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Topics: News, US News, Film and TV
Niamh Shackleton
Savannah Guthrie has returned to the TODAY today for the first time since her mother, Nancy Guthrie, disappeared from her home on January 31.
Savannah has been on the well-loved daytime TV show for over a decade and has been showered with support following her mother's kidnapping some weeks ago.
Nancy was last seen at her home in Tucson, Arizona, and it's suspected that the 84-year-old was abducted from property in the middle of the night.
Savannah has been off work since her mother's disappearance and was replaced by Mary Carillo for NBC's coverage of last month's Winter Olympics.
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"Our hearts go out to Savannah and the entire Guthrie family. They continue to have our full support," Molly Solomon, executive producer and president of NBC Olympics Production, said in a statement following Savannah's decision to not fly out to Italy.
"We are fortunate to have a deep bench of talented commentators who will step in and fill these roles. Mary is one of the most experienced Olympic commentators ever and a master storyteller," she continued, per USA Today.
Now, Guthrie has returned to the TODAY studio for the first time in weeks, but only for a brief time to check in with her colleagues and thank them for their ongoing support.
"Savannah Guthrie stopped by the studio this morning to be with and thank her TODAY colleagues," a spokesperson for the program confirmed to PEOPLE.
They added that Savannah plans to properly return to the show on air, but did not give a timeline of when viewers might expect to see her on their screens again.
"She remains focused right now supporting her family and working to help bring Nancy home," the spokesperson went on.
A man who had been detained in connection to Nancy's disappearance and later released has recently spoken out about the ordeal.
Luke Daley had been taken into custody and remained so for 'four or five hours' while law enforcement searched his home.
He was interviewed on True Crime Arizona, where the 37-year-old insisted that he has no information about Nancy's whereabouts.
"If I did, I would happily tell [the] FBI, police anything," Daley said.
"I, like everyone else, just want Nancy to come home and be safe. But that being said, I have nothing to do with this case, and that's it."
Daley's mother was also detained at the same time as him. When asked why that was, he said that the police 'didn't tell me any information about that'.