TODAY Show anchor Savannah Guthrie stepped away midway through Wednesday's (April 15) live broadcast leading to concerns from viewers amid the ongoing search for her missing 84-year-old mother Nancy.

Guthrie, 54, appeared to suddenly disappear from the show after teasing an upcoming interview with Anne Hathaway, which was instead conducted by longtime former co-anchor Hoda Kotb, who was filling in for co-anchor Craig Melvin while Melvin is on vacation this week and had appeared in Guthrie's absence amid the search for her mother prior to her recent return. Savannah did return later in the episode but her sudden departure was never addressed.

On Thursday (April 16). ABC News reported that the FBI reportedly received and is now analyzing potentially critical DNA from Nancy Guthrie's home. A private Florida lab that has worked alongside the Pima County Sheriff's Department reportedly sent a DNA sample from Guthrie's home to the FBI in recent days and the agency is now using new technology to conduct advanced analysis in order to finally identify a lead in the 84-year-old's suspected kidnapping, which took place on February 1, according to the sources.

Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos recently told a Neighborhood Watch group that it could take six more months for the sample to be identified as the strands need to be separated and isolated.

Nanos also said as many as five other labs around the U.S. were working on the Guthrie case, though it wasn't immediately clear which ones nor what their roles were. About two dozen investigators from Pima County and the FBI are reportedly still working on the active Guthrie 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 last 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.

Bret Saunders