Police are now treating the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, mother of NBC Today host Savannah Guthrie, as an abduction.

The latest development comes as blood was discovered at 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie’s home in Tucson, Arizona, along with signs of forced entry.

TMZ is also reporting it has received an unverified ransom note demanding a substantial amount of Bitcoin to be sent to a specific address. TMZ has verified the Bitcoin address is real.

It is believed the note, which has been forwarded to police, contains information that would likely only be known to a kidnapper.

Nancy was last seen alive on Saturday and was reported missing the following day by family members after she failed to attend church.

Adding to the urgency of the investigation is the fact that Nancy takes daily medication to survive.

Police say they have no credible information to suggest any threats have been made against Savannah that could explain why her mother has been targeted.

Savannah was scheduled to be part of NBC’s coverage of the upcoming Winter Olympics, but has pulled out as police continue their search for her mother.

She released a statement overnight asking for prayers to help find her mum safe and well.

“We believe in prayer. We believe in voices raised in unison, in love, in hope. We believe in goodness. We believe in humanity. Above all, we believe in Him,” she said in a statement posted to Instagram.

“Thank you for lifting your prayers with ours for our beloved mom, our dearest Nancy, a woman of deep conviction, a good and faithful servant. Raise your prayers with us and believe with us that she will be lifted by them in this very moment.”

“Bring her home,” she concluded.

The FBI has joined local authorities in the investigation, deploying specialist technology teams to track down the missing grandmother.

NBC’s National Law Enforcement and Intelligence Correspondent, Tom Winter, told Sunrise that investigators are using advanced cellular analysis to piece together what happened.

84-year-old Nancy Guthrie, mother of US TV host Savannah Guthrie, has been missing from her Arizona home since Saturday evening under suspicious circumstances that police are treating as an abduction.

(Source: Sunrise)

84-year-old Nancy Guthrie, mother of US TV host Savannah Guthrie, has been missing from her Arizona home since Saturday evening under suspicious circumstances that police are treating as an abduction.

“Right now they have a couple of different fronts that they’re looking into,” Winter said. “The sheriff just had a press briefing in the last 15, 20 minutes, saying we don’t know where she is.”

The FBI’s Cellular Analysis Survey Team is examining cell phone tower data from the area, attempting to identify which phones were near Nancy’s home around the time of her disappearance.

“What they’re able to do is overlap signals and start to see what cell phones might have been in the area in the days, hours, around the time when Nancy Guthrie was abducted,” Winter explained.

Investigators are also working to retrieve video footage from cloud storage found at the property.

Authorities are investigating whether the 84-year-old was targeted for ransom or because of her connection to the high-profile television host.