Today host Savannah Guthrie returned to the airwaves after a mystery exit on Wednesday’s show.
The host made her return to NBC’s morning show just a few weeks ago. She had taken a two-month hiatus to help in efforts to find her mother, Nancy Guthrie, who was kidnapped earlier this year.
On Wednesday, however, she suddenly exited the show 90 minutes into the four-hour program. Co-anchor Craig Melvin took over and addressed her absence, assuring the audience that the 54-year-old wouldn’t be gone for long.
“Savannah had to leave a little early. She’ll be right back tomorrow, though,” he said, not offering an explanation for her departure.
On Thursday, Guthrie was back on Today, but failed to address the exit in the first hour of the show. The host looked downcast during a segment in which a photo of her from her childhood was shown. “That was in my backyard,” she said.
A source told Page Six on Wednesday that Guthrie left the TV set “for some sort of appointment, and her exit had nothing to do with her mom.”
Her mother, 84-year-old Nancy, hasn’t been seen since Jan. 31. Footage from a doorbell camera at her Tucson, Arizona, home showed a masked man with a gun at her doorstep before she vanished.
A major police investigation has failed to bring her home. Additionally, no suspects have been officially named or charged in connection with the investigation.
The probe has yielded so little that FBI Director Kash Patel has claimed that the Pima County Sheriff’s Department has kept his department in the dark.
Patel appeared on Sean Hannity’s Hang Out podcast in an episode released on Tuesday. Hannity said to Patel, 46, that sources had told him “they were trying to keep you guys out.”
“They did,” the FBI chief replied. “The first 48 hours of anyone’s disappearance are the most critical.”
“What we, the FBI, do is say, ‘Hey, we’re here to help,’” Patel added. “What do you need? What can we do? And for four days, we were kept out of the investigation.”
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos denied Patel’s claims.
