A new report claims that a second ransom note in the Nancy Guthrie case acknowledged that the missing family matriarch is dead.
On Monday, May 22, NBC News reported that it reviewed two notes allegedly sent following Today anchor Savannah Guthrie’s mom Nancy’s disappearance on February 1. In one note, the alleged kidnappers claimed that Nancy had died but there was no apology or any request for payment for the return of her body, per the outlet.
However, TMZ stated that another ransom note it received did not include an apology nor acknowledgment that Nancy was dead. It is not clear whether the note that TMZ received was sent by the same person who originally contacted authorities.
The site reported that it received dozens of emails from yet another person who insisted that they knew Nancy’s whereabouts and the identity of her alleged kidnappers.
This person — who stressed that they were not directly involved in the kidnapping — initially asked for bitcoin in exchange for crucial information. While an early email said that “time is of the essence,” TMZ reported that a later email stated that “time is no longer of the essence,” seemingly indicating that Nancy was dead.
Us Weekly reached out to the Pima County Sheriff’s Office for comment.
Nancy was last seen alive when she was dropped off at her home by her son-in-law, Tommaso Cioni, on the night of January 31. She was officially reported missing the following day after a friend alerted the Guthrie family that Nancy did not turn up as planned to a virtual worship service. (Both Savannah’s sister, Annie Guthrie, and her husband were cleared in the case by Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos.)
While authorities have released doorbell camera footage showing a masked man at Guthrie’s front door, no suspect or person of interest has been named publicly. On February 24, Savannah, 54, released a social media video offering a $1 million reward for information that leads to Nancy’s return.
Scrutiny over supposed ransom notes in the case was reignited over the weekend when Air Mail reported that investigators first received communication from an alleged kidnapper on February 2.
The outlet reported that the first note mentioned that Nancy was “safe but scared” and asked for $4 million to be paid by February 5 for her return, warning that the sum would increase to $6 million if the cash was not sent by February 9. This first note allegedly warned that their terms should be met “or else,” per Air Mail.
A law enforcement task force allegedly employed a tactic known as “tickling the wire,” where they sent $152 to a Bitcoin account to see whether any financial transactions with the suspected kidnapper could be tracked. The money was reportedly never touched by the alleged kidnapper and their deadline eventually passed.
On February 6, authorities obtained a second note with a “sputtering and labored” tone where the writer alleged that Nancy was dead and offered to return her body for an undisclosed sum, Air Mail reported.
Savannah and her siblings Camron and Annie, 56, released a video on February 7 offering to engage further with alleged kidnappers.
“We received your message and we understand. We beg you now to return our mother to us so that we can celebrate with her,” Savannah said via Instagram. “This is the only way we will have peace. This is very valuable to us and we will pay.”
During her exclusive sitdown with Hoda Kotb on Today in March, Savannah addressed the authenticity of the various ransom letters they’d received since Nancy disappeared.
“There are a lot of different notes that came,” she told Hotb, 61. “I think most of them, it’s my understanding, are not real. … I believe the two notes that we received, that we responded to, I tend to believe those are real.”
Earlier this month, Sheriff Nanos, 70, indicated that the case has been “difficult” to solve because it was dependent on DNA evidence.
“What really makes it prolonged is we do rely on labs,” he told Arizona outlet KOLD News 13 on June 1. “You don’t want to jeopardize not just the integrity of this case, but the integrity of DNA as a supplement to law enforcement work.”
