Nancy Guthrie Kidnapping Case Jolted by New Ransom Note Revelation

Politics admin July 2, 2026 0 Comments

Nancy Guthrie Kidnapping Case Jolted by New Ransom Note Revelation

The FBI is rebutting explosive claims that none of the ransom notes in the kidnapping case involving 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie are genuine.

The agency’s Phoenix field office said Wednesday that while some ransom notes sent to news outlets after Guthrie, the mother of NBC’s Today show anchor Savannah Guthrie, vanished from her Tucson, Arizona. home turned out to be fake, others remain under investigation.

“Some have been deemed to be extortion attempts without legitimacy,” the office’s post on X said. “Other ransom demands may potentially be legitimate and are still being investigated as such.”

“This case continues to be investigated as a kidnapping for ransom case,” the FBI said, adding that the investigation remains in the hands of local authorities while the FBI offers “all assistance possible.”

In its own statement, posted 45 minutes later, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said, “Every tip and lead is taken seriously and is forwarded directly to our detectives, who continue to work in coordination with the FBI.”

The sheriff’s office pointed all questions about the ransom notes to the FBI.

The statements dispute a Reuters report from Tuesday that cited an FBI official who spoke on condition of anonymity, saying, “None of the ransom notes are believed to be genuine.” A second law enforcement source familiar with the case confirmed the unnamed official’s statement.

Guthrie was abducted from her home in Tucson on Feb. 1. Evidence found at the scene included bloodstains confirmed to be Nancy’s, and footage from a doorbell camera showing a masked individual tampering with the device prior to her disappearance.

Multiple ransom notes were sent to news outlets, including KOLD and TMZ. One note allegedly contained “very sensitive” information, including “things that people who were there when she was taken captive would know,” according to KOLD anchor Mary Coleman.

The note’s authors demanded $4 million in bitcoin as ransom, initially insisting the money be delivered by Feb. 5 and then upping it to $6 million by Feb. 9 if the initial deadline was not met.

A second ransom note sent in June claimed that Nancy had died, and expressed regret for her death.

A third note, received by TMZ last week, was sent by someone who claimed to know the identities of Nancy’s abductors and to have video footage of the main suspect, as well as footage of Nancy recorded on the day she died.

The FBI official told Reuters that the agency concluded that the first two notes were sent by someone unconnected to the case after testing the authenticity by depositing small sums of bitcoin into an account as instructed in the first note. The money was left untouched. The FBI came to its conclusion based on that test and other unspecified means, according to the official.