A California man pleaded guilty on Thursday to sending fraudulent ransom notes to the family of Nancy Guthrie, the missing 84-year-old mother of TODAY show host Savannah Guthrie.
Derrick Callella, 42, of Hawthorne, California, entered a guilty plea to two counts of harassment using a telecommunication device. The announcement was made on July 2 by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona.
Federal officials stated that Callella admitted to making phone calls and sending text messages to the Guthrie family on February 4 regarding a bitcoin transfer.
“Callella acknowledged that he knew an earlier ransom demand had been made. Callella also admitted that his actions were meant to harass the family by seeking information about the investigation into the missing person’s disappearance,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office stated in a press release.
Callella faces a maximum penalty of two years in prison, a $250,000 fine, or both, alongside one year of supervised release. His sentencing is scheduled for September 10.
Nancy Guthrie was abducted from her Tucson, Arizona, home in the early morning hours of February 1. In the five months since her disappearance, law enforcement officials have not identified any official suspects.
On Wednesday, the FBI’s Phoenix office announced that investigators have received “several ransom notes” over the course of the investigation, some of which remain under active review. The bureau clarified that while certain notes “have been deemed to be extortion attempts without legitimacy,” other demands “may potentially be legitimate and are still being investigated as such.”
The FBI’s formal statement followed a Reuters report that cited a source close to the investigation claiming the ransom notes were fake. That report referenced two notes received shortly after the abduction in February, as well as a more recent letter claiming to know the identities of two kidnappers.
According to NBC News and the Reuters report, an FBI official indicated the first two notes originated from the same sender. The first was sent to TMZ and demanded millions of dollars in cryptocurrency, while the second claimed that Nancy Guthrie had died shortly after her abduction.
Despite the fraudulent messages sent by Callella and others, the FBI emphasized that the disappearance “continues to be investigated as a kidnapping for ransom case.”
According to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, Nancy Guthrie was last seen at her home at approximately 9:30 p.m. local time on January 31. She was reported missing the next day after failing to log on for a virtual church service.
READ: U.S. Marshals Track Down Three Missing Siblings And Arrest Mother In Ohio Raid
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