The disappearance of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie has haunted her family and the country for months, and this week brought a significant, if murky, development in the case. An FBI official told Reuters that three separate ransom notes tied to the kidnapping, notes that had shaped much of the public narrative around her disappearance, are not believed to be genuine.
Nancy Guthrie is the mother of NBC “Today” show co-host Savannah Guthrie, and her case has drawn national attention since she vanished from her home in Tucson, Arizona in the early hours between January 31 and February 1. Investigators believe she was abducted, and a masked individual was captured on surveillance footage at her front door around the time she disappeared.
According to the Reuters report published on June 30, an FBI official speaking on condition of anonymity said flatly that none of the ransom notes received in connection with the case are believed to be genuine. A second law enforcement source familiar with the investigation reportedly confirmed that assessment.
The notes in question span several months of the investigation. The first two arrived in early February, just days after Nancy Guthrie was reported missing. One demanded millions of dollars in cryptocurrency with two separate payment deadlines. The other, sent to the celebrity news outlet TMZ, claimed that Guthrie had already died and had been “buried in nature,” a detail that sent shockwaves through a family desperately hoping for her safe return.
A third note surfaced more recently, this one claiming to come from someone who knew the identity of Guthrie’s kidnappers. According to Forbes, the sender claimed to have a phone stashed in a secure location containing video, photographs, names, and ages of the people responsible, and demanded payment in bitcoin in exchange for the information.
TMZ has said it received close to a dozen emails from the same individual claiming knowledge of the kidnapper’s identity and Guthrie’s location, though he denied direct involvement in the crime. All of the messages, TMZ said, were turned over to the FBI as part of the ongoing investigation.
The FBI’s method for reaching its fake determination reportedly involved a cryptocurrency trap. According to the Reuters report, federal investigators deposited a small amount of cryptocurrency into the account associated with the ransom demands specifically to test its legitimacy. The funds were never touched, a strong signal to investigators that the account, and by extension the notes tied to it, were not being monitored by anyone with real access to Guthrie or her whereabouts.
FBI Director Kash Patel was asked directly about the Reuters report during an unrelated press conference. His response did not fully close the door on the story, but it also did not offer the kind of full throated confirmation that would settle the matter definitively.
That ambiguity became far more pronounced just days later, when the FBI’s Phoenix field office issued a statement that directly complicated the initial reporting. Rather than confirming that all the notes were fake, the Phoenix office said some ransom notes have been deemed extortion attempts without legitimacy, while others may potentially be legitimate and remain under active investigation.
The Phoenix office went further, explicitly stating that the case continues to be investigated as a kidnapping for ransom, language that suggests investigators have not ruled out the possibility that at least some communications tied to the case are real. That is a meaningfully different picture than the one painted by the original anonymous source who told Reuters that none of the notes were genuine.
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos, whose department has worked alongside the FBI throughout the investigation, weighed in as well, noting that all ransom notes in the case are being handled directly by the Bureau and deferring further comment to federal investigators. Nanos previously told reporters he believed the FBI has made arrests in the past tied to false ransom notes and suggested history could be repeating itself with the most recent message, though he was careful to let the FBI take the lead on any formal determination.
Adding yet another layer of uncertainty, TMZ executive producer Harvey Levin said on Wednesday that an FBI official with knowledge of the case told him it is more likely than not that at least two of the ransom notes are real. According to Levin, the same official specifically pushed back on the idea that the notes had been definitively ruled fake, saying they are, in the official’s words, more legitimate than not.
This kind of conflicting messaging from within the federal government is frustrating for a family that has already endured months of agonizing uncertainty. Savannah Guthrie addressed the swirling reports directly on the “Today” show, saying she did not have specific comments on the competing claims but pleaded with the public to come forward with any information that could help bring her mother home.
The emotional toll on the Guthrie family has been evident throughout the case. Savannah’s siblings, Annie Guthrie and her husband Tommaso Cioni, along with other family members, have made repeated public pleas since their mother’s disappearance, describing the family as being in agony and begging anyone with knowledge of what happened to do the right thing and come forward.
Earlier in the investigation, authorities did make at least one arrest connected to fake communications in the case. California man Derrick Callella was taken into custody in early February after allegedly sending fraudulent ransom texts. FBI Special Agent Heith Janke described him at the time as someone trying to profit off the tragedy, a total imposter with no real connection to Guthrie’s disappearance. Callella was released on a $20,000 bond and has not entered a plea.
The reward for information in the case has grown substantially as the investigation has dragged on without a resolution. The FBI increased its financial incentive from an initial $50,000 to $100,000 for information leading either to Guthrie’s location or the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in her disappearance. Combined with contributions from the family, the total reward now exceeds $1 million.
Investigators have also worked to clear potential suspects along the way. In mid-February, Sheriff Nanos issued a public statement making clear that Guthrie’s entire family, including all of her children and their spouses, had been formally cleared as possible suspects and should be regarded as victims in this case rather than persons of interest.
Physical evidence recovered near Guthrie’s home, including a pair of gloves, reportedly did not fit cleanly into investigators’ working theory of the case, according to reporting from E! News, underscoring just how difficult this investigation has been for law enforcement to piece together despite months of effort.
What remains clear, regardless of which version of the FBI’s assessment ultimately proves accurate, is that Nancy Guthrie’s whereabouts are still unknown more than five months after she vanished from her own home.
