Investigators familiar with the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie believe that two ransom notes sent to her family were authored by the person or group responsible for her abduction. According to sources close to the case, digital forensics show that both messages were likely transmitted from the exact same computer IP address.
The first message arrived on February 2, just one day after the 84-year-old was reported missing from her home in Tucson, Arizona. It was submitted through the online tip portals of TMZ and two local television stations. Addressed directly to TV journalist Savannah Guthrie, the note demanded millions of dollars in bitcoin in exchange for her mother’s safe return.
To prove authenticity, the sender included highly specific details about the interior of the Tucson residence that had not been made public. Investigators noted that the writer correctly identified a broken light on the back porch and pointed out that an Apple Watch with a white band was sitting on the floor of the bedroom.
A second note was sent on February 6. While it featured a similar writing style and language, it contained no financial demands. Instead, the authors claimed that Nancy Guthrie had died, explicitly stating that they did not intend for her death to happen.
During an NBC interview in March, Savannah Guthrie confirmed that her family views these two specific notes as authentic, despite receiving a flood of hoaxes.
“There are a lot of different notes, I think, that came, and I think most of them — it’s my understanding — are not real, and I didn’t see them,” she said. “But I believe the two notes that we received, that we responded to, I tend to believe those are real.”
Following the receipt of the second note in February, Savannah Guthrie and her siblings uploaded an appeal to the abductors on Instagram, acknowledging the message and offering to pay the ransom.
“We received your message, and we understand,” Savannah Guthrie said in the video recording. “We beg you now to return our mother to us so that we can celebrate with her. This is the only way we will have peace. … This is very valuable to us, and we will pay.”
A dedicated task force consisting of FBI agents and Pima County detectives is handling the ongoing investigation. They continue to actively search for Nancy Guthrie and trace the individuals behind her kidnapping.
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