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As the weeks turn into months, the search for Nancy Guthrie seems less and less likely to yield results.
But her family, including Today show anchor Savannah Guthrie, is not giving up hope.
Earlier this week, Savannah offered $1 million to anyone with information regarding her mother’s whereabouts.
“We need to know where she is,” Savannah said in a video posted to Instagram, adding that, if Nancy is dead, “we accept it.
“We also know that she may be lost. She may already be gone,” she continued.
It was the first time that Savannah publicly acknowledged that her mother may have passed.
And according to former FBI special agent and crisis negotiator Jason Pack, she was using “coded language” in an effort to appeal to the kidnapper’s conscience.
“Savannah’s language, ‘We believe in the essential goodness of every human being, it is never too late,’ is not just a grieving daughter reaching for comfort,” Pack tells Radar Online.
“That is a theologically grounded appeal to conscience, and it is one of the most powerful tools in a negotiator’s kit,” he continued, adding:
“When someone is holding a secret that heavy, the belief that redemption is still possible is sometimes the only thing that moves them.
“The family’s visible, public faith is not incidental to this case. It is a strategic asset.”
Another law enforcement veteran tells Radar that he believes Nancy was kidnapped by someone she knows.
“This guy was wearing a mask. He didn’t want to be identified — not only by the public but also by Nancy,’ he explained,” says Chris McDonough, a retired homicide detective who now works with the Cold Case Foundation
“We don’t know if Nancy got alerts on her phone when someone was at her door. But she could have watched the footage from the first time and seen the guy. He didn’t want her to see his face,” he continues, adding:
“She was a targeted victim, and the perpetrator had an association at some point with her house or the victim.
“That’s a pattern. And a pattern tells investigators this wasn’t impulsive. This took planning.”
McDonough went on to say that the video from Nancy’s Nest camera illuminates the kidnapper’s methods and motives.
“When you see someone appearing in video at different locations, different timeframes, potentially different phases of the same criminal act, investigators immediately begin asking: what was the purpose of each appearance? Was the first video a surveillance run, checking the environment, checking the exits?” he says.
“And that matters significantly from a legal standpoint, because premeditation and planning elevate the severity of what investigators are looking at.”
Understandably, Savannah and the rest of the Guthrie family are reaching a point of absolute desperation.
And with each passing day, the likelihood of Nancy being returned to them diminishes.