Savannah's DESPERATE ORDEAL

AMID RANSOM NOTES, CHILLING EVIDENCE AND SHIFTING UPDATES, TODAY'S SAVANNAH GUTHRIE HOLDS TIGHT TO HOPE AS TIME RUNS OUT IN THEIR SEARCH FOR HER MISSING MOM, NANCY.

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CLOCK TICKING

"The Sheriff's Department along with all of our partners at the FBI have been working around the clock," Sheriff Nanos said during a Feb. 5 press conference in Tucson.

SAVANNAH GUTHRIE and her siblings were in agony.

Her face a mask of exhaustion, the 54-year-old Today show host, flanked by sister Annie, 56, a writer, poet and jewelry designer, and brother Camron, 61, a retired Vermont Air National Guard pilot, issued a tearful thank-you to the public for their prayers and a desperate plea for help finding their 84-year-old mother, Nancy, who authorities confirmed was taken from her Arizona home in the early morning hours of Feb. 1 in a “possible kidnapping or abduction.”

The siblings then offered a heartbreaking plea to Nancy’s potential abductor in the nearly four-minute video posted Feb. 4, imploring, “Our mom is a kind, faithful, loyal, fiercely loving woman of goodness and light. She has grandchildren that adore her.” Explaining that their mother is in “constant pain” and without her lifesaving medication, the NBC star begged for proof of life, adding, “Her health, her heart is fragile.” The clock has been ticking since Nancy was first reported missing after she failed to appear at church, but the investigation has been bogged down by mixed messages, finger-pointing and false starts.

MIXED MESSAGES

The investigation began at 12:15 p.m., about 20 minutes after Nancy was reported missing from her $1 million home in Tucson’s affluent Catalina Foothills community. But on Feb. 5 five days later — Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos admitted there were still no suspects. That didn’t stop the speculation. Just the day before, he’d admonished “irresponsible” media outlets for sharing “unverified accusations or false information” about the identity of the perp. Amid the fevered finger pointing, former