, and her sister, Annie.
MARTIN: Yeah. I feel like - I've seen the video. It's hard to watch, and they do look very distraught.
CHAPPELL: Yeah. I mean, you can only imagine the toll this has taken on them. And as she spoke, Savannah and her older siblings were holding hands.
MARTIN: That message implies that the people who took Nancy Guthrie have been in touch somehow. Do we know anything about that?
CHAPPELL: Yes. There are multiple reports of ransom notes being sent to local media in Tucson. One local TV station, KGUN, said they received a ransom note that demanded $6 million by Monday evening, and that's later today. Police have not publicly confirmed details about ransom in concrete terms. But the FBI, that's been working with the local sheriff's department, has said that while it's advising the Guthrie family in this case, any decision about whether to pay a ransom or not is up to them. Proof of life also comes into play sometimes when there's a ransom. That's complicated, the FBI says, because for anybody to prove they have Nancy Guthrie and she's OK, there's no way they can tell if AI hasn't been used to create a video that could be fake but very convincing.
MARTIN: And this video from the Guthrie family comes a week after they last saw their mother.
CHAPPELL: Right. Nancy Guthrie ate dinner with relatives last Saturday night and then got back home around 9:50 p.m. She didn't show up for church the next Sunday morning, though. And after the family tried to check on her, they called 911. That set off a massive search using tracking dogs, drones and helicopters. The police who were at her house found that there were drops of Nancy Guthrie's blood on the front porch, and Sheriff Chris Nanos said later that a doorbell camera at the front of the house was disconnected. He also said Guthrie's pacemaker disconnected from a phone app around 2:30 that morning. And to remind you, we're talking about an 84-year-old grandmother who lives alone in the Catalina Foothills north of Tucson. Police say Nancy Guthrie has limited mobility, and her family says she also needs daily medication just to survive.
MARTIN: And is there any sense that the police have made any progress in this case?
CHAPPELL: Well, on Sunday, the Pima County Sheriff's Department put out an update essentially saying they're still working to find Nancy Guthrie. And investigators have been - repeatedly been seen working in and around the house this past weekend, even. But the sheriff's department also said on Sunday that they haven't identified any suspects or people of interest or vehicles that might be connected to the case. And I'll add that for all three of the video messages the Guthries have put out since this started, the captions end with the same plea. And to quote, it just says, "bring her home."
MARTIN: That is NPR's Bill Chappell. Bill, thank you.
CHAPPELL: Thank you, Michel. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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