TUCSON — A chef at a historic Tucson restaurant that Savannah Guthrie featured on a “Today” show segment had nothing but praise for the host’s missing mother, and implored people to look at the harrowing case as if she were “your own grandmother.”
Carlotta Flores, a 79-year-old chef at El Charro Café in downtown Tucson, told The Post that the Guthries have been regulars for years, and that Nancy Guthrie continued to order takeout even after she couldn’t physically travel to the establishment on her own.
“I have absolutely nothing to say but wonderful things about their family. If you think about your grandmother, that’s the way [Nancy] is. She’s a humble, proud mom who only wants good things for her family. She is proud of her children. She just happens to have a daughter who is in the limelight,” Flores said.
The chef noted that, for the Tucson community, Nancy’s disappearance isn’t a celebrity kidnapping scandal, but a story of a beloved local matriarch who vanished in the dead of night.
“Everyone has their own opinions about [what happened,] but when it comes right down to it, this is a lady who is missing. It’s their mother missing….This just shouldn’t happen to a lady in that age bracket, or anyone,” she told The Post.
“[Tucson] is a place where if you don’t show up for two or three days, people will be curious about where you might be….We’re a small, tight-knit city,” she added.
Nancy, 84, was reported missing after worshippers at her local church noticed she wasn’t at Sunday morning mass and reached out to her family.
The octogenarian is believed to have been “taken from her home against her will” late Saturday night. As of Tuesday, Arizona cops still don’t have a suspect, and the FBI was brought in to help make some headway.
Nancy is prescribed medication that she needs to take daily — and could die without it, police warned.
Her pacemaker, which helps manage her cardiac issues, stopped syncing with her Apple devices early Sunday. She also has high blood pressure, according to 911 dispatch audio.
The grandmother was featured in a “Today” show segment filmed at El Charro Café in November alongside Savannah and her sister.
Savannah visits the century-old eatery whenever she’s in town, Flores said.
The chef celebrated the host as a hometown hero whose “heartstrings” will always lie in Tucson. She said the beloved “Today” host likened dining at the Mexican restaurant to “coming home.”
Savannah pulled out of NBC’s coverage for the Winter Olympics in Milan in the wake of her mother’s abduction.
Nancy raised her two daughters solo after their father suffered a sudden, fatal heart attack when Savannah was 16 years old.