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By Khaleda Rahman
National Correspondent
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In the five months since Nancy Guthrie disappeared from her home near Tucson, Arizona, a series of messages related to her apparent kidnapping were sent to some media outlets.
But Reuters reported on Tuesday that the FBI believes none of the notes is genuine, raising questions about whether Guthrie was kidnapped for ransom.
Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of Today co-host Savannah Guthrie, was reported missing on February 1. Authorities said they believed she had been kidnapped and that drops of her blood were found on her front porch.
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The FBI, later in February, released surveillance footage showing a masked man outside her front door on the night she disappeared and her family has repeatedly issued appeals for anyone with information about her disappearance to come forward, but the case has remained unsolved five months on.
Last week, several news outlets reported that the second of two ransom notes that were sent to media outlets days after she vanished indicated she was dead. And on Friday, TMZ said it had received another message from a person who has sent the outlet more than a dozen emails claiming to know the identity of Guthrie’s kidnappers.
The FBI has deemed the two notes sent in early February and the most recent message sent to TMZ to be fake communications, Reuters reported on Tuesday.
"None of the ransom notes are believed to be genuine," an FBI official told the outlet while speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss details of an active investigation.
The FBI, which has taken charge of examining purported ransom notes in the Guthrie case, has not publicly said whether any of the messages it was reviewing were considered legitimate.
Newsweek has contacted the FBI for comment via email.
A spokesperson for the Pima County Sheriff's Department, which is leading the investigation into Guthrie’s disappearance, referred questions about the ransom notes to the FBI.
"This case is an active and ongoing investigation,” Angelica Carrillo told Newsweek in an email on Wednesday.
Forensic analysis of DNA and video evidence collected in the case "remains underway," she said. "If and when there is a significant development in this case, it will be shared with the public."
In a post to X on Wednesday evening, the sheriff's department reiterated that any questions about the alleged notes should be sent to the FBI.
"Throughout this investigation, the Pima County Sheriff's Department has received information regarding potential ransom notes related to the kidnapping of Nancy Guthrie. Every tip and lead is taken seriously and is forwarded directly to our detectives, who continue to work in coordination with the FBI," the post said in part.
New Details About Ransom Notes
The first note was sent to two local Tucson TV stations and TMZ on February 2, demanding millions of dollars in Bitcoin.
CBS News reported last week that the note had included specific details about Guthrie’s home, including a broken light on the back porch and an Apple Watch with a white band found on the bedroom floor.
The second note, sent on February 6, indicated that Guthrie had died, several news outlets reported last week. According to NBC News, that note expressed regret for her passing, but did not contain an apology or make a request for payment for the return of her body.
The FBI official told Reuters that investigators determined the first two notes sent in February were from the same sender, though the official did not say how that conclusion was reached.
The official said that to test the authenticity of the first note, the FBI had deposited a small amount of cryptocurrency in an account as directed in the note, but the money was left untouched in the account. Based on that and other unspecified methods, the FBI reached the conclusion that the two notes were sent by an individual or individuals who are not connected to Guthrie’s disappearance, the official said.
The FBI also determined the note sent to TMZ on Friday was not authentic, though the official did not reveal to Reuters how that conclusion was reached.
In that message, the sender claimed to have a video on a phone in a secure location that shows the "main guy" involved in Guthrie’s kidnapping and Guthrie taken on "the day that was probably her last."
In an interview on Friday, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos had dismissed that note as fake.
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Ex-FBI Agent Raises Questions
Jennifer Coffindaffer, a former FBI agent, told Newsweek on Wednesday that if the first two notes are not genuine, it makes "no sense" why the FBI had Savannah Guthrie post several videos on social media, some of them alongside her siblings, that referenced the ransom demands and appeared to her mother's kidnappers in the weeks after their mother disappeared.
She also noted that Savannah Guthrie said in an interview in March that she believed the two notes that the family responded to were real.
"If [the FBI] thought they were not real, it makes no sense that you would do this to this family," Coffindaffer said.
She added that it was clear in those videos that Savannah Guthrie and her siblings were using language that was directed to them by the FBI. "So my question would be, when and how did they come to find out they weren't real?" Coffindaffer said.
She pointed to earlier reporting that said investigators believed the two notes had likely come from Guthrie's kidnappers, partly because they contained specific details about Guthrie’s home.
It was clear, however, that the numerous messages to TMZ from someone claiming to know the identity of the kidnappers were fake, she said. "Their facts never lined up, and it seemed extortive and fake to me from the beginning," she said.
Coffindaffer said she still believes that Guthrie’s disappearance is a case of kidnapping for ransom, and it is possible that she may have died before her abductors made a demand.
"The possibility exists that she died and they never made a ransom demand because she died soon after the abduction," she said.
Other theories, such as a burglary gone wrong or murder, do not make sense, according to Coffindaffer. "It's extremely rare that you would go to murder somebody and take them with you," she said.
Timeline of Notes in the Case
February 2
- A note was sent to two local news stations and TMZ that demanded millions of dollars in Bitcoin
- According to CBS News, it was addressed to Savannah Guthrie directly
- CBS News also reported that it included specific details about Guthrie’s home, including a broken light on the back porch and an Apple Watch with a white band found on the bedroom floor
- That note demanded $4 million in Bitcoin, according to Air Mail, which cites two sources close to the investigation
February 6
- A second note was sent to the same outlets saying Guthrie died shortly after her disappearance, NBC News and other outlets have reported
- According to NBC News, it expressed regret over Guthrie's death and did not demand additional payment
- NewsNation’s Brian Entin reported it said Guthrie was "buried with nature now"
- Savannah Guthrie and her family addressed the kidnappers in an Instagram post after the second note was sent
- Savannah Guthrie has said she believes the two notes that her family responded to were "real"
Later in February
- TMZ reported that it received a series of emails from someone demanding payment for information about the people who abducted Guthrie
- On February 16, the outlet reported that all of the notes had demanded $50,000 in Bitcoin in return for the information
- According to TMZ, the sender says he is a man who had a burglary on his record from a decade ago and is afraid to come forward with the information
- On February 18, TMZ reported it received a"highly sophisticated" demand for cryptocurrency that isn’t Bitcoin
June 26
- TMZ said Friday it received a new email from the same person who sent previous ones
- The note alleged there are two people responsible for Guthrie’s kidnapping
- They said there is a phone in a "secure location" that has pictures of both of the people responsible as well as their names, ages and addresses
- They also said the phone has a video showing the "main guy" with Guthrie on "the day that was probably her last"
- The note said the phone is in a location "easy to access if you know where it is" and that they would give up phone password if they receive one Bitcoin
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Anna Commander, Matthew Robinson, James Debens and Gray R. Thomas.
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