A criminal profiler believes the kidnapping of Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of TODAY Show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, could have been an act of retribution based on the blood found spattered on the front porch on January 31.

“I think something went very wrong inside the house … because you know, there was blood,” former FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit researcher Dr. Ann Burgess told NewsNation’s Brian Entin Investigates on Friday (April 10).

Burgess, who works as a psychiatric clinical nurse specialist, also suggested that Nancy may not have been the initial target prior to her kidnapping.

“Who in her orbit, let’s call it family, could be friends, would be hurt the most [by her kidnapping]?” Burgess said, noting that the abduction may have been retaliation against one of her loved ones.

“And I think you can answer… It’s a very mean, angry, horrible thing to do. And then if it goes wrong, which obviously it did, I think it doesn’t make sense that she would be a target to do more than abduct her,” she added.

Burgess said law enforcement would've addressed Savannah about the possibility that her mother's kidnapping was linked to her own high profile.

“I am sure that law enforcement talked with her about that. Has she had any kind of, over the years, it wouldn’t have to be just recent, did she ever get any bad letters, or anything along that line?” she said.

Guthrie was reported missing from her Tucson, Arizona, home on February 1 and investigators have never named any suspect nor had fresh leads in connection with her case. Multiple purported ransom notes were sent since her disappearance.

Savannah Guthrie made her return to the TODAY Show's anchor desk hours before the new ransom notes were sent to TMZ on Monday (April 6). The FBI had released doorbell camera footage of an armed and masked man outside her home on the morning she was reported missing.

The bureau described the man in the footage as being 5 feet, 9 inches to 5 feet, 10 inches with an average build.

Angie Martinez